Worship Arts Ministry Staff

We are blessed to have outstanding musicians, vocalists, and directors for our Worship Arts Ministry.  They are:

Polly Edmonds Baldridge, Director of Music  

The Rev. Walter G. Edmonds, Senior Pastor and Choir Director

Stephen Kalnoske, Organist and Accompanist

Katherine Williams, Choir Director and Accompanist                       

Nancy Lacy, Creative Force Players Director

Tom Baldridge, Inspiration Ringers Director

 

Polly Edmonds Baldridge, Director of Music


Polly Edmonds Baldridge maintains an active performance, teaching, and conducting schedule.  She directs the Chancel Choir at Damascus UMC and also the Ring of Joy and Youth Bell Choirs. She established the 4th Sunday Concert Series in 2010 at Damascus UMC and leads and organizes various other worship arts projects, including the Living Christmas Tree, arts exhibits, and other worship and music events throughout the year. 

An advocate for sacred music, she is often a guest soloist for worship in many area churches. In 2007, she and father Walter Edmonds released Christ Is All to Me, a CD of sacred songs and hymns.  Much of her recent performing has been to publicize this album. 

She holds a double master’s degree in vocal performance and choral conducting from the University of Maryland. 

Polly, her husband Tom, and three children attend Damascus UMC.

 

Katherine Williams, Choir Director and Accompanist
 

Katherine is the cherub choir director and Girl Choristers Director for DUMC, a position she has held for the past 10 years.  Katherine began her music career as a piano teacher and then became a pre-school and early-elementary general music educator when her son entered school in 1998, teaching at both Seneca Academy and Fourth Presbyterian schools.  In 2001, she began the Kindermusik program at DUMC, which still continues today under different leadership.  In 2004 Katherine joined Montgomery County Public Schools as a music teacher.  She has been the full-time music and chorus teacher at Little Bennett ES in Clarksburg since 2008.
 
Katherine graduated with a performance degree in voice and piano from DePauw University in Greencastle, IN.  She achieved her master's equivalency  through MCPS which included courses taken through the University of Maryland and George Mason University summer Orff music education program.  Katherine's two children, ages 18 and 13,  are both aspiring musicians in their own right.   Her passion has always been to help children achieve their highest potential in making and appreciating music, and particularly in singing.

 

Stephen Kalnoske, Organist and Accompanist


Stephen Kalnoske is currently the Organist at Damascus United Methodist Church, after two years as Assistant Organist at National City Christian Church in Washington, DC.

Stephen studied organ literature with Dr. Celia Amstutz in Fairfax, VA and Sean Redrow in Boston, as well as organ improvisation with Monte Maxwell at the Naval Academy Chapel and Ronald Stolk in Washington, DC.  He was a semi-finalist in the AGO’s 2008 and 2010 National Competition in Organ Improvisation, and has performed recitals around the country.

Stephen keeps an active recital schedule, and has performed in venues such as the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in 2006, and National City Christian Church during his time there.