Mark Mummert

Biography

Mark Mummert is Director of Worship at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas. At Christ the King, Mark conducts the Chorus, the Choristers, the Preschool Music Explorers, the Taize Ensemble and is organist and leader of the assembly song at the liturgies of the congregation. Prior to his call to Houston, he was Seminary Musician at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia for eighteen years (1990-2008), where he conducted the Seminary Choir, was Cantor to the daily Chapel, and taught courses in hymnody and liturgical music.

Mark is a composer of the first setting of Holy Communion in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's core worship resource, Evangelical Lutheran Worship: ELW (2006). In the first setting, Mark composed the "Kyrie," "Glory to God," "This is the Feast," and the "Lenten Gospel Acclamation."(http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/7468/Festival-Setting-of-Holy-Communion-Setting-One-Full-Score-and-Instrumental-Parts-) Mark also composed the setting of the "Benedictus" (In the tender compassion) for the ELW Morning Prayer rite, and his acclamations "Holy God" (Trisagion) and "All of Us Go Down to the Dust" are included in the ELW Service Music section. Mark served as general editor of "Psalm Settings for the Church Year," a collection in the family of ELW resources, featuring newly composed psalm settings for assembly and choir of the ELW Psalter useful in all churches using the Revised Common Lectionary (Augsburg Fortress, 2008 http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/4556/Psalm-Settings-for-the-Church-Year-Revised-Common-Lectionary). He also was an editor of "Music Sourcebook for Lent and the Three Days" (Augsburg Fortress 2010 http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/8119/Music-Sourcebook-for-Lent-and-the-Three-Days). His other anthems and liturgical music are published by Augsburg Fortress and MorningStar Music Publishers.

Mark is an active member of ALCM , the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. ALCM is a pan-Lutheran association of musicians and clergy throughout North America committed to the proclamation of the Word of God through music. For ALCM, Mark has served as Director of Professional Concerns (2003-2007) and also served as the Worship Chair for the 2005 Biennial Conference in New York City and for regional conferences in Lansdale and New Haven. Mark currently serves on the Advisory Council of the Institute of Liturgical Studies at Valparaiso University. http://www.valpo.edu/ils/

In August 2007, Mark served as the director of worship music for the ELCA Worship Jubilee and the ELCA Churchwide Assembly all held at Navy Pier in Chicago. He was organist for the 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Orlando and organist for the National Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada in Winnipeg in July, 2005. Mark was keynote speaker for "Breaking Bread, Breaking Boundaries" in Toronto, July 2004, and the Kyrkomusik Symposiet (Church Music Symposium) of the Church of Sweden in Goteborg in September 2006. Mark returned to Goteborg in September 2007 for "God is Among Us: A Worship Symposium" where he presented a lecture ("Music in the Life of the Assembly: Formation, Integration, Proclamation, and Celebration") and a workshop on the liturgical music of Evangelical Lutheran Worship ("Unity Through Diversity"). In 2009, Mark was a keynote speaker for the Institute of Liturgical Studies and faculty for the ELCA Worship at the Center events focused on the rites and music of the Three Days.

Mark has served as Cantor at Christ Ascension Lutheran Church in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Glenside, Pennsylvania. As a recitalist, Mark has appeared in programs for the American Guild of Organists and has presented hymn festivals throughout North America. He has appeared in concert with the University of the Arts Chorale, Haddonfield Symphony Chorus, Philadelphia Chamber Chorus, Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, and the Singing City Choir of Philadelphia. Mark currently sings with the Houston Chamber Choir, the oldest professional chamber choir in Houston http://houstonchamberchoir.org/artists_mummert.htm.