This seminar, lead by our music director Bethany Brooks, will look at music-making as a metaphor for the Christian practices of prayer, study, obedience, vocation, and love. Thirty-some years of playing piano (and twenty years of teaching others to do the same) have provided insights into how we're made and how we grow that seem to relate to spiritual life. Playing an instrument is a holistic activity — physical, intellectual, emotional, and aesthetic — drawing from centuries of tradition yet very much happening in the here and now. Bethany will share some very practical examples of how she nurtures her musical skills alongside words from Christian writers across the centuries about spiritual formation.

This seminar could be interesting to people in the arts and people in completely unrelated professions who might enjoy insights into the life of a musician or be able to find parallels to their own fields.