News & Announcements
JANUARY 2010
Happy New Year! It takes months to recover from the excitement and work of the last Mission! It was an amazing time this year. We had so many opportunities to sing, play, teach and enjoy our Austrian hosts.
Bettyann spent hours in the local primary school once again teaching English through song. We taught geography, music (jazz - a new concept for AIA) and religion in the Middle School. We had wonderful conversations throughout, getting to know a new culture and what is important to the Austrian people.
The classes and concerts in the Middle School and a technical High School were so well received that we were invited to perform and teach in an Innsbruck school for teachers. As usual, the schedule was not our making, but a God Who is sovereign over these things!
We are now beginning to look forward to 2011. You may have noticed the new banner on our website. We now are calling our ministry "music bridges" to more aptly describe what it is all about.
June 20, 2009
We arrived on Friday after 3 delayed flights - but because they were all delayed we had no problem making them!
The weather when the musicians arrive is supposed to be rainy. It has been lovely prior to our arrival but rainy this past 24 hours. Bettyann has checked the weather and it is supposed to be rainy through Tuesday ! But a rainy day in the Alps is better than most any day somewhere else!
The hotel was prepared for our arrival - Mario and Lydia have done a great deal of work on it and I know all will enjoy both the fruit of their labor and their sweet fellowship.
Bettyann has been at work preparing meal menus and teaching in the local primary school for 3 weeks already. She has spent a great deal of time learning some of the best walking areas, eateries for lunch, and other information that will really help the musicians hit the ground running. Josef Wetzinger immediately put Bettyann and me to work performing last night for the culminating program of the local middle school 30 year anniversary. We wetted the students' and their parents' appetites for some American jazz.
February 2009
Things are begining to come together for the 2009 Arts in the Alps mission to Telfes. We have a number jazz artists in addition to classical artists beginning to prepare for the ministry. In addition to a number of musicians from Westminster PCA in Viriginia, a group from Northshore Presbyterian in Chattanooga, Tennessee led by Wade Williams is planning to join us. We hope to do a variety of things in the valley including presentations and performances of various types in the schools.
If you are interested in coming, plesae fill out the online application so we can begin planning how to use the talents of our team.
October 2008
We are gearing up for 2009. Bettyann is hoping to have the support needed to be working in the Telfes primary school for a month beginning at the end of May! She has been in contact with the Headmaster there, who also happens to be a dixieland musician! We have been asked to be more active in the Jr. High School in Fulpmes, the village next to Telfes. We are excited by all the opportunities that God is presenting for relationships and the bridging of cultural and spiritual gaps.
In addition, Mark Chambers has been working with a mission board to develop a relationship of ministry. We hope that relationship will prove to be fruitful in our outreach.
June 2008
We would like to provide an opportunity for Music Ministers who have an interest in involving their choirs/instrumentalists in European outreach to come to Telfes to find out what we are about. In June 2009 we will welcome 15-25 ministers that would like to walk through the AIA schedule, experience the Alps and consider how they can support this mission in the future. Please contact the Director if you are interested.
MARCH 19, 2008
We are now beginning the "run up" to 2009! Are you interested in music? Are you interested in broadening your world-view? Are you interested in building relationships with people who think, act and dress differently than you do?
Arts In the Alps - International Chamber Seminar is an outreach of primarily American Christian musicians who have the above goals in mind as they enter the Tyrolean culture, specifically in the little village of Telfes, 20 minutes from Innsbruck.
We believe that God has made us creative and relational and that His redemptive work can be found in developing relationships with and sharing our humaness with those of different cultures.
SUMMER, 2007
The Westminster Presbyterian Church in Suffolk, brought a choir to AIA in June of 2007 to perform with the Pfarrkirche Choir. The Virginia choir performed in schools in the Stubaital (Stubai valley where Telfes is located), at the Goldenes Dachl in Innsbruck, in a cathedral in Salzburg, and at an abbey in Germany. In addition, the two choirs (Pfarrkirche & Westminster) joined together to perform a finale concert at the Pfarrkirche (a very historic Catholic church in Telfes). Joining them were other instrumental musicians.
Bettyann Henderson, AIA Administrative Assistant, taught children's music classes during the week providing a unique outreach to the Austrian schools which do not have music classes in the regular school day.
In addition, the choir provided music for the worship services at an Innsbruck Baptist church and Evangelische Frei church while our Bible Study leader, Rodrigo de Sosa preached.