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Kevin B.
Holland
Director
of Music Ministries
Kevin B. Holland joined the
First Church staff as Director of Music Ministries in October
2009. He comes to First Church from Suncreek UMC in Allen,
Texas, where he served as Minister of Music overseeing a
broadly-based music ministry including choirs and instrumental
ensembles for preschool children through adults. A native of
North Carolina, Mr. Holland holds the Bachelor of Arts degree in
percussion performance and conducting from Elon University in
Elon, NC along with additional graduate studies at Westminster
Choir College (Princeton, NJ) and Shenandoah Conservatory
(Winchester, VA). He has studied conducting with James Jordan
and Joseph Flummerfelt (Westminster Choir College) and Robert
Shafer (Shenandoah Conservatory) and has held music ministry
positions in North Carolina, Colorado, and Virginia since 1979.
As a part of his work at
Suncreek UMC, Mr. Holland was the founding director of
Cantate, a choir for students in grades six through
twelve that grew to over one hundred members in only three
years. Cantate
maintains an active music
ministry throughout the year by leading in worship every Sunday
along with the presentation of two fully-staged musicals each
year. This choir also undertakes
an annual tour and has presented concerts throughout western
Texas and New Mexico along with the Midwestern and Eastern
United States including such notable venues as the Cathedral of
St. John the Divine in New York, NY and the Cathedral Basilica
of St. Louis. The choir recently traveled to the Czech Republic
for its first international tour singing in Prague and five
other Czech cities.
While serving as the Director of Music Ministries
at First Presbyterian Church in Concord, NC, Mr. Holland managed
an endowed, community concert series that included performances
by the church’s ensembles as well as local, regional and
national artists including members of the Charlotte Symphony,
the Tokyo String Quartet and the male vocal ensemble
Chanticleer. In June of 2002 the church’s Sanctuary Choir
was featured in the premiere performance of Paul Basler’s
Missa Kenya at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston,
SC with the composer performing as French horn soloist.
Over his
career Mr. Holland’s choirs have performed choral masterworks
with orchestra such as the Requiem by Mozart,
Brahms, Faure and Durufle, Handel’s Messiah, the
Christmas Oratorio by J.S. Bach and Beethoven’s
Missa Solemnis.
During a five-year period in
which he served as Minister of Music at University Baptist
Church in Charlottesville, VA, Mr. Holland was the conductor of
Jubilate, a fifty-voice auditioned choir for students at
the University of Virginia. This choir undertook an annual tour
and presented concerts throughout the United States including
performances in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and St.
Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, NY and the National Cathedral
in Washington, DC. The group was also featured in a segment of
the nationally televised The Joy of Music with organist
Diane Bish.
In addition to Mr. Holland’s
active teaching and conducting schedule, he is increasingly in
demand as a clinician in the areas of choral music, handbells,
African drumming and the use of multi-cultural and ethnic music
in worship. He also
serves as the President of the Dallas Chapter of Choristers
Guild and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Cross
Timbers Youth Orchestra.
Kevin and his wife, Karen,
have two daughters, Ashley and Sarah.
Rebekah
Thompson
Director
of Children and Family Ministries, downtown
Rebekah "Bekah" Thompson
joined our First Church staff in September 2009. She works
with our Children’s Lead Team to vision, plan and set goals for
engaging our church family in the spiritual formation of our
children—specifically infants through 5th grade.
A native of North Carolina,
Bekah holds associate degrees in day care management and
photography, a bachelor of science in Christian Education, and a
master’s degree—also in Christian Education. She will be
commissioned as a probabtionary Deacon in the United Methodist
Church next year.
Bekah comes to us from her
most recent role as Children’s Pastor at Lebanon UMC in Lebanon,
Kentucky. She also served as Children’s Director and Christian
Education Director at Mishawaka First United Methodist Church in
Mishawaka, Indiana, and in other children’s ministry roles over
the past few years.
Bekah—”because it’s easier
for the children to say!”—is comfortable with all age groups,
has engaged and equipped volunteers in Vacation Bible School,
Sunday School, children’s church, holiday and summer activities,
community outreach ministries, programs for challenged children,
Wednesday night ministries and in leadership roles. She has
experience in writing and implementing Christian education
curriculum for all ages, and at Lebanon UMC created a bus
ministry to bring area children to church. She is accustomed to
working in a team setting and understands the importance of
recruiting and training volunteers.
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