GIMC Capstone Conference
Apr
17
Join GIMC at Vanderbilt for the Capstone
Conference...
Religion, music, and regional identity are all
mixed together in Nashville, resulting in a unique set
of relationships, networks, communities, ideas, and products.
Although all of these could never be considered in one
conference, the God in Music City Capstone conference will provide a
rich enough sampling to spark conversations that will
help musicians, clergy, and scholars discover new ways to connect
and support one another. Please come, network with musicians,
interested clergy, students, and scholars, and join your
voice in this vital conversation!
Conference Schedule and Information - Video Linked
8:30 - 8:45 - Registration /
Continental Breakfast
8:45 - Welcome
9:00-10:00 Keynote Speaker:
Dale Cockrell: This
is My Story, This is My Song
This talk explores the role and function of music in a
150-year old small, rural Southern Baptist church in We
stern
Kentucky (which happens to be the home church of the presenter).
Much remains the same, but much more has changed over the last half
century. What does this modest case study say about music and
religion in the South-past and present-and what does it suggest
about a future in which, one hopes, people continue to sing boldly,
with full body, of "Blessed Assurance."
10:00 - 10:15 Break
10:15 - 11:30 John McClure and
Allison Pingree: Using Music to Explore and Expand Religious Identity in Teaching and
Preaching
Music and identity are closely related in today's culture,
and this is true in congregations. "Contemporary" and "Traditional"
do not begin to define the richness of the forms of music that give
expression to the religious identity of church goers. Using a Sunday
School course on "Music and Religious Identity" and a resulting
worship experience at Second Presbyterian Church in Nashville as
case studies, this workshop shows how music can be used to help a
congregation or other religious organization explore the breadth and
depth of its religious identity through music.
11:30 - 12:45 Lunch and
Greg Barz: Who are The People who Make God Music in Music City?
The 2-CD
compilation, God in Music City: The Sounds of Religion in
Nashville, was conceptualized as a supporting tool for an
academic class and a semester-long series of events at
Vanderbilt. Since the album's release in January 2008 a stream
of public discussions (newspaper reviews, TV shows, discussions,
concerts) with both artists associated with the project and
members of the local community have frequently focused on what
was included and what was not included on the
album, leading many to ask, "just who are the people who
make God Music in Nashville?"
1:00 - 2:15 Poster Session I: Student projects from the
God in Music City undergraduate course
Join us as students from “Music and Religion: God in Music City”
share the results of the ethnographic research they conducted this
semester; their interviews with Nashville clergy, artists, religious
educators, faculty, fellow students, and others reveal how music and
religion shape each other in profound and often surprising ways.
2:15 - 2:30 Break
2:30 - 3:45
Michael Rose: Provisional Conversion to Religious “Truth”
Through Music
What is the difference between grasping the compositional form and
content of a piece of sacred music as being aesthetically true and
grasping its religious message as being absolutely true? Can one
truth be achieved without the other? Must conversion to religious
truths always be permanent, or might it also work in a provisional
way, pointing towards a different understanding of truth? What are
the ethical consequences of our various answers to these questions?
Professor Michael Rose will dive into these issues in the presence
of vivid musical examples and (he hopes) lively discussion.
3:45 - 4:00 Break
4:00 - 5:15 Panel Discussion, moderated by
Robin Jensen:
Vanderbilt
and the Popular Music Community in Nashville
Vanderbilt graduates and current
students who work in and around the Nashville music industry join in
a Q & A session in which they will be asked to reflect on
whether/how their education at Vanderbilt has influenced their
vocation, community of conversation and service, perspective, music,
etc. They will also be asked to reflect on how education at
Vanderbilt could be changed to better support or influence Nashville
musicians, songwriters, journalists, etc.
Bill Friskics-Warren, A 1985 graduate of the
Divinity School, Bill Friskics-Warren is currently on the staff at
The Tennessean, where he writes about music and pop culture. He also
is the author of two books: Heartaches by the Number (Vanderbilt
University Press) and I'll Take You There: Pop Music and the Urge
for Transcendence (Continuum). The Onion's A.V Club named the former
one of 17 essential books about pop music while Sojourners magazine
called the latter "a definitive popular culture study for the new
millennium." As a freelance writer, Bill's work appears in
publications ranging from the New York Times and the Washington Post
to Rock & Rap Confidential and the Oxford American.
Marcus Hummon, a graduate of the Divinity School,
has been one of Nashville's most consistently successful and
innovative songwriters. He has penned, or co-penned, number one hits
for Sara Evans ("Born to Fly"), the Dixie Chicks ("Ready to Run" and
"Cowboy, Take Me Away"), Tim McGraw ("One of These Days"), Wynonna
("Only Love"), along with many others, garnering Grammy, CMA, and
Tony nominations. Most recently, Hummon won the Grammy Award for
Rascal Flatts "Bless the Broken Road." Along the way, he has also
recorded and released several albums of his own, including the the
critically acclaimed All in Good Time, on Columbia Records. Marcus's
diverse career has also included a published book of poetry,
entitled "Gospel Haiku," and the lyrics for the PBS children's
cartoon series, "Book of Virtues," and several successful theatre
productions
Sherry Cothran Woolsey fronted the rock band, The
Evinrudes, whose song "Drive Me Home" earned regional hit status and
landed the band a major label deal on Mercury Records. Following the
band's London release on Flying Sparks Records in 2002, Sherry
released a solo album titled, "Who Let the World In." She also
appeared in and wrote songs for an independent movie called "Novem"
in the summer of 2003. Last year, one of Sherry's songs from her
solo album was featured on an episode of the ABC hit TV show, "Men
In Trees." Sherry was born and raised in a small town in West
Tennessee where she learned how to sing gospel music with an all
girl quartet accompanied by her brother on piano. She is now
pursuing what she feels is a dual calling, a Masters of Divinity at
Vanderbilt University. She is also in the ordination process in the
United Methodist Church.
