Timothy Sawyer, Youth

Timothy Sawyer enjoys a wide and varied career as a conductor, professional singer and creative educator. His musical activities have ranged from a two-year stint as vocal coach for the popular contemporary a cappella men’s group Go Fish, to guest conductor with the Minnesota Orchestra at the invitation of Doc Severinsen, to leading vocal and choral workshops from Canada to Ukraine and in the United States, Increasingly in demand as a conductor of festival choirs, all-state choirs and as a choral clinician. He is currently Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he has been a faculty member since 1989. At Northwestern, he conducts the College Choir, Varsity Men's Chorus, teaches conducting and choral literature courses. He received formal training at Bethel College (MN), the University of Minnesota, and has engaged in doctoral-level study at the University of Iowa.
For the past ten years, He has served as choir director at The Colonial Church of Edina. Sawyer lives in suburban Minneapolis with his wife Heidi and two vivacious singing redheads named Erika and Emily.

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Pamela Vandewalker, Children

Pamela Clampitt Vandewalker is the author of more than a dozen books and a full-time Minister of Drama and Children's Music serving a congregation of over 6,000 active worshippers.  As a senior programming director for five worship services, Pamela guides and creates worship opportunities from traditional worship to seeker oriented, media-driven contemporary worship.  Pamela has served with a variety of publishing houses as a creative arts, devotional, and curriculum writer for worship, drama, and the music genres for over 16 years.  As a nationally recognized clinician and conference speaker, Pamela has the opportunity to share insight and relevant ministry tools to hundreds of people every year. Her newest projects include: Made for Praise volume 11 (Genevox) , Devotional Piano Interludes on The Hymns of Charles Wesley (Carl Fischer), and Five Minute Devotions for Kids  (Vision Publications).  She earned Magna Cum Laude undergraduate and graduate degrees from Houston Baptist University and the University of Missouri-Kansas City, respectively.  Pamela and her husband, David, make their home in Marietta, Georgia.

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Michael Helman, Handbells

Michael Helman is currently Director of Music/Organist at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Wilmington, DE where he directs 4 handbell choirs, two adult vocal choirs, youth choir and one of three children’s choirs.  Michael did his undergraduate work in organ performance at Lebanon Valley College and did graduate work in Music History and Literature at West Chester University. He is an active composer of handbell, organ, and choral music with over a hundred pieces in print. Michael has also won nine composition contests including the 1997, 1998, and 2000 AGEHR National Composition Contests. Mr. Helman is in demand as a handbell festival director and clinician all over the country. He is a past Dean of the Delaware Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and is currently Chair elect for Area III of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers. In the fall of 2000, he founded and is the artistic director of the Wilmington Handbell Ensemble, which is the first auditioned community handbell choir in Delaware.

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Bryan Edgett, Instrumental

Bryan Edgett serves as Director of Instrumental Activities at Eastern University, St. Davids, Pennsylvania, where his responsibilities include teaching Applied Trumpet and Horn, Brass Methods, Instrumental Conducting, Chamber Music and Secondary Methods. Dr. Edgett conducts the Eastern Winds, the Jazz Ensemble and serves as Music Director for Eastern’s musical productions. Dr. Edgett performs frequently with the Pro Christo Brass Quintet and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, as well as at annual conferences of the International Trumpet Guild.

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Huw Lewis, Organ

Huw Lewis was born into a musical family in Wales, and received much of his formal training in the British Isles, studying at the Royal College of Music in London and at Cambridge University. His earliest experiences as a performing artist were gained in his native Wales, where he made his choral conducting "debut" at age 10. It was after extensive studies as a violinist, pianist and organist, that he won the organ scholarship to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. As a teenager, he was awarded Teaching and Performing diplomas from the Royal Academy and The Royal College of Music (LRAM and ARCM), and Limpus Prizes (highest marks for playing) for both diplomas of the Royal College of Organists (ARCO and FRCO).
Dr. Lewis was appointed College Organist at Hope College in 1990 and Chair of the Music Department in the autumn of 1994. Before that, he spent sixteen years as Director of Music at historic St. John's Episcopal Church in Detroit where he also founded and directed the St. John's Bach Society. He also served as choirmaster at Temple Israel, West Bloomfield. At Hope College, in addition to playing for all formal College functions, he teaches organ and theory, and is responsible for coordinating the music theory program. Dr. Lewis is an active member of the American Guild of Organists and has served as the Dean of the Detroit Chapter as well as the Michigan District Convener.

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David Bryant - Piano

David Bryant started his piano studies at the age of four, and began playing for weekly church services at the age of twelve.  Mr. Bryant received his undergraduate degree in Piano Performance from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and earned his Masters degree in Piano Performance, Piano Pedagogy and Musicology from Temple University, where he graduated with honors.   David graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow Scotland, where he attended while on a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship. 

David served as the Associate Pastor of Worship Arts at Fairview Village Church for the previous three years, and has recently accepted the position of Director of Music at the First United Methodist Church of Phoenixville PA.  Mr. Bryant has been very involved with Rotary International and was made a Paul Harris Fellow for his charitable work with the foundation.  He is currently a lecturer in Music History and Piano at Eastern University in St. David’s PA.  David has recorded the world premier of Harold Boatrite’s formidable Piano Sonata for Albany Records, given hundreds of concerts and recitals throughout the US and Britain, and has choral pieces published by Warner Brothers, Alfred, Lorenz, Monarch Music, Birdsong and Shawnee Press. 

Mr. Bryant has been an accompanist for a variety of choral groups and worked with many composers, including Jonathan Willcocks, Sir Peter Ledger, Gene and Audrey Grier, Don Besig, and the late Dr. Fred Bock.  David has also served as the accompanist for John Rutter’s Master Classes in the United States, and has played and studied most of his major works under the composer.  Mr. Rutter has called David “hero and poet of the piano”. 

David lives in Audubon PA with his beautiful wife Janine, an accomplished ballerina and choreographer, their two wonderful sons Noah and Nathanael, and three cats – Clara Schumann, Martha Graham and Randall P. Mac Murphy.

 
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