Dr. Lehman treks the reader through an evolution from a Mennonite farm boy living in PonBank, Pennsylvania-a tough, Appalachian town-with little knowledge of the non-Mennonite cultural and spiritual world to a life unimaginable to that small boy. He relates a journey that meanders through troughs and peaks, through doubts and tough decisions in his personal life. Through searching and many encounters, his view of God, the spiritual life and religion progressed to a comfort level he maintains. Musically, he shares his education and performance experiences of his journey to becoming an opera singer, a conductor and a professor. Highlights of his career cover seven international choir tours, singing for and shaking hands with the Pope, sharing a concert with tribal choirs in Regina Mundi Church in Soweto, South Africa, dancing and drinking with Siberian Russians and conducting a concert in Carnegie Hall and forty plus years of successful teaching.
About the Author: Dr. Carroll J. Lehman interest in music spans his life. He grew up in the Mennonite Church learning to read music and to lead cappella congregational singing at their summer singing school when he was only a teenager. From there he studied, taught, sang and conducted music. His many experiences of bringing music, particularly some of the great choral and vocal masterpieces, to many and varied audiences around the world resulted in a vivid image of the way music affects the human experience. He shares many of these experiences and how it has influenced his views and opinions. He relates many events that led to his evolution from the evangelical religious life to his spirituality now. Dr. Lehman received his Master and Doctor's degrees from the University of Iowa. He studied conducting in workshops with numerous conductors including Robert Shaw and Helmut Rilling. These two conductors influenced him greatly as they articulated their thoughts and beliefs about some of the great masterworks and the men who composed them. He served for over 40 years on the faculties of Hope College in Michigan, Western Washington University in Bellingham and Keene State College in Keene, NH from which he retired in 2013. He conducted choruses in seven international tours including a performance for the Pope's weekly Vatican broadcast, in South Africa and in Russia, Latvia and Estonia. He was music director and conductor of the Monadnock Chorus in Peterborough, NH for 20 years. In April of 1998, they made their Carnegie Hall debut under his baton.