Hymns, Etc. - John D. Horman&Mary Nelson Keithahn

BIOGRAPHIES

John D. Horman Mary Nelson Keithahn

JOHN D. HORMAN

John Horman retired from teaching after twenty-six years with the Montgomery County, Maryland Public School System. During his tenure with the school system, he taught general music and drama for twenty-one years at the elementary level and five years at the secondary level, and worked extensively with choruses at both levels. He also received the Broom Award for Excellence for his work in composition for children.

John has served Warner Memorial Presbyterian Church in Kensington, Maryland for thirty-four years as Organist and Director of Music. He oversees four choral groups, two bell choirs, and an intergenerational instrumental ensemble. Over ninety members of the congregation participate in the music groups of the church.

John's compositions are found in the catalogues of over ten nation-wide publishers, and they have been heard on national television in both the United States and Great Britain. He presently has over 150 anthems for children, youth and adults in print. He also wrote songs for both Silver Burdette and Macmillan publishing houses for their 1988 school music series.

Over the last decade John has served as clinician for children or youth at national conferences held by Presbyterians, American Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, and Disciples of Christ. His work as a choral clinician has taken him to over 50 children's choir festivals in the last 15 years. He has also taught Children's Choir Techniques at the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music.

John has served both on the Choristers Guild Board of Directors and The Board of Directors of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians. Recently he was consultant for the Exploring Faith Sunday school curriculum published by the United Methodist Publishing House, supporting the writing teams and providing music resources for the curriculum. Before that he edited the junior level of Abingdon's graded choir curriculum, Church Music for Children. He is currently the children's editor and a contributor to Church Music Workshop, a journal published by Abingdon. He has also written many articles for The Chorister and other journals.

With members of a consultant group, New Paths, John co-authored two books on incorporating the arts into Christian Education programs: Something Old, Something New-Hymns to Sing and Things to Do, Volumes I (Who Is Jesus?) & II (Exploring the Christian Year), published by Abingdon Press. Combining talents with hymnist Mary Nelson Keithahn, John has co-authored three new hymn collections, Come Away With Me, Time Now to Gather, and The Song Lingers On. Some of these hymns have been included in the United Methodist hymnal supplement, The Faith We Sing, and the Presbyterian supplement, Sing the Faith.

Please click here for more information about John's published works and workshops offered.

MARY NELSON KEITHAHN

Mary Nelson Keithahn is an ordained pastor and certified church education specialist in the United Church of Christ, working in specialized ministry as a free-lance writer out of her home in Rapid City, South Dakota. Her experience in the parish ministry includes many years as a pastor's wife, church school teacher and administrator, director of associate pastor, choir director (children's choir, adult choir, and handbell choir), and worship arts coordinator.

Mary served as a curriculum writer for the Joint Educational Development (a consortium of up to fourteen major Protestant denominations) and its successors, writing eight courses for primary, junior, and broadly-graded levels. In addition, she has written three broadly-graded courses on Paul, David, and Moses, a study guide on Ruth, and several books on teaching methods, as well as articles for at least fifteen different denominational and ecumenical journals. As an editor, she has been responsible for such varied publications as a manual to assist Religious Program Specialists in their role of coordinating religious education in the United States Navy, a collection of resources for celebrating the Bach anniversary (Choristers Guild), and, most recently, a two-volume collection of hymn-based learning designs for children (Abingdon). She has also contributed worship resources and seasonal liturgies to other publications, and edited a collection of prayers for church choirs (Abingdon). Please click here for more information about Mary's published work.

Mary is a Life member of both The Hymn Society and Choristers Guild, served on the Choristers Guild board of directors from 1984-1990, and is currently on the editorial board for The Chorister, the Guild's bi-monthly journal. As chair of the publications committee for the Guild, she helped develop and edited Our Heritage of Hymns, Series 1 and 2, and worked on other hymnody resources for children. She has also written numerous articles on using hymns with children for The Chorister, Church Music Workshop, Church Worship, Church Educator, and other journals. As a clinician, she has led workshops on children and worship and using hymns with children at Choristers Guild seminars and chapter meetings, the annual conference of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, the Presbyterian Music and Worship conference at Montreat, North Carolina, and other denominational and ecumenical events.

In 1990 Mary and John initiated the MAD (music, art, and drama) camp at Placerville, the United Church of Christ camp near Rapid City, South Dakota. Mary was dean of the camp for thirteen years, and is still involved as writer-in-residence. John has been composer-in residence since the camp began. They have written ten different musical dramas for the camp, some of which have been published by Choristers Guild, Abingdon Press, and Voice of the Rockies. They have also collaborated in writing anthems and hymns. In 1998 Abingdon Press published two collections of their hymns, Come Away with Me: A Collection of New Hymns, and Time Now to Gather: New Hymns for the Church Family. A third collection, The Song Lingers On, was published by Zimbel Press in 2004.

In June, 2006, Carleton College and the Carleton Alumni Association jointly presented Mary with a Distinguished Achievement Award in recognition of distinguished achievement in composing text for religious music. Her new hymn, “How Glad We Are to Be Alive,” with a setting by John, was sung at the Sunday worship service during Carleton’s alumni weekend.

Please click here for more information about Mary's published works and workshops offered.

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Hymns, Etc.
4212 Carmel Point
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