Course Overview:

A historical survey of the church's hymnody and underpinning of psalmody. Presented in cooperation with Brite Divinity School. Three hours graduate credit for clergy and musicians through Brite Divinity School, or documented non-credit/audit participation through CMI.

Join scholars with expertise in each day's study topic. Includes prayer services using music studied in this biennial exploration of the songs of our faith.

Click HERE for Prospectus.

Application Information:

Applying for graduate credit?

Apply to Brite Divinity School by downloading the application form HERE.

Wanting to audit the course? 

Apply directly to Church Music Institute by downloading the application form HERE.  See below for paying fees. Deadline for audit applications is May 15, 2025.

Audit Fees:

To pay the $10 audit application fee online, click HERE.

**Other payment options are noted on the downloadable audit application form linked above.

To pay the $400 audit tuition fee online, click HERE or send a check to Church Music Institute by June 1.

 **June 1 deadline for ACCEPTED applicants.  Note:  Do not pay until notified of acceptance.

Course Faculty:

Dr. Charlotte Kroeker, organizing professor, came to Dallas from the University of Notre Dame where she held a faculty research position in church music.  She is the author of The Sounds of Our Offerings: Achieving Excellence in Church Music, Alban Press, 2011, is editor of Music in Christian Worship, Liturgical Press, 2005, and has published numerous articles on church music.

Dr. Kroeker is trained as a performing pianist and pedagogue, spending most of her career as a college professor and administrator.  Born and raised in the General Conference Mennonite Church, she has served as organist and/or choir director in Presbyterian, Episcopal, Catholic, Lutheran and Methodist congregations, concurrent with her academic appointments.  Dr. Kroeker has spent the last 15 years studying foundational issues for effective music in worship.  In this process, she has received grants from the Lilly Endowment, Louisville Institute, Wabash Center, Indiana Arts Commission, the University of Notre Dame, the Lilly Library at Indiana University, and private donors to fund research and to convene conferences, workshops, and focus groups of university/seminary faculty, church musicians, pastors and laypersons.  Dr. Kroeker oversees program development and strategic planning for CMI.

Email Dr. Charlotte Kroeker with any questions at: ckroeker@churchmusicinstitute.org

Dr. James Abbington is Associate Professor of Music and Worship at Candler School of Theology. Dr. Abbington's research interests include music and worship in the Christian church, African American sacred folk music, organ, choral music, and ethnomusicology. Dr. Abbington serves as executive editor of the African American Church Music Series by GIA Publications (Chicago). He served as co-director of music for the Hampton University Ministers' and Musicians' Conference. In 2010, Hampton's Choir Directors'-Organists' Guild honored Abbington by naming their Church Music Academy after him. He has also served as the national director of music for both the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the NAACP.

A conductor, composer, and scholar of sacred music, Dr. Zebulon M. Highben serves as Director of Chapel Music at Duke University Chapel and as Associate Professor of the Practice of Church Music at Duke Divinity School. He conducts the Duke Chapel Choir, edits the Music from Duke Chapel choral series, teaches courses in church music and hymnody, and oversees the Chapel’s extensive music program, which connects students, community members, staff singers, instrumentalists, and professional colleagues in myriad worship services and concerts.

As a composer, Zebulon is frequently commissioned by churches, schools, and arts organizations. More than sixty of his choral compositions, hymns, and liturgical pieces are published by eight major domestic publishing houses (Augsburg Fortress, Boosey & Hawkes, Colla Voce, E.C. Schirmer, GIA, Kjos, MorningStar, Santa Barbara) and by Gehrmans Musikförlag in Sweden. Compositional honors include awards from the American Composers Forum, The American Prize, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, ASCAP, and the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.

Dr. Don Horisberger holds degrees from Capital University (B.M.) and Northwestern University (M.Mus. and D.Mus.) where he studied with Karel Paukert, Wolfgang Rübsam, and Margaret Hillis.  He also studied organ and church music as a Fulbright-Hayes scholar to Germany.

His career spans service to churches in multiple denominations, with 30 years at The Church of the Holy Spirit in Lake Forest, IL where he led adult, children’s, and handbell choirs, taking the adult choir to five week-long residencies at major English Cathedrals.  In addition, he was Associate Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Chorus as part of his 40 year association with the CSC as singer, bass section leader, German coach.

Now semi-retired in the Madison, WI area, Don continues as guest conductor, recital organist, clinician, and lecturer.  A member of the Association of Church Musicians in Madison, he recently conducted a choral festival and played on member benefit recitals, and he continues with occasional church work, especially at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Madison.

Rev. Dr. Don E. Saliers returned to Candler in 2014 as Theologian-in-Residence after retiring in 2007 as the William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Theology and Worship. For many years he directed the Master of Sacred Music program at Emory, and was an organist and choirmaster at Cannon Chapel for 35 years. Before joining the Candler faculty in 1974, Saliers taught at Yale Divinity School, and has taught in summer programs at Notre Dame, Boston College, Vancouver School of Theology, St. John’s University, and Boston University School of Theology.
An accomplished musician, theologian and scholar of liturgics, Saliers is the author of 15 books on the relationship between theology and worship practices, as well as more than 150 articles, essays, chapters in books and book reviews. He co-authored A Song to Sing, a Life to Live with his daughter Emily Saliers, a member of the Indigo Girls.

Dr. Lynn Trapp is Director of Liturgy and Music at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Baltimore, MD where he maintains a career as concert organist, pianist, conductor, composer and liturgist.

As organ recitalist he has performed in many major cities of the U.S. and Europe including regional and national conventions of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians and the American Guild of Organists.  He has served as clinician and choral conductor at conventions of AGO, ACDA, NPM and liturgical conferences around the country.  Since 1997, as co-director of the American Pilgrimage Choir he has led concert tours to thirteen European countries and the Middle East.

His nearly 100 choral and keyboard compositions are published by eight mainline publishers.

He is the winner of several national organ competitions, and recipient of academic awards including the Distinguished Alumnus award from Southern Illinois University and the Spirit and Truth Award from the University of Notre Dame.

He received the BMus degree from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and MM in Music/Liturgy from the University of Notre Dame.  His DMA is from the University of Kansas where his doctoral project, The Legacy of Andre Marchal, was presented in lecture recital at St.-Germain des Pres in Paris, France.  In 2011 the University of Notre Dame invited him to establish his career archives at the Hesburgh Library.

Lynn is a native of Missouri and married to Karen Rene Trapp.