Instruments of Worship
The Instruments of Worship Podcast, hosted by Casey Rinkenberger, is dedicated to encouraging and equipping classical musicians to lift high the name of Jesus with their instruments and their lives. Tune in every Monday for a new episode!
Instruments of Worship
The Sight & Sound Conservatory: Christ Centered Training in the Arts with Haleigh Swansen | Ep. 22
To me, the Sight and Sound shows are one of the best examples of excellence in all types of art forms to the glory of God! If you are not familiar with Sight and Sound Theaters, you need to check them out ASAP! You will surely be encouraged by their boldness for Christ in the arts. Today, I have the extreme privilege of talking with Haleigh Swansen, the Sight and Sound Conservatory Coordinator. She shares many insights on how their Biblical Worldview drives their approach to the arts and how they are training the next generation of artists. You will not want to miss this episode!
Discussion Questions - Try discussing with a group or in our Facebook Discussion Group
- What impacted you most from my conversation with Haleigh in today’s episode?
- Haleigh said there is “importance in understanding who you represent,” and that we were bought with a price so we no longer live for ourselves. How can we represent Christ well in our classical music circles?
- What role do prayer and discernment play in your life right now?
- What is Truth that can encourage us to not be fearful of being Christ centered artists?
- How does the story of Daniel compare to aspects of being a Christian classical musician? What can we learn from His story?
- Who are the people you rub shoulders with? How can you interact with them in a way that represents Christ?
- What Scripture can you think of that reminds us that no matter where we are or who we’re with, God remains faithful to make a way for His people to walk with Him well and to honor Him in the midst of it?
Learn more about Sight and Sound Theater and the Sight and Sound Conservatory!
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Hi friends, my name is Casey Rinkenberger and I am so excited to welcome you to the Instruments of Worship podcast. This is a podcast dedicated to encouraging and equipping classical musicians to let's hide the name of Jesus with their instruments and also their lives. Today we have the amazing opportunity to talk to the conservatory coordinator of the Sight and Sound Conservatory, Haley Swanson. Haley started her Sight and Sound career as a conservatory student and now plays a vital role in the continued growth and success of the program. If you are not familiar with Sight and Sound Theater, you need to check it out. To me, the Sight and Sound shows are one of the best examples of excellence in all types of art forms for the glory of God. Their productions bring to life the pages of scripture by telling the stories of main Bible characters through panoramic sets, incredible music, dancing, acting, costumes, even using live animals and so much more. My parents saw Esther performed in Branson, Missouri last fall and they came back and immediately encouraged my husband and I to go and see it. We did and I was absolutely floored. When our guest Gary Rose expressed how music has a unique way of touching the soul, I experienced that so richly by watching Esther. The story was brought to life in a way that brought me to tears and most importantly, pointed me and the rest of the audience towards Jesus. Needless to say, I am so excited for my conversation today with Haley Swanson. You will not want to miss it. If you think of someone who might be encouraged by this podcast, please send it to them and be sure to Download, follow, and subscribe wherever you are listening. And let's get into today's episode of the Instruments of Worship podcast. Well, hello, Haley. Thank you so much for joining us on the show today.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you so much for having us, Kasey. This is awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I am so, so excited to get to hear from you. And I would love if you wouldn't mind telling us a little bit about who you are and what you do.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. So my name is Haley Swanson. I'm from the greater Philadelphia area, originally transplanted to Lancaster in 2019. And currently the Lord has me serving as the program coordinator at Sight and Sound Conservatory. I have a feeling that some of your questions will let us say more about that later. But here under the conservatory's roof, my role as the program coordinator is kind of a... kind of a connecting point for many of the different departments and entities that the conservatory serves. So on any given day, I could be contacting a government official, state official. I could be talking with a student who needs help. I could be painting a cardboard bush somewhere. It sort of depends on what we need. And in the middle of all that, I have the privilege of teaching a few courses here and occasionally directing student projects as well.