Resounding Thanks - a Letter from LSM’s Cantor, Chad Fothergill

Chad Fothergill, Ezechiel Daos, and the 2023 LSM Organ Studio

Although the last chord of LSM 2023 rang out months ago, the sights and sounds of a wonderful and robust summer continue to reverberate in many ways—a fitting reminder on this feast day that earthly music is but a foretaste of the great and promised feast with choirs of saints and angels.

LSM 2023 was, of course, an abundant musical feast unto itself. Here are some highlights from the organ and church music area:

On move-in day, we met eleven organ students and heard at least five of the Eight Little Preludes and Fugues performed at auditions (a few of which became part of an all-Bach prelude for cantata Sunday). Several organ students were already serving as musicians for their home congregations, and their festival week recital included performances of repertoire alongside the singing of several hymns.

Later in the first week, the worship staff welcomed the full LSM student body to the chapel for a hands-on introduction to leadership roles for worship: seasoned and future acolytes, lectors, cantors, and assisting ministers were able to explore stations for carrying, reading, praying, and singing with members of the chapel staff.

During the second week, church music students joined the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians conference in Philadelphia via Zoom for a conversation about vocation. And a student who brought an ocarina to LSM asked to help lead worship, so we created a psalm setting for evening prayer using the Native American melody Lac qui parle.

Paul Vasile, guest artist, works with church music elective students

At the start of the third week, LSM hosted Paul Vasile, executive director of Music that Makes Community. During his residency, Paul worked with church music students, the chapel choir, and shared the community-building gifts of rote singing with the full community at morning and evening prayer—some of these songs helped shape the following week’s hymn festival.

Thanks to the generosity of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, several boxes of choral and liturgical music were made available for LSM students. A few students returned several times with empty backpacks to claim these treasures for their future study and use.

This LSM season also intersected with my own transition from “interim” to “permanent” status as organist at Duke University Chapel: lessons from LSM 2023—including daily practice tips from Cheryl Lemmons—have shaped my approach to practicing, playing, teaching, and mentoring, especially with the students who plan and lead liturgies at Duke Divinity School.

But what I recall most about LSM 2023 was the musicality and maturity of the entire student body—their attentive listening and mutual support in studio classes, their astute (and challenging) questions during elective meetings and the annual Bach cantata workshop, and their unbounded creativity.

During the alumni reunion, I was able to again see organ and church music students from previous LSM seasons who are now exploring graduate programs in sacred music, study abroad opportunities, or parish ministry positions. They join generations of alumni who can attest to the transformative and lifelong impact of their LSM experience.

It is in that spirit that we acknowledge and thank all who make LSM possible—donors, parents and families, friends, congregations, institutional partners, and more. Gifts of time, talent, and resources help in myriad ways, both seen and unseen. They help:

• to support the creative gifts of a liturgical composer-in-residence whose music blesses both the LSM community and the wider church

• to develop faculty roles that respond to the changing landscape of church music

• to provide parish musicians, seminarians, and other professionals with inspiration and vocational enrichment at LSM

• to grow scholarship funds for students

• to foster trust and enthusiasm among the LSM staff to work creatively and flexibly within shifting contexts

• to ensure new generations of faithful leadership in the church

We look forward to building on the successes of the past year, and eagerly anticipate the first chords that will announce the sights and sounds of LSM 2024!

Blessings,

Chad Fothergill (LSM ’00)

Cantor, Lutheran Summer Music Academy and Festival

Chad Fothergill