Mary Canniff-Kuhn is an ELCA Pastor serving as Program Director of Lutheridge Camp and Conference Center in the North Carolina mountains. She was born and raised in North Carolina and attended Lutheridge Camp as a child, earning her ten year patch. (She now has her 30 year!) She attended Wake Forest University, studying art and psychology and worked as an art therapist with troubled youth in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and then attended Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary. She and her husband, Tim, served as co-pastors of a church in Florida for seven years before moving to Lutheridge Camp and Conference Center as program directors. Together they raised three boys at camp. Pastor Mary’s life goal is to plant the gospel story in as many hearts as possible, and to encourage creativity as life in the Holy Spirit.  She is a painter, potter, sculptor … and loves children, games and curating worship.

René Clausen has served as conductor of The Concordia Choir of Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota since 1986. Additionally, he is the artistic director of the award-winning Concordia Christmas Concerts, which are frequently featured by PBS stations throughout the nation. 

René Clausen is a well-known composer. His compositional style is varied and eclectic, ranging from works appropriate for high school and church choirs to more technically-demanding compositions for college and professional choirs. Interested in composing for various media, Clausen's compositional interests include works for the stage, solo voice, film and video composition, choral/orchestral compositions and arrangements, as well as works for orchestra and wind ensemble. He regularly composes on a commission basis, and is a frequent guest conductor and composer-in-residence on a national basis.

All of René Clausen's choral compositions and arrangements are published exclusively through Mark Foster Music Company (a division of Shawnee Press) in The René Clausen Choral Series. 

In the summer of 1998, Dr. Clausen established the first René Clausen Choral School held on the campus of Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, in which sixty-three participants from twenty-seven states participated. Much more than a reading workshop, the choral school is an intensive, five-day program for choral conductors focusing on conducting and rehearsal technique, performance practice issues, elements of choral ensemble, tonal development, as well as daily reading sessions of new music.

Kyle Johnson is Coordinator of Chapel Music and University Organist, and Lecturer of Music at California Lutheran University, where he teaches organ lessons and other classes.

Dr. Johnson holds the doctor of musical arts degree in organ performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, where he studied with Dr. John Ditto. He also holds music degrees from Indiana University and Bethany College (Lindsborg, Kansas), where he studied organ with Dr. Larry Smith and Dr. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, respectively.

Prior to his appointment at CLU, Dr. Johnson served for three years as Director of Music and Community Arts at St. Luke's Lutheran Church of Logan Square in Chicago, Illinois, where he oversaw the church's efforts to become a center for community building through the arts. He has also served on the music faculties of UMKC, Missouri Valley College, and State Fair Community College.

Dr. Johnson will be providing a 45 minute organ concert for our conference, focusing on 'telling the story' through the organ!

Areté Vocal Ensemble,
the newest choir in Thousand Oaks (begun two years ago) is conducted by Dr. Wyant Mortan (choral conductor, CLU). Areté is an innovative professional ensemble of vocal artists based in Thousand Oaks, California with the goal of performing the widest possible vocal and choral repertoire (including works from essentially all periods of music history) with energy, passion, expertise, and virtuosity. Special attention is given to contemporary, experimental, improvisatory, "cross-over", and ethnic music. Areté plans to perform a Bach cantata for our conference, along with a new work by Bradley Ellingboe, relating (somehow!) to the Bach cantata performance!