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, you are sure busy, but that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:It's a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_01:So then if you don't mind, just go ahead and take us back and inform us of what has been your journey with the classical music world or the performing arts world.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. So classical music is something that isn't necessarily part of my day job, but has been a part of my life for quite some time. And for me, it started as a family thing. So my grandfather was incredibly musical. He and his brother both. My grandfather was the very pragmatic. He was an attorney. So he was the orchestra guy he played violin and trombone and organ and a couple of other instruments beautifully and then his brother who passed away shortly before i was born was sort of the wild child so he was one of the first people in the united states maybe the world to do live performances on synths and he was an in-house composer for uh moog which is like a famous old older synth company anyway between them those two there was a lot of music in my family growing up and I can remember two, three years old, my grandfather bringing a violin over for me to hold. And that kind of sparked it for me. So I started taking lessons when I was young. I had parents who very graciously let me sustain those lessons for many years. And then when I was 16, I got involved with an orchestra in the Westchester area called Immaculata Symphony. Great people through a university played for eight seasons with them. And then here and there, the Lord has brought up little ways to continue to use that for his glory, not necessarily I love that. So
SPEAKER_01:then how did the worlds of the arts and your faith overlap or come together? If you want to share some of your testimony, I'd love that too. Well,
SPEAKER_00:I'm grateful. The Lord was very gracious and let me come to know Him at a young age and really know Him at a young age. So I can honestly say that I'm grateful. grade school i understood that it wasn't just i have a savior who loves me and died on the cross for me even though that's mission critical he also kind of planted early on in my heart that concept of lordship and that everything we do belongs to him And since my parents were new believers, my dad got saved in grad school, my mom got saved during her undergrad, there wasn't a very formulaic approach to what does it mean to be a believer, yet they kind of looked at the word and then looked at their homes and said, okay, we'll give it a try. And so some of my earliest memories were my dad playing guitar for worship nights at our house. He was leading a Bible study at the time. It's now a church. And my sister and I would help. We'd drop picks down the hole of the guitar just to keep him busy. But I can distinctly remember the day that my grandfather brought that violin to our house. I was holding it like a cello because I was too little to hold it like a real thing, sawing the bow back and forth, and I started making up worship songs. And For a while, I kind of was like, did I make that up? Sometimes memories are hazy. And then two years ago, we found like the old camcorder footage and that's really what happened. And so for whatever reason, in addition to really getting a hold of my heart early, God just planted early on that the things I liked to do and the ways I like to express weren't separable from him. In fact, those things are supposed to operate in tandem. And then I think in getting older, and having a chance to study the arts a little more, both classically and then as a performing artist, I started to understand the value of telling stories that matter to you and the importance of understanding who you represent. It's never just Me, right? I was bought with a price. I'm called to glorify him with everything I do. And so whether that is talking to someone on a phone or making music or doing a musical, you know, acting, singing, dancing, I get a chance to buy into messages that matter. And so with that knowledge, I think he really refined the scope of what I use the arts for and made it clear that in my walk with him, there was a calling to reflect him through those things.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Oh my goodness. I love, love that. How we can glorify the Lord in everything that we do. So I'm curious then, after high school, did you know that you wanted to pursue music or how did that lead you to the college phase?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I loved the arts and the Lord planted that. I can now say that was from him. He planted it early. But I was always a little afraid of them. Everybody I saw who went into the artsy world was either broke or giving up on their morals. Neither of us
SPEAKER_01:sounded free.
