Church Music Conference features Stephen Cleobury of King’s College, Cambridge

Last updated October 16, 2018

By Tina Underwood

Furman University will host its 2019 Church Music Conference on campus Thursday and Friday, Jan. 24 and 25. The featured clinician for the event is Stephen Cleobury, acclaimed director of music at King’s College, Cambridge, England.

Guest clinician Stephen Cleobury, King’s College, Cambridge

The conference is open to the public. Registration for the two-day event is $75 prior to Jan. 6, and $95 after that date as space remains. Conference attendees who wish to sing in the combined choir for Friday evening’s Evensong service, on a space available basis, must register by Nov. 15. Student registration is $50.

The conference, founded in 1971, is made possible through a grant from the Thomson Foundation. Drawing church musicians from all over the Southeast, the conference features nationally and internationally known clinicians who present lectures and conduct workshops relating to the practice of church music.

One of the foremost church musicians of our time and faculty member at King’s College since 1982, Cleobury will conduct open rehearsals of Furman’s outstanding choral ensembles, the Furman Singers and Furman Chamber Choir, and will also lead a demonstration rehearsal with the youth choirs of Greenville’s Chicora Voices.

Cleobury will also speak about King’s College musical traditions, including the world-famous Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, and will conduct the Furman Singers, conference attendees, and the Parish Choir of Christ Church (Episcopal), Greenville in a concluding Choral Evensong. This service will include the premiere performance of Cleobury’s anthem, “Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies,” commissioned for the 2019 Church Music Conference.

For more information about the Church Music Conference, visit the website. Or contact conference coordinator and University Organist Charles Tompkins at 864-294-2969 and charles.tompkins@furman.edu. The Furman Department of Music may be reached at 864-294-2086 and Furman.Music@furman.edu.