Page 31 - 2016 Annual Report with Financials - Booklet

service, as we reflected by candlelight. Throughout the Advent season, we featured different congregant
musicians in addition to our regular soloists, which showed the incredible talents of all ages of our
members.

In addition, funds for staff development were used throughout the year for organ lessons from Dr. Jeremy
Filsell, for online resources to facilitate design and music composition, and for attendance to the 2016 New
Music Gathering, at which I connected with other local musicians, both sacred and secular, and discussed
ideas that could help our program stay and become even more current, relevant, and meaningful.

To close, 2016 was a year of learning and outreach. I’m exceedingly proud of the members of our Children’s
Choir, Bell Choirs, and the Chancel Choir and Festival Chorus. Regarding the choirs in particular, we
continue to develop our ensemble sound and individual skills, so that we can better connect to the music
we perform. We hope to continue this momentum as we enter 2017, a year in which we will be
collaborating with even larger ensembles (including the Great Noise Ensemble for a New Music concert on
June 3) and beginning our preparations for a 2018 trip to Palestine and Israel to collaborate once again with
Ramzi Aburedwan.

The program, while extremely rewarding to its participants, ultimately relies on and is for you, the listener. I
hope that you’ll show gratitude for those who have given their time and talents to this end, and that you’ll
be encouraged to give me feedback as I continue to learn how to best cater to this congregation. In
addition, I encourage you all to attend and support us at the four large performances we have each year, to
which we dedicate enormous effort, as a way of supporting your fellow members of this congregation and
of experiencing the full rewards of the program that you make possible.

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