While students scattered to internships, festivals, and rest during the summer months, Wheaton College Conservatory of Music faculty stepped into new roles—teaching, performing, and learning in ways that shaped their artistry and strengthened their teaching. Four faculty members, Drs. Benjamin Klemme, Donte Ford, Hyejin Cho, and Sarah Holman, share how their experiences deepened their faith, enriched their expertise, and prepared them to pour back into students this fall.
Benjamin Klemme, Associate Professor of Music; Symphony Orchestra Conductor
For Benjamin Klemme, the summer months are a season of both artistry and renewal. He and his wife, Deborah, spent two weeks on faculty at the Cshey Summer School of Music in Pennsylvania, where high school musicians from across the country gather for chamber and large ensemble study. The Klemmes not only coached ensembles—Ben with a harp quintet, Deborah with a string quartet—but also relished the chance to guide students in exploring the intersections of music and faith.
Conducting both the symphony and string orchestras gave him the unique joy of leading an ensemble that included his own children as campers. “That’s a special aspect of our work in the summer that I treasure,” he said. “The time that we spend every morning beginning the day in chapel and ending with testimony and song is a really beautiful extension of my and our work at Wheaton.”
Klemme also taught at Credo National Festival and String Intensive in Chicago, where his chamber group performed in spaces across the city—including a collaboration at the Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind. “We got to share our music, hear theirs, and then join forces,” he recalled. “That was a moving highlight of my summer.”
The summer also provided space for family rest—time at a lake in Minnesota with family—and for quieter moments of spiritual renewal. “As a power introvert, the time of the summer months affords me quiet space to be with God,” he reflected. “It’s during these weeks when He especially fuels my imagination and creativity for the year ahead.” As the Symphony Orchestra prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary this year, Klemme looks forward with gratitude: “It’s a privilege to be part of an ensemble that has meant so much to so many people over 100 years. I’m excited to see the ways the Holy Spirit will be active in the year ahead.”
Donté Ford, Assistant Professor of Music; Director of Worship Arts
For Donté Ford, summer began across the Atlantic in London, where he co-led Arts in London—a four-week study abroad program immersing students in music, art, and theater. Based in the heart of the city, students explored 19th-century music, visited Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral, and even experienced Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms performed in Chichester Cathedral during its 950th anniversary celebration. Ford described the program as both rigorous and rewarding: “It’s a lot of heavy lifting to prepare, but still fun work. You want to give the students context for what they’re hearing and seeing.”
From there, Ford traveled to Virginia for the Hampton University Ministers Conference, the nation’s oldest continuous gathering of Black clergy and church musicians. Ford has attended since his undergraduate days, first as a student, then as assistant director, and now as director of the James Abbington Church Music Academy. “It’s rare that a room full of ministers of music gets to sit together, talk, and know exactly how the others are processing and experiencing ministry. It’s been a fruitful and life-shaping time for me.”
Back at Wheaton, Ford piloted a new initiative at the Wheaton College Summer Institute, where students with interests in both music and worship arts formed worship bands for daily chapel. He also advanced his research as a Calvin Institute Teacher-Scholar, arranging and recording little-known 20th-century hymns from the Black Holiness tradition. One set of arrangements was recorded with Wheaton’s Concert Choir, while gospel versions were recorded live with a historic denomination in Jackson, Mississippi.
Faith is central to Ford’s work across all these contexts. Whether mentoring students abroad, training future church musicians, or arranging hymns for worship today, he keeps the same goal in mind: “Helping people think theologically and creatively about worship—about how we honor the past, engage the present, and prepare for the future.”
Amid his busy summer, Ford also served as Minister of Music and Worship at First Presbyterian Church of Wheaton, collaborating with alumni and mentoring students in worship leadership. And though the season was full, he saved time for rest with his family, planning a late-summer cruise as a welcome reprieve.
Sarah Holman, Professor of Music, Voice
This summer, Sarah Holman’s calendar was as full as her heart. From Miami to Montreal, from London to Johannesburg, she found herself traveling widely—teaching, leading, learning, and returning each time with renewed inspiration for her work at Wheaton. A teaching residency at Florida International University launched her summer. Soon after, Holman boarded a plane for London, where she co-directed Wheaton’s Arts in London program. The month-long study abroad immersed students in musical theater, 19th-century music, and art history—woven together with visits to London’s great performance venues and galleries. Whether at the grandeur of Royal Albert Hall or the intimacy of Wigmore Hall, she reminded students of the profound role the arts play in shaping culture. Beyond performances, she intentionally tied classroom learning to faith, encouraging students to see how themes of beauty, transcendence, and truth connect to their walk with Christ.
