Annual Report 2024-2025 - Flipbook - Page 15
Staff Changes in 2024-205
Year in Review
This program year was a year of change, welcoming fresh faces to
key programs.
The 2024-2025 Program Year saw increasing enrollment and
participation across ensembles, as well as increased programming.
The events listed here represent only a few of the activities of
the Music and Arts at Plymouth Church.
• In summer 2024, Sandy Miller, former Artistic Director of
the Heartland Youth Choir, and a classroom music teacher,
joined the staff as Director of the Soul Singers and a key part
of the Teens Music programming team.
• In summer 2024, Caroline Kinney, a masters-trained
collaborative artist (piano) joined our staff to work with K-8
choirs and assist the Matins Choir.
• In May 2025, Julie Noland retired from the Saturday Night
Band after 22 years of service. She was honored with a plaque
and potluck meal.
• In Summer 2025, we will add Chancel Choral Staff member
and classroom music teacher, Taylor Peek, to our Children’s
Choir staff as we restructure our choirs to adapt to growth in
the early elementary ages.
Rebranding
During the summer/early fall 2023, the church launched a new
website and worked to clean up branding identity. As part of that
project, the Board of Music and Fine Arts became the Board of
Music and Arts; the Director of Music and Fine Arts became the
Director of Music and Arts; Arts@Plymouth became Plymouth
Music & Arts; and we added branding of the PK-12 program as
the Plymouth Academy of Music & Arts. We continue to work to
live into and market these new brands.
Organ Project
With anticipation that future work to Plymouth’s pipe organ will
involve leveraging Pipe Organ Enhancement Technology (digital
sounds that add variety, color, and solve acoustical and space
issues), the Board of Music & Arts chose to undertake an initial
project to test the efficacy of this technology for our context.
With Sohee Lee’s leadership, the Board allocated $80,000.00 of
reserve organ funds to add 13 POET stops to the organ. Think
of this as a tasting menu for what a larger organ project might
involve as we seek to repair, remediate, refurbish, and refine
the capabilities of Plymouth’s pipe organ. Further, these initial
additions have added expanded capacity to the organ during
the time until we are able to undertake the larger project. This
expanded capacity has unlocked options and opportunities not
available previously with our organ’s design.
June 2024:
• 6/2 | Matins Home Concert
• 6/8 | Des Moines Concert Handbells Concert
• 6/14 to 6/21 | Matins Tour to Connecticut and NYC
July/August:
• 7/29 to 8/2 | Creative Arts Camp, led by Jade Fox and the
PK-8 Music Staff.
August/September:
• 8/28 | Back to Church Night (kickoff for PK-12 music and
education programming)
• 9/4 | PK-8 Rehearsals began
• 9/8 | Kick Off Sunday with Matins Choir, Chancel Choir,
and Plymouth Brass in worship
• 9/17 to 9/20 | Sohee and I traveled to Washington, D.C. and
Annapolis, MD, to visit the pipe organ at the Naval Academy
Chapel, one of the largest pipe-digital hybrid organs of its kind.
October:
• 10/31 | CONCERT Sohee Lee, joined by the Matins Choir,
Soul Singers, and Youth Handbell Choir, and others, presented
Plymouth’s third annual “Not Your Mummy’s Halloween
Concert”. The concert attendance was affected by inclement
weather on Oct. 30, which rescheduled trick-or-treating for
Oct. 31. Later, local governments decided to stick with Oct.
31 for trick-or-treating in the future, so going forward, our
Halloween Concerts will be on the Friday prior to Halloween.
Eight of the added stops add much needed bass presence to the
organ. The other five added stops are “solo” stops, adding colors
to the instrument that we didn’t have, including clarinet, English
horn, French horn, Tuba, and Bombarde (a powerful reed stop
on a pipe organ, known for its brassy, penetrating tone). Our
experience with these additions has been very positive thus far.
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