The months before the 2024 eurobrass workshop were filled with great anticipation—but also with lots of questions. How would it feel to be back after six years since our last workshop? Would we experience the joy of music and fellowship the same way we had in the past? Would our new location in Thuringia work as well as the retreat center where we held our last four workshops? As we prepared for the workshop, we brought all of these questions before God, along with our prayers for a musically and spiritually enriching week.
During the workshop we saw these prayers answered repeatedly. We had a great group of motivated brass players who willingly took on musical challenges. In both large and small ensembles, they worked hard to play a wide variety of music with skill and musicality. Many people who lived near the retreat center came to our closing concert, responding to the music with great enthusiasm (and vigorous applause). We hope that in the course of the program, they saw beyond the beautiful music to the creator of that music and its beauty.
We also benefited greatly from spending time studying the Bible together. Each day we read one of Jesus’ parables and were encouraged to apply new questions to these familiar texts. Those questions motivated us to think deeper, to pose and explore our own questions, and to continue to discuss God’s word with each other even after our daily Bible study ended.
In rehearsals, at meals, in encouraging conversations during breaks, and even around the ping-pong table, a deep fellowship among the participants and staff permeated the week. Everyone was welcome to come as they were—and everyone was accepted, just as they were. It was not lost on us that this sort of acceptance and love for one another is made possible by our shared foundation of faith in Jesus.
We’re very thankful for this full, intensive week, and for everything that we learned and experienced together. We’re already looking forward to our next large eurobrass workshop in 2027. In the meantime, we pray that the things that marked our time together will become part of our daily lives: that we will make music as skillfully as we can to God’s glory while loving others unconditionally, as God loves us.