Wednesday evening through Sabbath morning, April 1-3, Laurelbrook played host to the EASEA music festival. Over fifty singers, students and teachers, converged on the campus to enjoy learning and singing a program of sacred music. On the side, students (and even teachers) had the opportunity to make new friends and renew old acquaintances.

All during Thursday and Friday, the assembled musicians studied selected pieces under the direction of Bruce Ashton, professor of music at Southern Adventist University, located in Collegedale, Tennessee just outside the city of Chattanooga.

Friday evening the group put on a concert in Laurelbrook’s auditorium. On Sabbath the musicians travelled to the convention in Dalton, Georgia of the southern chapter of the ASI organization and to the Dalton, GA Seventh-day Adventist Church to present concerts.

The Friday evening concert began with a short song service. Then Debbie Hess, head of Laurelbrook’s music department, welcomed everyone to the program and led everyone in a recitation of the 4^th Commandment. Then the music festival choir under the direction of Bruce Ashton began the actual concert. Numbers included “There Is a Balm in Gilead”; “A Hymn to God the Father” by John Donne; “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown” by Charles Wesley; “More Holiness Give Me”, first heard by Bruce Ashton when the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir of Salt Lake City sang it; “Children of the Heavenly Father”; “My Lord, What a Morning”; and “Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee”. Dr. Ashton spoke the benediction, followed by a violin solo accompanied by the choir.

Laurelbrook students taking part in the music festival included Ali (senior), Narae (junior), Douglas (sophomore), Katie (sophomore), and Mimose (senior). Staff member Debbie Hess also participated as a member of the choir.

EASEA stands for the E.A. Sutherland Educational Association, a part of the Layman’s Foundation, an organization of Seventh-day Adventist self-supporting schools cooperating closely with the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventist. ASI stands for Adventist Services and Industries, a group of Seventh-day Adventist lay people dedicated to spreading the message of Christ’s Second Coming.