SPEAKER_00:And ironically, it was an external pressure in my world. I had two very supportive parents. They continue to be incredibly supportive. And from getting saved, reasonably later than some people do. And the life God had called them to and ministry and missions, like there was a lot of understanding that sometimes where he leads isn't normal on paper. So they were very supportive, but I was very afraid of those things. So I didn't go to school for anything artistic. I did my undergrad in English. And then I worked for about two and a half years on the corporate side of things for a university. And I was teaching violin at night. And all that time I went, well, I don't know if schools are for me, which is pretty ironic now. So maybe I need to find something else. And the Lord very graciously kept hedging in my efforts. So I was looking for jobs and those wouldn't work out. I was accepted to a grad school overseas and then couldn't afford it. So I needed to withdraw my application. And then there were sort of a second series of personal trials that just kept hedging me in and I got frustrated. So I started looking looking through the word and praying. And in my quiet time one day, I was in Haggai. And in Haggai, the people of Israel were frustrated because they were trying to get reestablished in their homeland and everything they were doing wasn't working. And that felt like the last two and a half years. So in their case, God had told them to rebuild the temple, but they said, it's not the time for us and we're scared of what people think, essentially. Very much paraphrasing. And he challenges them to do what he's called them to do. And as they started to move in the direction of what they had avoided, he started to bless those other facets again. So I started praying and I said, okay, is there something I'm avoiding because I'm afraid of what people will think and I'm afraid of the timing? And he brought up arts and ministry. And since I hadn't studied it formally anywhere, I said, well, I guess my first step is to go get an education. So the first thing that brought me here was actually studentship, not a job. I came into the conservatory as a student, what we would call a non-traditional. So sort of that 22, 23 and older returning to school. Vibe, for lack of better terms, and did the program, assumed that the output was now it's time to go be a professional performer. But sitting where I sit now, I can see where God was cultivating the arts, encouraging me in my passions, but also preparing me for a job where I would have to serve future students. So I've had... Stressful days where I didn't like how my voice sounded or I was intimidated by the schedule or going, am I crazy for being here? And those are pretty real things for performers to experience. And so I can look at where I sit currently and go, the time I worked for a school, the time I was studying the arts and all of the experiences in between have prepared me to be a better servant of the Lord for where I am now.
SPEAKER_01:I love that. He's always got... a great, great plan. Even if we don't know what the end destination looks like, I love those moments in life where you can look back and see what he was doing all along and how his ways are so much better than ours. So thanks for sharing that part of your story. I'm curious, did you grow up knowing about sight and sound or how did that get introduced to you?
SPEAKER_00:I did. I grew up about 45 minutes east of here. I remember the first show I came to see. It was Daniel, A Dream, A Den, A Deliverer, I think was the tagline at the time in 2003 And I said to the Lord sitting there, all this would be fun. And I asked if I could act here someday. And then when I was a student, the show that we were involved with as students was the 2019 run of Jesus. And the costume I was wearing in that was recycled from that 2003 Daniel A Dream Identity. So he doesn't miss a beat. I love that.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Oh my goodness. I love that. That is so cool. Okay. So before we get too much into your role at the conservatory, I just want to make sure people know or have an understanding of what sight and sound theater is in case that they might not know. And so would you mind explaining that a little
SPEAKER_00:bit? Absolutely. The crux of it is we bring Bible stories to life on stage. Our calling is to share the love of God and his word through who we are and what we do. And so the medium he's given us to Wow, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_01:I would say to me, because I've been to two shows, I've seen Noah and I've seen Esther. So to me, every time I go, it is just one of the best examples that I can think of, of just all types of art forms, just full on display, done excellently for the glory of God. And so I'm just curious, like, how does Sight and Sound seek to glorify the Lord with their productions? And why is excellence so important in that?
SPEAKER_00:Well, first of all, praise God that that's been your experience. The heart is to let people experience his word in that way. But that can't happen without the Holy Spirit. I don't care how pretty your costumes are or how big your stage is. He's the one who moves hearts. So to hear that that's been your experience is marvelous. But I would say from a How we do what we do. There's a lot of prayer. There's a lot of discernment. Our story team, the team that helps steward cultivating and building that story over time, really is intentional about praying and going, what message is meant to be on our stage next. And when I say next, next is really four years later. It takes about four years to go from concept to design. It's a very collaborative process. It's a very detail-oriented process. And sometimes a lot of trial and error. But the overarching goal is to steward that story well from the concept room to the moment somebody gets on stage with us.
SPEAKER_01:I love hearing that. Even from such a successful and awesome organization, just how... careful you are to seek the Holy Spirit and to follow the way that he's leading. That's just so, so cool. Could you maybe speak, though, to the practical side? How do you pick the shows that you do? And just a little bit more about that.