Rev. Marilyn E. Thornton, Pastor for Spiritual
Formation and Worship Arts At South End UMC, is also the Lead Editor
of African American Resources at the United Methodist Publishing
House. She has a Bachelor of Music History from Howard University, a
Master of Violin from Johns Hopkins University, and a Master of
Divinity from Vanderbilt University. Rev. Thornton has taught at
Howard, Trevecca Nazarene and at Tennessee State Universities, and
served on the Board of Education in Ossining, NY from 1988-1992. She
has developed cultural and Christian Education programs for twenty
years. Rev. Thornton is the music editor for the two editions (pew,
accompaniment) of the songbook Zion Still Sings: For Every
Generation (Abingdon Press 2007) and a contributing writer for the
Africana Worship Book series (Discipleship Resources, 2006, 2007,
2008). She continues to perform as a singer, violinist, and
storyteller.
Sam Lorber grew up in New Jersey and after
attending the University of Richmond came to Nashville to pursue a
songwriting career. Since 1978, artists who have recorded his songs
run the gamut from Eddy Arnold to Emerson, Lake, and Palmer;
Restless Heart and Ty Herndon to Patty Smyth and Patti La Belle. He
had his first top forty pop and number one a/c record with "Where
Were You When I Was Falling In Love" by Lobo, followed by "Dare Me"
by the Pointer Sisters, which was recently remixed into a worldwide
dance hit. He has been published by Warner Brothers Music, Sony
Music, and is currently represented by Bug/Windswept Music. His
song, "No One Else On Earth,"recorded by Wynonna Judd, was one of
the top 50 ASCAP performers of the 1990s. Sam is a former director
of the National Academy of Songwriters, the Southern Advisory Board
of ASCAP, a 1996 graduate of Leadership Music, and a trustee of
Temple Ohabai Shalom. He completed his undergraduate degree in
history at Tennessee State University in 2007 and will be attending
Vanderbilt’s graduate program in Jewish Studies in the fall of 2008.
7:00 Meet and Greet the Artists -
Second Presbyterian Church Cafe
7:30- 9:30
Tom Kimmel & Friends: Music, Religion, and
the South: Where do Songs Come From?
Location:
Second Presbyterian Church
Including
Odessa Settles,
Marshall Chapman,
Lisa Silver,
Danny
Flowers,
Beth Nielsen Chapman,
Kirby Shelstad
Reflection, Scholarship, Discussion, Interaction
Nashville musicians, scholars, and religious leaders should not remain
in separate worlds. The Center for the Study of Religion and Culture,
through its Music, Religion, and the South project wants to find ways
to bring these individuals and communities into conversation with one
another. This conference is designed to put these three groups of people
together to reflect on a variety of topics of mutual interest. Event
leaders and participants will present workshops designed to get us all
into conversation about things that matter to each of us. The first day
of the conference will explore some of the people who make the music in
Nashville. The second day will explore the power of Nashville's music in
the construction of personal, religious, regional, and musical identity.
Facilitated by Dr. John McClure and Dr. Allison Pingree
Professor McClure's teaching is in the area
of homiletics. His special interests are in the relationships between
philosophy, theology, ethics and preaching. His publications include The
Four Codes of Preaching: Rhetorical Strategies (Fortress, 1991), The
Roundtable Pulpit: Where Preaching and Leadership Meet (Abingdon, 1995),
Telling the Truth: Preaching About Sexual and Domestic Violence
(co-edited with Nancy Ramsay, United Church Press, 1998), and Other-wise
Preaching: A Postmodern Ethic for Homiletics (Chalice, 2001).
Allison Pingree is co-director of the Music, Religion and the South
project (the sponsor of God in Music City), and has affiliated faculty
appointments at Vanderbilt in the Blair School of Music, Medical
Education, and American Studies and Women’s & Gender Studies. She
received her Ph.D. in English from Harvard (specializing in late 19th
and early 20th century American literature and culture), and taught
there in the departments of English, History and Literature, and
Expository Writing, and in the department of English at Brandeis
University. Since 1998 she has directed the Vanderbilt University
Center for Teaching [www.vanderbilt.edu/cft]
Her research interests include spirituality in higher education; gender
and pedagogy; interdisciplinary teaching, learning and collaboration;
and leadership and organizational change. Her passion as an educator
lies in exploring ways to integrate body, heart, mind and spirit to
promote deep learning. She has sung with the Vanderbilt Community Chorus
[http://www2.owen.vanderbilt.edu/vcc/default.htm]
at the Blair School of Music since 2002.
