$350
ACTIVE MINISTERS OF MUSIC
$275
RETIREES REGISTRATION
$200
STUDENT
REGISTRATION
For students enrolled part-time or full-time in undergraduate or graduate programs.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Explore what’s planned for our time together–sessions, worship, and shared fellowship throughout the conference.
WHERE WE'RE STAYING
For extended fellowship and convenience, we recommend booking your stay at the Hampton Inn & Suites Greensboro Downtown, our conference hotel.
WHO'S SPEAKING
We’re delighted to welcome a team of featured presenter. Scroll down to meet additional presenters and choirs.
Schedule
- 01
- 02
- 03
Lodging
Hampton Inn & Suites Greensboro Downtown
222 W. McGee Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
We’re pleased to offer several convenient hotel options for your stay during the Polyphony Conference!
Our Conference Hotel is the Hampton Inn & Suites Greensboro Downtown featuring a special discounted rate exclusively for Polyphony attendees.
Click the booking link below to reserve your room at this special rate. The rate is available for February 4-6, with the option to arrive a night early (Wednesday, February 3) if you’d like to settle in before the conference begins.
Polyphony has reserved a block of 35 rooms at the Conference Hotel. If you’d like to stay here, we encourage you to make your reservation as early as possible. The hotel will honor the conference rate as long as rooms remain available.
Additional nearby hotels are listed below for your convenience.
300 N. Eugene St. (2-3 minute drive to First Baptist Church)
336-373-6269
Parking: $12/day
Complimentary breakfast, restaurant/bar
304 N. Greene St. (2-3 minute drive to First Baptist Church)
336-379-8000
Parking: $18/day
Three restaurants
The Biltmore
Greensboro Hotel
(Historic boutique hotel)
111 W. Washington St. (2-3 minute drive to First Baptist Church)
336-272-3474
Parking: Free
Complimentary continental breakfast
Featured Presenters
Ken Medema
Ken Medema is one of the most creative and authentic artists performing today.
A Christ follower with a passion for social justice, he has been visually impaired since birth, able to distinguish only light from dark and the fuzzy outlines of large objects. "Because I lived with some degree of being an outsider all my life, I identify with people who have been disenfranchised, whether they have been isolated, disabled, or oppressed." Music made all the difference. Ken started banging on his mom's piano at five, and at eight he began studying with a teacher who taught him the classics in Braille music and pushed him to improvise. "So, music became a second language." Ken earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees in music therapy at Michigan State University and worked as a music therapist, counseling hurting teenagers. He began writing songs about their lives, then about his Christian life, and people responded. In 1973, he launched his career as a performing and recording artist, and in 1985 he founded Brier Patch Music. For five decades, he has used music to spark conversation through storytelling and reflection. Ken custom designs each performance, blending new and old music with his gift of improvisation. His artistry has reached audiences of 50 to 50,000 in 49 states and more than 15 countries. Ken has been married to his wife, Jane, since 1965. They live in the San Francisco Bay area of California and have two married children and four grandchildren.
Zebulon Highben
Dr. Zebulon M. Highben is an award-winning conductor, hymnwriter, composer, and scholar of sacred music.
He serves as Director of Chapel Music at Duke University Chapel and Associate Professor of the Practice of Church Music at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. He conducts the Chapel Choir and Schola Cantorum, oversees the Chapel's extensive music program, edits the Music from Duke Chapel choral series, and teaches courses in sacred music and liturgy. Before Duke, he directed choral activities at Muskingum University and taught at Luther Seminary, the University of Wisconsin River Falls, and Michigan State University. He has served Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist congregations in Ohio, Minnesota, and Michigan. His choirs have sung at the 2025 ACDA national conference and in worship and concert settings from Washington National Cathedral to St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and the Thomaskirche, Leipzig. He won The American Prize's Dale Warland Award in Choral Conducting in 2015 and is an ordained deacon in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As a composer, Zebulon is frequently commissioned by churches, schools, and arts organizations. More than seventy of his choral compositions, hymns, and liturgical pieces are published in the United States and Sweden by houses including Augsburg Fortress, GIA, and MorningStar, and he has been honored by The Hymn Society, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, ASCAP, and The American Prize, among others. He edited the Augsburg Motet Book (2013) and the Augsburg Chorale Book (2017), and he is the author of Sing Many Names: Scriptural Images for God in Hymnody (2026). He is a frequent contributor to the Sundays & Seasons and Prelude Music Planner worship resources. A native of Ohio, he holds degrees from Ohio State University, Luther Seminary with St. Olaf College, and Michigan State University, where he earned the Doctor of Musical Arts.
Emily Hull McGee
Rev. Emily Hull McGee serves as senior pastor of First Baptist Church on Fifth, a delightful community of saints practicing bold love and boundless compassion in the heart of downtown Winston-Salem.
Prior to her calling to Winston-Salem in July 2015 to serve as First on Fifth’s 12th pastor and first female senior pastor in the church’s 153-year history, Emily served for six years as Minister to Young Adults at Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. She is a third-generation Baptist pastor in her family, following both her parents, her aunt, and grandfather into the ‘family business.’ In her past life, Emily was training to be an opera singer, with Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Voice Performance from Furman University and Northwestern University, respectively. First Baptist on Fifth’s historic work on their facilities has drawn national interest among other churches and organizations grappling with their sacred space in light of changing resources. Emily has become a trusted speaker and guide for these communities in transition, speaking and writing about these vital expressions of faithfulness in the midst of cultural and ecclesial transition. Among other commitments and leadership roles in the community, Emily serves on the Board of Directors for the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership. She enjoys being close to her alma mater of Wake Forest University School of Divinity, and has served in recent years to mentor first-time pastors through Baptist Women in Ministry and lead on the Executive Committee and Board of the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty. Emily is married to Josh (owner and “sauce boss” of the Y’all Kitchen and Provisions, makers of small-batch Southern sauces and storytellers through meal and table), and their children are Liam, Annabelle, and Silas.
Other Presenters
Steven Follis
Jill Knight
Filippa Duke
David Williamson
Suzanne Ringer
Doug Vancil
Justin Addington
