Sunday, June 6, will be Filippa Duke’s last Sunday with us. Filippa has been the Music Intern at West End for the past year. Since last July she has been an active leader in worship as she regularly led the service from the organ. She has been deeply involved in all aspects of the music program.

In August, she will begin her work on a Doctor of Musical Arts in Church Music in Organ and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting. This will be a four year program at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. She will serve as the Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Choral Conducting Department.

We wish Filippa well as she begins her new journey and thank her for her time here with us.

We wish to welcome Will Thomas to West End. Will has been selected as the new Music Intern. He will begin the first of June. Will was born in Murfreesboro, TN, grew up a few miles east in Smithville. Will graduated from Dekalb County High School in May of 2004, with honors, and went on to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Church Music from Carson-Newman College, and a Master’s Degree in Organ Performance at The University of Tennessee in Knoxville. For the past two and half years he has served as the Associate Director of Music and Organist for Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church. Additionally he has given several organ concerts in the Knoxville area. Will’s love of music came from his grandmother, Sherry Chumbley Bush, who directed the music program at First United Methodist Church in Smithville. His grandmother sang in the choir at West End in 1954 while she attended Peabody College. So Will is excited to be a part of the music ministry at West End continuing that family tie. Please warmly welcome Will to West End.