Her summer also brought international recognition. Holman traveled to South Africa as a keynote speaker for the country’s chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). “It was a deeply humbling experience,” she said, describing the “remarkable sense of hopefulness” she encountered singers from across South Africa, even amid striking poverty and great wealth. For Holman, these encounters broaden her own heart and shape the way she teaches voice: “I work with one individual soul at a time. The more people I meet, the more I can expand my capacity for empathy, understanding, and awe.” One of her most moving musical and pedagogical moments came in Montreal, where she attended her son’s first graduate recital. “Watching his dress rehearsal with his teacher was as inspiring to me as I hope it was for him,” she reflected. “As a pedagogue, those moments remind me why I teach.”
Holman recently completed a term as International Region Governor for NATS, where she helped establish new chapters in South Korea, India, South Africa, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other regions. These global experiences—together with her ongoing teaching at Wheaton’s Summer Institute—have enriched the repertoire she brings to her students. From the songs of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, the London-born composer of Sierra Leonean heritage, to South African art songs and Afrikaans works, she invites students to encounter a wide array of musical traditions. “Exposure to different repertoires opens our eyes to the vastness of God’s creation,” she said. “It keeps us humble and grounded in the reality that we are not the center of the world.”
Her studio work reflects this conviction. For the past several years, she has encouraged students to memorize and embody Scripture—first through the Psalms, now through a new four-year project in the Book of Philippians. In her words, “Our cultural message is so often ‘you do you.’ But Scripture reminds us that our lives are bound up in Christ, and in serving something greater than ourselves. That’s a message our students desperately need.”
Holman speaks with both intensity and warmth, weaving together her professional expertise and her faith. Whether guiding students through a complex aria, leading them through London’s theater district, or teaching them to root their practice in the Word of God, she embodies a vision of artistry that is globally informed and deeply Christ-centered. “For me, it all comes back to awe—of people, of cultures, and of our Savior. That awe keeps me grounded. And it’s what I most want to pass on to my students.”
Hyejin Cho, Guest Lecturer, Piano
For pianist Hyejin Cho, summer began with a meaningful homecoming: a return to her alma mater, Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea. As the school celebrated its 100th anniversary, Cho gave a class reflecting on her journey of study and teaching in the United States. “Looking back, I am deeply grateful for God’s guidance,” she shared, quoting Proverbs 3:5–6: ‘Trust in the LORD with all your heart… and he will make your paths straight.’ For Cho, it was a reminder that seeds planted in students’ lives may bear fruit long into the future.
At the Wheaton College Summer Institute, Cho worked closely with high school musicians through private lessons, ensemble coaching, and keyboard skills sessions. The program concluded with a celebratory concert, a highlight that reminded Cho of the lasting impact these experiences can have. “Some of my current students first encountered Wheaton through WCSI,” she noted. “I look forward to seeing how these young musicians may one day become part of our community.”
Later, Cho joined the MasterWorks Festival in Virginia, a four-week program dedicated to both musical excellence and Christian formation. There she coached pianists, performed chamber works by the Mendelssohns—including Fanny Mendelssohn’s rarely heard Easter Sonata—and joined colleagues in Bible study and devotionals. A highlight was reconnecting with Wheaton alumna Mari Jo Downing, who had recently graduated. “We were in the same Bible study group, and I coached her chamber ensemble,” Cho recalled. “It was a gift to see her artistry in a new light.”
From Seoul to Wheaton to Virginia, Cho’s summer underscored her passion for teaching and performing, always rooted in gratitude for God’s providence.
Looking Ahead
For Klemme, Ford, Holman, and Cho, the summer months were not a pause but a season of growth—whether through conducting, composing, teaching, or performing. Each returned to Wheaton renewed in their creativity, deepened in their faith, and eager to invest in students. Their stories remind us that the work of a teacher-artist does not stop when the semester ends; instead, it expands outward into new communities, always with the hope that seeds planted today will bear fruit in the years to come