← Speeches & Workshops

Ann Marie Stahel

Ann Marie is a native of Cass County. She attended St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana and graduated with a BA from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She earned a Master of Music from the University of Basel, Conservatory of Music in Basel, Switzerland. Ms. Stahel has traveled widely. In addition to living 20 years in Europe, she served as a music teacher and choral director at a missionary school in the Highlands of Papua, New Guinea in 1999-2000. Ann Marie is presently Assistant to the President and Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trustees at Illinois College, directs the IC Wind Ensemble and Pep Band, the Jacksonville Symphony Chorale, and is Director of Music for Our Saviour Catholic Church.

John Hume

John grew up in Louisville, Ky. He received his Music Education Degree from the University of Louisville in 1991 and a Master of Arts in Religious Education from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas. He is married to Paige and has fine two boys, Cameron 8 and Kelley 4. John has lived in Jacksonville since the summer of 1995. He serves as an Associate Pastor of the Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church, where his primary responsibilities are leading the student and music ministries of the church.

Cathy Seymour

Cathy is married and has two grown children and four wonderful grandchildren. Cathy is the manager of Mrs. Tucker's Credit Union at ACH Foods and works in the Admission Office of Passavant Hospital. She is also the bookkeeper for her husband's business known as “Jim Seymour, Builders.” Cathy sings in her church choir, plays flute in the church orchestra and sings with the Jacksonville Symphony Chorale.

Brock Gwaltney

Brock is 14 years old and is in the 8th grade at Our Saviour’s Grade School. He started playing in the third grade. He takes lessons from Sandra Carls. Brock is also interested in composing music and has recently begun taking compositions lessons from Chris Walters. He was a guest performer at the recent Night at the Opera and provided dinner music at the Pathway Services, recent gala.

Gospel Gals

Lois Kording and Marcia Forman organized this barbershop style-singing group in 2002. They had sung with Dora Dawson and Frann Western in the “Good News Quartet for over 18 years and wanted to continue after Frann and Dora retired. Thus, at first, Lois would purposely sit in different places at the First Christian Church service to listen for good singing voices. She would harass the chosen one until that person agreed to come to practice on Sunday evenings. The Gospel Gals now number 20 plus and include former members of the Sweet Adeline chorus, singers from Literberry Christian, Literberry Baptist, Grace United Methodist and Pittsfield Assembly of God. If you would like to sing with this very unique acapella group please contact Lois or Marcia.

Nathan, Carrie and Parker Carls

Nathan and his group the upStandard Citizens swing the great American standards of the 30’s and 40’s.He is active in the area community theatre. Nathan is a cabinet maker in Beardstown.

Carrie sings with Nathan Carls, the upStandard Citizen, and the female Christian group Higher Degree. She heads up the continence program at Passavant Hospital.

Parker also sings with Nathan Carls and the upStandard Citizens. She loves playing piano, knittin, and volleyball. Parker is a 4th grader at the Beardstown Christian Academy

Paula Hill plays piano for the Christian group Higher Degree. Paula is the director of the Virginia Day Care.

Rob Killiam is a full-time musician striving to be the best upright bass from Chicago to St. Louis. He retired from the State after many years of hard work.

Joel Tinsley

Joel was a soloist for the US Army Band and Chorus for four years. He has performed for President Bill Clinton, Prince Charles of Wales and the Queen of the Netherlands. He has toured through out Europe. Joel is a Special Education major at MacMurray College and Program Coordinator at the Imagine Foundation. Was Smee in the production of Peter Pan for the Muni in Springfield and Tom Robinson in JTG’s To Kill a Mocking Bird.

The Four Sopranos

Esther Davis, Paula Irby, Neyna Johnson and Tracie Shaw have been singing and praising the Lord since the spring of 1998.With a varied musical repertoire that includes gospel, hymns and spirituals, these musicians are using this ministry to reach the lost and renew the spirit of praise in those who know and love the Lord. They are featured soloists and instrumentalists. In 2002 they won the KATZ Gospel Singsation. Articles about them have been published in ABE Magazine and the Illinois Times. The Illinois Times selected them as the Editor’s Choice for Favorite Gospel Group of 2003. In April 2005, they were part of the dedication ceremonies for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum attended by President Bush.

Cathy Doyle

Cathy is a thespian who has been involved in local theater for many years. Her most recent endeavor was the role of Bathsheba in this past summer’s JTG production of David, You and I. She is currently featured as the Spirit of Christmas Past in the upcoming JTG production of the Christmas Carol. Cathy is a member of the Salem Lutheran Church in Jacksonville. Salem members, including her husband, Kelly, played an integral part in the construction of two Thrivent Builds homes in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity in Jacksonville. One in 2006 and one this year that was dedicated to God this past weekend. She is dedicating her performance to the men and women of our country who have served or are serving in our armed forces to protect our freedoms that we enjoy today.

Rodney Nicholson

One of Rodney's main interests is in serving Christ. One of the ways he puts this into practice is by singing gospel songs, which he has been doing for the past sixteen years. Rodney is currently a member of the gospel group ”Echos of Faith” He is also an excellent mason contractor who built the block crawl space walls on the last four Habitat homes in Jacksonville.

Tiffany Monique Elizabeth Williams

Tiffany is a young lady of 24 with a beautiful voice. She is the daughter of Tony and Alison Williams. She is a hairstylist in Bloomington, IL. She studied music with Stephanie Smith-Wilkey. Tiffany would like to dedicate her performance to her family for all of their support

The Three Sisters-Laura Young, Sarah Fleck and Amy Fleck

Laura, Sarah and Amy have been singing together since they were little. Their mother had to listen to them argue about who sounded most like The Little Mermaid. Laura concentrated more on the classical aspect of music, while Sarah excelled in musical theatre and the flute and Amy in Show Choir and the trombone. Laura teaches music at Our Saviour Grade School and enjoys leading the children’s choir and performing for weddings and concerts. Sarah teaches Kindergarten at Hartsburg-Emden and enjoys working with the choir at her church. Amy attends The University of Spa and Cosmetology in Springfield and will obtain her degree in cosmetology this December. All three are active in music at their churches.