SPEAKER_00:I'll do my best. There's a little bit of this territory because I'm not in that creative team where I will be more general than one of them could be. But I can say the simple ingredient of prayer and discernment together really is at the top of it. There's nothing more powerful than that. And so I can attest that's a big part of how we make our decisions here. From there, you've got, oh my goodness. concept artists, 3D designers, animal caretakers, animal trainers. You have composers. We have composers in-house. So all of our music is written here. We have the blessing of, through our facilities at Sight& Sound, being able to build almost everything that you see. So whether it's worn, walked on, It probably has somebody here's handprints on it. We've got costume designers. We have fabric cutters. There's a whole accounting team making sure that the dollars are lining up as we go. So even some pieces of production that probably wouldn't rise to the top of most people's minds, but my goodness, without a good shipping team or purchasing team, it's really hard to build everything we build. So it takes several hundred people for four years, sometimes only knowing a a little part of the picture to bring it to completion. There's a gentleman in our set shops who's been building props here for years. And I asked him once, I was like, hey, have you ever built something and not known what it was for till you saw it in the show? And he was like, oh, absolutely. Not like an ignorance. He knows what he's building, right? But sometimes how it fits into the big picture, you don't see till the end, which I think is kind of a cool thing metaphor for how it is serving the Lord. I've been given a corner of this planet, right? Or my neighborhood or my job to steward. And sometimes he gives me orders that don't make sense. I like to think that maybe someday when we're all in his presence, we're going to be able to see together what he had us working on as individuals. But in the meantime, I get to steward my corner and that's a blessing on its own.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes. And be just faithful with what he's entrusted to you is what I'm hearing. It almost reminds me of just when you read about the building of the temple or the building of the tabernacle of just all the different types of people and all their different jobs that was needed to just create this excellent product for the glory of the Lord. And so as you just say that all the things I'm sure to the panoramic sets and the live animals, like it all just brings the stories to life. So anyways, I'm curious, what is your favorite sight and sound show
SPEAKER_00:Oh, boy. Can I pick a modern one and an oldie? Is that okay? You can't fit the whole thing in two and a half hours. So I think the through line that the story team discerned of what it is to pursue God's heart, what it is to misrepresent God's heart, what it is to repent in the face of misrepresentation was just absolutely beautiful and redemptive. But my favorite older one is Miracle of Christmas. It may be a little nostalgic because it was a really fun one to be involved with on stage, but something about that story just makes me teary every time. I think it's that sense of you see a whole world crying out for how much longer, how much longer, how much longer in the face of sin and oppression. And then as soon as that baby is born, it's still loud. It's still crying out. But how much longer turns into at last? And just something about that gets my heart every time.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes, I love it. So when you say a new one and an old one, what I understood is that, you know, there are certain shows that have a run and then they're kind of put away for a while, but then they come back. Is that correct? Or how does that cycle?
SPEAKER_00:That is correct. We try to shake it up between what we call premiere shows, which is this is brand new and returning shows. And even when a show returns, oftentimes it's returning to a different climate in terms of what we can do technically. So a great example of this would be Moses. We premiered Moses, I believe in 2015, 14 or 15. It was a while ago before we used LED screens. When we brought Moses back in 2023, now suddenly there's new technology that we can integrate into it. So oftentimes that returning show is still getting a little breath of fresh air in one way or another, but the story itself is timeless. So why not bring it back?
SPEAKER_01:Totally, totally. And how often does a new show get created?
SPEAKER_00:So it takes about four years, but every two years, typically we're producing a new show and they typically premiere in Lancaster. There used to be a joke that the shows premiere in Lancaster and they're perfected in Branson. We send it to Branson after we've made all the mistakes and we've gone, we don't put a camel on that side, you know? So we iron out all of the wrinkles here and then our friends in Branson get to run where we had to walk.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Okay. Awesome. That's so cool. So I'd love to transition to talk more about the conservatory, which I know is more your area of expertise. So people now have an understanding of the sight and sound theater, but can you explain how did the conservatory come to be and when and how did it begin?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. So the heart summary for the conservatory is also pretty simple. Our mission is to provide professional training in the performing arts from a Christ-centered biblical worldview. We came on the scene officially in 2013. There were a couple years of preparation prior to that. Schools don't just pop up overnight. There's a lot of state regulation with that, and understandably so. We want to make sure that we are being held to good standards for how we operate as an entity. But once that was in play, we officially opened our doors in 2013. From 2013 through 2020, we were a one-year program, and then in September 2020, we transitioned into our current state, which is a two-year program. That two-year program is four semesters. Our students spend their first semester just in classes. And when I say just, it's a lot of classes, so it's still a hustle. The second and the third semester, they take class in the mornings and the evenings, and then they are involved with most of the main stage shows midday as ensemble members or what we call swings, which is sort of like an understudy for a full scene or dance number. After their second and third semester experience, we take them out of the main stage show one more time. They do a few classes, and they do a few performances on their own as a group. So those will not necessarily be sight and sound content. We will license something else. But we pick things that are family-friendly. in line with our values, and that let the students run a little more overtly in their giftings. Since the things they do on stage with us for real-world experience are typically ensemble, they're not getting to sing solos or play a step-out character. They're not going to be Queen Esther there, but they're very talented, and we want them to have that experience of sustaining a character for two and a half hours. So when that fourth semester comes into play, now they are the leads. They are the supporting roles, and we get to kind of come around them as a school and as a ministry and cheer them on in the things that they've just spent two years learning.
