wfn.org | Cynthia Wilson-Felder named General Conference music director

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Oct. 5, 1998	Contact: Thomas S. McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn.       {566}

NOTE: The 2000 General Conference logo and a photo are available with
this story.

CLEVELAND (UMNS) --  The Rev. Cynthia Wilson-Felder, popular lecturer,
preacher, teacher, conductor and concert artist, has been named music
director for the 2000 General Conference, the denomination's top
legislative body.

The announcement was made during an Oct. 1-2 meeting of the 15-member
Commission on the General Conference. The conference will be held in
Cleveland May 2-12, 2000. The commission, which is planning the event,
is chaired by Mollie Stewart of Valhermosa Springs, Ala.

Wilson-Felder was co-director of music for the most recent General
Conference held in Denver in 1996. The conference, which meets every
four years, includes nearly 1,000 delegates -- half clergy and half lay
-- from all regions of the church in the United States, Africa, Europe
and the Philippines. Music plays a central role in the conference, where
worship is held daily.

Wilson-Felder is pastor of music and worship at Ben Hill United
Methodist Church in Atlanta. Previously, she was minister of music for
six years at Hamilton Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, where she
was also adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University. She has
served as interim choral director at Windsor Village United Methodist
Church in Houston and minister of music at Polytechnic United Methodist
Church in Fort Worth, Texas. She is a native of New Orleans.

Wilson-Felder's recording credits include collaborations with Lionel
Hampton, Melba Moore, Shirley Caesar, Edwin and Tramaine Hawkins, and
the late Rev. James Cleveland. Her 1993 breakthrough "New Songs of
Zion," on Warner Alliance, was nominated for several awards.

She has traveled in Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States, singing
everything from Handel to Mahalia Jackson. Most recently, she sang at a
benefit concert for Africa University at Carnegie Hall in New York, an
event sponsored by the church's New York Annual Conference.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
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