Workshops and lectures offer content for singers, instrumentalists, and composers (Photo: UNASP)

South America

Musicians Meeting Promotes Dialogue and Knowledge for Professionals and Amateurs

Held virtually, the event offers workshops, concerts, and lectures

Brazil | Anne Seixas

For 28 years, Adventist musicians have been able to meet to learn and exchange experiences about the area and application of sound art in the religious environment. Since 2021, however, the Musicians Meeting has taken place virtually. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the auditoriums and classrooms of the Centro Universitário Adventista de São Paulo (UNASP), which hosts the event, have been transformed into videoconferencing spaces. 

The event runs January 11–15. The program includes lectures, recitals, and workshops ranging from initiation for singers and instrumentalists to children's musicalization, orchestras, and vocal techniques, among others. To participate in the workshops, it is necessary to register (click here), and that is open throughout the week. 

Though, on the one hand, the opportunity to get to know the campus is lost, on the other, the possibility of more people participating in the event is expanded. For Ellen Stencel, organizer and Ph.D. in Music from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), it was surprising how everyone managed to exchange experiences with other students and professors, even at a distance. 

However, in the face-to-face and virtual models, the content remains the same. “We kept the workshops, the lectures, the recitals, only in the recorded form,” explains Stencel. The 2022 theme seeks to rescue songs from the Adventist Hymnal. “This year we are valuing and trying to work and motivate the use of the hymnal in worship and religious service,” she highlights. The release of the New Adventist Hymnal is scheduled for this year. 

Contribution to Adventist Music 

As a project that has lasted almost three decades, some concrete results were born from these experiences. “Three years ago, we started to gather stories of the results of the Musicians' Meeting and we discovered an orchestra with children and adolescents in Santa Catarina. Also, children who accompanied their parents to meetings and, in the future, chose to take a degree in Music at UNASP, and today they are composers,” details Stencel, who is also coordinator of the Degree in a Music course at UNASP.

For her, another benefit is that the teachers who participate have the opportunity to update themselves with what is actually happening in the churches. “As there is also the educational side, it is another part that has grown a lot. Teachers are recycling and learning. New strategies, new ways of developing teaching, learning, and the composition and arrangement part,” highlights Stencel. 

Benefits for the Local Church 

Carlos Campitelli, director of the Adventist Church's Music department for eight South American countries, emphasizes the importance of study and constant improvement for leaders in local temples. "Without a doubt, the role of the music ministry is extremely important. Therefore, meetings like these, in which we can exchange experiences, learn new ways, improve our gifts, are essential for the growth of this area and as worshipers in this noble cause," he underlines. 

In addition to the artistic factor of music, it is also considered a key element in worship. "When we worship or offer worship, we provide spiritual service to God. Worship is serving and working for God in recognition of all that He is, does, and will do for us," highlights Campitelli.

The American author Ellen G. White, on page 334 of the book Selected Messages, volume 3, also emphasizes the origin of the use of music in the relationship with God: “Music is of heavenly origin. There is great power in music. It was music from the angelic throng that thrilled the hearts of the shepherds on Bethlehem’s plains and swept round the world. It is in music that our praises rise to Him who is the embodiment of purity and harmony. It is with music and songs of victory that the redeemed shall finally enter upon the immortal reward.”

In addition to personal worship and the use of individual talents, congregational worship also plays a large part in the worship process. Campitelli explains, "It is the most important part of church music. Its blessings are within everyone's reach. If practised correctly, it is a clear and powerful incentive for the religious life of everyone who comes under its influence and feels encouraged, built, and strengthened." 

The lectures and concerts will be available for free on the UNASP Church channel, Engenheiro Coelho campus, on YouTube. The complete program can be found on the official website of the Musician's Meeting. 

This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site

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