SPEAKER_01:So do most students come like straight from high school or are they having already finished a music degree?
SPEAKER_00:It depends on who you are. We do see with the two-year program, most of our students are between the ages of 17 and 22. You have to be a Twice that age, you know, mid 30s, I think even early 40s the first year. My cohort, we were ages 17 through 32. And some of us had been... eating, sleeping, breathing the arts from the time we were teeny. Some of us were brand new to it. And then some of us were kind of in the middle, like me. I had maybe tried things here or there, but I had never had the guts prior to being in the conservatory to actually pursuing an education in it. So what we have found is it's a pretty cool combination of people who know this is what they've wanted to do, and they've been working towards it forever, and people who are stepping out in faith. And it's a cool combination typically of people doing this sort of as their first adult decision and people who the Lord stirs their heart later and brings them back.
SPEAKER_01:I love that you allow for some of the flexibility in that. Sometimes I think a lot of times it feels like after high school, you just go to music school and then you have to figure it out, but you know, you never know how
SPEAKER_00:the Lord's going to lead. And if I may, I think the Lord is also very intentional in the times and seasons. Like I can even think about that oldest member of my group. She had actually applied for the program six years prior and went, maybe not for me. And then went to law school, did a bunch of other like incredible things. And the Lord had put on her heart, Hey, I think you've been running from something that I have for you and brought her back. And she's still one of my closest friends. So selfishly, I like to think that maybe that delay wasn't just for her own development. God knew the people around her. He knew the people that she would pour into and that would pour into her. And he knew the season that she would be ready to cultivate those gifts. So it's not our job to police who or when or how, other than, of course, you know, legal standards. Yes. The Lord is the one who calls. And so how he brings people together is his prerogative. Once they're here, it's our job to make sure that they're being trained well and encouraged in their faith.
SPEAKER_01:Do you mind just sharing, you had said that all of this is great musical training, but also spiritual training and coming from a biblical worldview. Can you just give a peek into what that might be like? I would just love to hear how practically do you foster that biblical worldview in
SPEAKER_00:your conservatory? Maybe this is a silly one. But I think one of the first ways we cultivate a Christ-centered approach to the arts is removing the fear of being a Christ-centered artist. I think there's a lot of stipulations and assumptions around that in terms of how you can or can't interact with the artistic world because a lot of the stories being told out there are are not Christ-centered stories. And that doesn't necessarily mean that they're all bad to tell, right? The human experience itself is a gift from the Lord. And the way we navigate brokenness, the way we navigate confusion, highs and lows, especially when you have a biblical lens, all of that stuff is part of walking with him. That's kind of what the Psalms are when you look at them. It's a record of the highs and lows in step with David's creator. And so sometimes I think there are assumptions that, well, if I am a believer, in the arts. It means I can't do this. I have to be afraid of that. And there is a biblical case for having godly standards, right? As an artist, I want to do my craft in a way that reflects him. Sometimes that is going to mean self-selecting out of opportunities that do not line up with his heart. On the other side of it, I often will say around the building, like Christian plumbers don't just fix church toilets, right? Like they have to fix toilets everywhere. And it's similar for artists. The industry changes, the stories change when we send people into them who are trained differently. And so it is part of our calling as believers to boldly go where the Lord leads. And if he is leading, he's going to provide a way for you to honor him there while engaging with the place he has called you to serve. I think a great biblical example of that is Daniel. Daniel was put in charge of the soothsayers and the magicians. He wasn't just in an admin job somewhere. He was literally in charge of people whose role was to cultivate a world that was hostile to his faith. Somehow, he manages to walk with the Lord faithfully while outlasting three dynasties in that job, right? So somehow there was a way for him to honor the While engaging with people who thought very differently. And so understanding that our artists, a trained artist from Sight and Sound Conservatory, might not be in biblically based shows their entire life. Our heart is to give them the opportunity to hear from the Holy Spirit about who