Music & Worship Arts Fellows

The Music & Worship Arts Fellows are singers, instrumentalists, composers, conductors, technologists, and liturgical artists who offer their gifts in worship while being formed by the work itself.

The program is a ministry of mutual offering: the church receives their creativity and leadership, and the Fellows receive mentorship, experience, and belonging. They are not "staff singers" or "paid ringers." They are relational ministers, drawn from the University of Alabama and the surrounding community, who anchor the Chancel Choir, strengthen congregational song, and extend the church's reach through concerts, education, and creative projects across the year.

"Most importantly, the program recognizes that gifts are given to be shared."

Every Fellow sings, and choral experience is not required

Every Fellow sings with the Chancel Choir. That does not mean you must arrive as a choral singer. Instrumentalists, conductors, composers, and technologists are sought just as actively as singers, and some of the strongest Fellows have come to the program with little choral background. If you are a fine musician who has simply never sung in a choir, you are exactly the sort of person this program was designed to include.

Fellows are chosen for musicianship, meaning a good ear, confident reading, and a depth of musical understanding, and for the qualities that make a person a leader here: preparation, professionalism, and the bearing to represent First United Methodist Church well.

Who it is for

The program is open to all. Students and non-students alike, the emerging and the established, professionals and those whose living is made in another field entirely. No prior church-music experience is required, and all are sincerely welcome, whatever your background and whatever you believe.

Each Fellowship carries a financial award.