Calling Choral Singers! 

The CMI Winter Retreat will conclude with a Hymn Festival on January 5 featuring familiar hymns for the liturgical year. Choral Singers are invited to join retreaters to rehearse at 3:00 p.m. for a 5:00 Festival. Dr. Allen Hightower who heads the Choral Music Department at the University of North Texas will conduct. Dr. Tim Shewmaker and Ethan Haman are organists.  No charge! 

Allen Hightower serves as the Director of Choral Studies at the University of North Texas, where he leads the graduate program in choral conducting and oversees a comprehensive choral program of eight ensembles. Allen is the conductor of the UNT A Cappella Choir and Grand Chorus, which collaborates with the UNT Symphony Orchestra in performances of choral-orchestral masterworks. As a member of UNT’s Early Music faculty, he leads the vocal ensemble Vox Aquilae and is currently the interim director of the UNT Baroque Orchestra. Since arriving at UNT in 2016, the A Cappella Choir has received invitations to perform for the Texas Music Educators Association in 2020, the national conference of the American Choral Directors Association in 2021 and 2025, and the Southwestern Region of ACDA in 2022. Vox Aquilae and the UNT Baroque Orchestra were featured at the 2022 conference of the National Collegiate Choral Organization.

Prior to his arrival at UNT, Dr. Hightower held the Weston Noble Endowed Chair in Music at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where he was conductor of the renowned Nordic Choir. From 2000-2010, Allen was the Director of Choral Studies at Sam Houston State University. He has served churches in Texas, California, and Minnesota, and currently serves at the Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas. Allen has previously served as the Church Music Vice-President of the Texas Choral Directors Association and as an adjunct professor of conducting at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Allen served as the interim chorus director of the Houston Symphony for the 2022-2023 season.