he has called them to be. the kind of stories he has called them to tell, and then encourage them that within that parameter, they have the freedom to go where he calls them to go and ask him to make them effective witnesses. So on the practical side, that means tying back the truths of scripture to what we do in the class as much as possible. The students in their discipleship classes get to discuss real-world subjects, their industry, their lives, their struggles from a Christ-centered biblical worldview. We get the opportunity to put them, of course, in a place where they are doing biblically-based stories and learning to interact with Scripture in an artistic way. But I really think one of the biggest challenges opportunities to encourage a believer in the arts that we have as a school is simply being embedded in sight and sound ministries because even when they're not in the classroom they are getting to walk past people on the traffic team in the accounting offices on the deck crew in the animal departments who love god and do what they do for his glory and so when you walk into the doors there's somebody there who is equipped to encourage you who maybe has walked through some of the same challenges. And together, we get to push each other towards godly things. Can
SPEAKER_01:you share what some of the specific courses are? And like, what courses
SPEAKER_00:do you teach? I teach script analysis, which is actually a very fun place to bring in ties from scripture. That's a whole nother whole nother story. I teach a I'm I'm beginning to teach this upcoming year, a discipleship course. And then I substitute teach for music theory, sight singing, Alexander technique. I think that's it at the moment.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. Wow. So can you explain a little bit more about, you said a discipleship course or a discipleship group?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Each of our four discipleship courses has a slightly different emphasis. So their first semester course is very focused on identity. What does identity in Christ entail? How do you know what it entails? How does that apply to your life? The second semester one is a little bit of a work in progress. Again, I'm helping design a new one there, but it's very much going to be hands-on with scripture and encouraging people to build their own biblically based quiet time habits. The third semester is an inductive study of the Sermon on the Mount with a project called Creative Expression of the Word, which I think you're learning. The names are often the functions around here. So what does it look like to express biblical truth creatively to the world around you? And then the fourth semester course is discussion-based. At that point, they've had a teacher leading things for a while. So in the fourth semester, the teacher acts as a moderator. Each of the students gets to bring in a subject that they would like to discuss from a biblical view, and they get a turn leading a discussion and leading their peers.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, that is incredible. Could you explain like what are some examples that people have done for that third
SPEAKER_00:semester? What did I do? I think I baked bread. to be encouragement to others. So I baked each of my classmates a little loaf of bread and I wrote them each a little poem of encouragement.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my goodness. That is so cool. I love hearing that. Okay. So I'm curious, you know, we've been talking about this biblical worldview and how you guys teach that. Has there been like challenges that you faced in having to navigate that in the world of the arts, which is so secular?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I really think the question goes back to what has that been like since 30 AD? There's never been a culture that has exactly embraced everything in scripture, right? It was given to a world that didn't necessarily necessarily believe those things and didn't understand it. And so I come back to Ecclesiastes, where it says there's nothing new under the sun. Any kind of different worldview that a student might experience, whether it's at Sight and Sound Conservatory or in Timbuktu, it's existed before, right? Because apart from the Lord, we can do nothing. And apart from him, we're dead in our trespasses and our sins. So I think it's less about the struggles of what is today like, and it's more an encouragement that from in the beginning until now, God has always been faithful to make a way for his people to walk with him well and to honor him, no matter what the environment. And so within that, I hope a student coming to Sight and Sound Conservatory would be encouraged that whether or not they are in an industry that calls Jesus Lord, and whether or not they are walking with people who see the world the same way, you always personally have a choice to walk closely with your creator. And when you abide in the vine, he gives you what you need, not only to reflect him, but to stand true to his word.
