Austen Wilson

For me, part of recharging means engaging in creating art. Often I feel much better after having sung in a choir. Last week, I had the great opportunity to attend, participate, and sing in the Illinois Bach Academy (IBA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where we rehearsed and performed the St. Matthew Passion […]

Perhaps you’re done with the school year/program year. Congrats for making it through a challenging year! Or perhaps you have a few more weeks to go. You got this! It’s been a tough year for all of us. Perhaps it’s included ever-shifting guidelines related to the pandemic. Or singers came down with COVID and had […]

Often a title of a blog post comes easily. Today, I wrestled with a few other words starting with the letter R: Repair and Restoration. I find myself reflecting on these words after a profound concert presented by the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club, the Viking Chorus of St. Olaf College, and the St. […]

With Holy Week and Easter Sunday in the rearview mirror, I’m already starting to wind down for the season and anticipating summer activities. This year has had its share of ups and downs. I’m feeling weary and definitely in the need for vacation and other rejuvenating experiences. Perhaps you feel the same. I was reading […]

If you’re a church musician, I’m guessing you’re feeling the pressure of this time of year with Holy Week and Easter just around the corner. I thought I would revisit a previous blog post that talked about rest and pause. This time of year, I would love more rest and pause, a very challenging task […]

One of my favorite things to do is search for repertoire for my ensembles. There is nothing like introducing a piece, rehearsing it, and have it transform listeners and singers. As a church musician, I also spend quite a bit of time connecting hymns, anthems, and liturgy to the theme, Scripture passage(s), and liturgical season […]