Dr. Michael Pohlenz accepted the call as Director of Music Ministries at Wellshire Presbyterian Church on August 15, 2003. He brings 25 years of experience in church music leadership to the position, including 12 years as Minister of Music at First Presbyterian Church in Wichita, KS, where he administered the music program comprised of five vocal choirs, three bell choirs, solo quartet, Baroque Orchestra, Music Advisory Council, and seven music staff members. Thereafter, for 7 years he was Director of Music Ministries at East Heights United Methodist Church in Wichita, administering a program of six vocal choirs, four hand bell choirs, a quintet of soloists, orchestra, Music Advisory Council, Fine Arts Council, and ten staff members. Dr. Pohlenz has also taught choral music and voice at the college level, and vocal and instrumental music at the high school level. More recently, Dr. Pohlenz was Director of the Adult and Youth Choirs at the 2005 Presbyterian Association of Musicians West Conference in Albuquerque. In the Denver Community, he is active as Assistant Conductor of Kantorei, guest performing member of St. Martin's Chamber Choir, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Denver Bach Society. During Kantorei's June 2007 tour of France and Italy, Dr. Pohlenz was honored to conduct Palestrina's Sicut cervus at the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi and St. Peter's Basilica for mass in the Vatican.

Immediately prior to coming to Wellshire, for 25 years Dr. Pohlenz was the founding Music Director and Conductor of the Wichita Chamber Chorale, an auditioned adult ensemble including college choral directors and voice teachers, public school music teachers, church musicians, and other professionals. Significant performance achievements of the Chorale included:

* Bach’s Passion According to St. John on the Chorale's 15th anniversary
* Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem on the Chorale's 20th anniversary
* Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil, and Susa’s Carols and Lullabies as part of the Hesston/Bethel Performing Arts Series
* The Western United States premiere of Gretchaninoff’s All-Night Vigil
* The Kansas premiere of Pärt’s Berliner Messe
* Duruflé’s Requiem Mass on an exchange concert commemorating Wichita’s veterans who liberated Orléans, France, in World War II.

The Chorale was honored to perform at the 1996 Joan of Arc Festival in Orléans, the 1989 National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association, and the 1988 Southwest Region ACDA Convention. The Wichita Eagle wrote that the Wichita Chamber Chorale "…routinely responds with a professionalism that’s unrivaled locally."

In 2000, Dr. Pohlenz served as guest conductor of the Bethany College Messiah Festival in Lindsborg, KS, conducting performances of Handel's Messiah and Bach's Passion According to St. Matthew with a 225-voice choir and orchestra.

With the Wichita Chamber Chorale and his church choirs, other masterworks conducted include:

* Bach’s Magnificat and Mass in B Minor
* Faure’s Requiem Mass
* Handel’s Coronation Anthems, Dixit Dominus, and Let God Arise
* Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Mass in Time of War
* Honegger’s King David
* Mozart’s Requiem Mass and Solemn Vespers
* Poulenc’s Gloria
* Rutter’s Magnificat and Requiem
* Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem, Five Mystical Songs and Mass in G Minor.

Michael holds the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Friends University in Wichita, KS, the Master of Music degree in choral conducting from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral conducting from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK, with additional study at the University of Southern California. In his continuing study of choral music, he sang in three Robert Shaw Choral Workshops at Carnegie Hall between 1994 and 1998, and has also studied with John Alldis, Helmuth Rilling, Dale Warland, and David Willcocks.

When asked recently about his philosophy of music ministry, Dr. Pohlenz responded as follows: "Music is unique among art forms because of its role as an essential element of worship. My love for music in the church has grown over the years as I have become more aware of the unique ability of choral singing to touch lives and hearts through the compelling combination of text and voice. In my experience, worship can be deeply enriched by the thoughtful coordination of choral music and hymns with the text of the day.

"I treasure the rich hymnody and choral tradition of the Western church and am eager to see it sustained in worship for future generations. Indeed, choral singing as we know it, and to an arguable extent Western music in general, stems from the Medieval and Renaissance church. My greatest concern with recent trends in contemporary worship is the apparent dismissal of this important repertoire and history accompanied by a decreasing roll for choral singing. I am grateful that Wellshire Presbyterian Church is committed to choral leadership in nearly all worship services.

"I understand the intent of today’s church to reach an unchurched generation by the use in worship of contemporary music based on popular secular styles. I can support the responsibility of church music to help reach that generation, but I believe that worship for those who value the historic hymn and choral traditions of the church need not be compromised in the process. Music in worship, whether traditional or contemporary, has the same responsibility as prayer and preaching to address the spirit of the entire congregation, and in so doing to meet human need at every level."

Dr. Pohlenz states that his goal as Wellshire's Director of Music Ministries is to utilize his creative musicianship, conducting/teaching experience, music programming, administration, communication, and people skills to enhance the overall ministry and health of the church.