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Thursday, July 1, 2010
Northern Ohio Hymn Festival at Oberlin College - October 2010
NEWjr Returns to Alma Mater to Lead Festival and Conduct Master Classes
Coming soon.
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Coming soon.
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Yesterday's Hymn Festival was a rare highlight in my life. It was the first time (in a very long time) that I spent an hour and forty-five minutes with a constant smile on my face. My spirit was transported to a place from which I did not want to return to everyday life. My own voice astonished me as I sang with such joy - and volume (perhaps to the annoyance of the person in front of me).
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To watch the faces of the students, to witness the effect of the music on those around me, to hear and contribute to the applause that erupted spontaneously (at times even before the hymn had come to its conclusion) created a memory that will happily stay with me. But Nolan's influence will not stay with me in the sense that I would selfishly keep it to myself. What I learned yesterday on a beautiful Indian Summer day in Oberlin will spread in ever-widening circles wherever I go. Multiply that times all the other people whose lives were similarly touched, and we can be sure that "Singing God's Story...and Ours" is an active, life-giving legacy!