has been involved in church music all of her life. Her best childhood memories involve participating in the children's choir at church where they sang in three parts a cappella and listening to her dad's male quartet sing at numerous events. This quartet remained together for over forty years.

She grew up in the Sycamore Grove Mennonite Church congregation near Garden City, MO, went to Hesston College and to Goshen College where she graduated in music education. She currently teaches Orff music classes at Montview Conservatory of Music and in two Montessori schools. She also has a private piano studio in her home in Lakewood. Leta is active in the music program at Glennon Heights Mennonite Church in Lakewood and has an interest in learning new ways of improving worship through good music.

grew up in Kansas and indeed, some of her earliest musical memories were of singing in church. "My mom sang louder than anyone else and it really embarrassed me, even though she sounded good!" She grew up to be a loud singer herself, and has been heard on the opera stage, singing jazz in a streetcar in Germany, as a soprano with a choir in cathedrals, and in musicals in the Maine woods. She has an undergrad degree in Music Education from Kansas State University and a master's degree in Voice from the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. "There's no time I feel closer to God than when I am singing in church, whether a solo or leading congregational singing. I just feel a radiance in my body that connects me with the Spirit." Susan is a member of Boulder Mennonite Church and works in corporate training.

 
Roberta does not come to the MSMH with formal musical training, butwith the informal "training" she has received as a participant inchurch singing. She is more of an organizational worker than a musicalone, and is dedicated to helping create opportunities for all who wishto sing, listen and learn about the kind of singing that has meant somuch to her.

grew up in Cheraw, Colorado, and attended the East Holbrook Church where he lead singing and sang in a quartet. He went to Goshen College where he sang in the Collegiate Choir under Lon Shear and Dwight Weldy. He graduated from Goshen in with a Chemistry Major and from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in with a M.D. Degree, cum laude. Following medical school and an internship at D.C. General, Georgetown in Washington, D.C., he went to the Navajo Reservation for 2 years. He returned to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center for a residency in internal medicine and a two-year fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Mel has been a member of the First Mennonite Church of Denver since 1964 and has sung in the choir since that time under the direction of Lois Decker, John Hershberger, Russ Gregory, Faye Yoder, Malon Amstuz and Arlen Hershberger. He is a strong advocate for prayer through singing.

Mel is in the practice of endocrinology in Boulder, where he lives, with his wife Carolyn, and enjoys tennis, travel, golf and skiing, as well as his, children and grandchildren. "Singing has always been an important part of our family life, both as a child, when my mother used to lead the mass choir for Bible School each year in Cheraw, and now as a grandfather, singing with my children and grandchildren. Singing has definitely helped to keep us together. Music conveys a message in a way that no other art form can, and is understood by every culture and people. It is part of the glue which holds First Mennonite Church together and, beyond that, holds entire communities together. In fact, Mennonites have long been identified by their superb singing. We must keep our tradition of singing four part harmony strong in our churches if we are going to survive and be different from other Protestant Churches."