SPEAKER_01:I'm so thankful that your conservatory is encouraging and equipping those artists to lift high the name of Jesus wherever they are, but giving them that example that they're not just thrown out on their own. They're equipped, and that is really, really special and really, really cool. So thanks so much for sharing all about how you guys do that at the conservatory. So what types of students, like you said, there's been dance or silent film. Do you have a place for musicians? what types of students do you have at your conservatory?
SPEAKER_00:That's a great question. Our focus is all of the skills pertinent to musical theater. So you're going to see more of acting, singing, dancing, Shakespeare, stage combat, things like that. Our students do take music theory and sight singing because those are relevant skills to vocal rehearsals or learning new material. But we don't have a formal instrumentalist track or classical musician track. That being said, Many strong singers and performers are musicians to some degree. So we've had many very musical people come through our doors over the years. There's not necessarily a class dedicated to it, but I could give you many examples of walking through hallways or coming upstairs and there's somebody working on the piano or composing their own piece. So a beautiful side benefit of working here, I would say, is getting to bump up against some very, very talented musicians too.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, totally. So do a lot of your students end up going and being performers at the Science Sound Theaters, or do they end up going elsewhere?
SPEAKER_00:Many of them have, and the program was not designed with that intent. The heart behind it truly was, let's train people well, and then let's give them a chance to learn these things from a biblical perspective. But we've been really blessed to have many students return over time. Now, it's not necessarily a formula, partially because in a marvelous way, each student, each performer is different. And so sometimes the role that you need to fill requires a very specific vocal type or a certain age, right? And so you might love every single student who graduated that year. You might think they're all the most talented people on the planet, but if you're casting a role that needs to read as 75 and they all look young, it's probably not their year. You know what I mean? However, It's been a very sweet turn of events to see our graduates return, sometimes right away, sometimes after several years, and continue to enhance what we do on stage in a different capacity. We've also seen students who come back and join different departments. So the deck crew, which is our term for backstage, or our front of house, guest services, office, you know, he has the right to take them where they're going to go. Outside of here, we've also seen students do national tours. We've seen students be pretty successful with the general theater scene in the Lancaster area. We've watched students go back to their home states and start theaters there. We've seen students take things into artistic ministry. So really, at the end of the day, what the Lord leads them into is... praiseworthy and exciting even if it's not on our stage right and the principles behind being a performing artist we believe will benefit you wherever you go even if you're not an actor singer dancer your entire life the skills of talking to people confidence connecting with people being a clear storyteller those are going to serve you no matter where you go
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Really, you equip them with so much that they walk away just really rooted and grounded, but also really well-trained. So I'm just curious, what is the audition and application process for the conservatory? If somebody is looking to audition, where might they go and learn about that?
SPEAKER_00:That's a great question. You can go to Sight& Sound's website. There is a drop-down button for the conservatory on our main page. And from there, the audition information would be listed. The flyby is you will sing, dance, and act for us, but we also ask for some paperwork, an essay explaining why you want to do this, some letters of recommendation, because at the heart of Sight and Sound, again, it's telling his story through who we are and what we do. So if all we focus on is the acting, singing, dancing, we're not fulfilling our entire mission. We also want to get to know each of our auditioners, each of our applicants as a person, and see what it is that God has put on their hearts in relation to the performing arts as an industry.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I love that. Well, thank you so much, Haley, for being willing to come on and share about the conservatory and Sight and Sound Theaters. We just love what you're doing there and just want to encourage you to, you know, keep doing what you're doing and glorifying the Lord where you are.
SPEAKER_00:Praise God. Thank you for the chance to talk about it. We're really grateful for what he's given us a chance to do here. And it's always a pleasure to share it with somebody else.
SPEAKER_01:Well, thank you so much for spending part of your day with me today. Make sure to check the description for ways to learn more about the Sight and Sound Theater and Conservatory. I really, really hope that you get to go to Pennsylvania or to Missouri to see a show at some point. Also check the description for discussion questions that you can reflect on by yourself or with a group. We actually have a Facebook page that you can join where we talk about these discussion questions. We answer them and we can encourage and equip one another as we walk this road of being a Christian in the classical music world. Please feel free to leave a five-star review if you liked this episode, and I will see you next Monday.