Vision Conference

Praised by the New York Times for his “Lisztian thunder and deft fluidity," and the San Francisco Chronicle as “ferociously virtuosic,” pianist Paul Barnes has electrified audiences with his intensely expressive playing and cutting-edge programming. He has been featured seven times on APM’s Performance Today and on the cover of Clavier Magazine with his recordings streamed worldwide.

Barnes is Marguerite Scribante Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Glenn Korff School of Music. He is also a chanter and tonsured reader at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Lincoln. 

Barnes' latest recital Illumination features a contemplative and cathartic program of piano works inspired by the mystical world of chant. Barnes has collaborated most recently with Philip Glass and Victoria Bond to create piano works based on ancient byzantine and Jewish chant. New chant-based works by Native flutist Ron Warren and David von Kampen were also given their premiere performances. Barnes gave the world premiere of Victoria Bond’s Illumination on Byzantine Chant at New York’s Symphony Space in April of 2021. Barnes released his fourteenth recording last fall on Albany Records entitled Illumination: The Piano Works of Victoria Bond including the world-premiere recording of Illuminations on Byzantine Chant. American Record Guide wrote "he sings with haunting musicality...and plays with fervid virtuosity...the music is calm and meditative, perfect for these troubled times." 

Barnes commissioned Native American flutist and composer Ron Warren to write a large scale piano work which premiered at a special celebration of Ron's music on September 26th, 2022 in Lincoln. The work entitled "The Way of Mountains and Desert" explores Native themes of creation and beauty. 

Barnes' recordings are available on Spotify, Pandora, ITunes, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon.

Dr. John Mark Reynolds is the President of The Saint Constantine School and President of the Board of Directors of Orthodox Christian School Association (OCSA). He is also a faculty member at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, a Fellow of the Center For Science and Culture at The Discovery Institute, and the former provost of Houston Christian University. He was the founder and director of the Torrey Honors College, the Socratic, great books-centered honors program at Biola University. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Rochester, where he wrote his dissertation analyzing cosmology and psychology in Plato’s Timaeus. Dr. Reynolds is the author of numerous books, including When Athens Met Jerusalem: an Introduction to Classical and Christian Thought and is the editor of The Great Books Reader. He is a frequent blogger and lecturer on a wide range of topics including ancient philosophy, classical and home education, politics, faith, and virtue.

John Mark attends St. George Orthodox Church in Houston, Texas. An avid technophile, the lights, thermostat, speakers, and computers in his house can all be controlled by his phone and voice control, to both cool and disastrous effect. He loves Disneyland, Star Trek, and the Green Bay Packers. John Mark and his wife Hope have four adult children: L.D., Mary Kate, Ian and Jane.

Karen Swallow Prior, Ph. D., is Research Professor of English and Christianity and Culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is the author of Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (T. S. Poetry Press, 2012), Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist (Thomas Nelson, 2014), and On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books (Brazos, 2018). She is co-editor of Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues (Zondervan 2019) and has contributed to numerous other books. She is host of the popular podcast Jane and Jesus. She has a monthly column for Religion News Service. Her writing has appeared at Christianity Today, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, First Things, Vox, Relevant, Think Christian, The Gospel Coalition, Books and Culture and other places.

She completed her Ph.D. at the State University of New York at Buffalo and her undergraduate studies at Daemen College in Amherst, New York. Her academic focus is British literature, with a specialty in the eighteenth century, a period she loves for its emphasis on philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, and community, as well as its efforts at correcting the universal human impulse to gravitate toward extremes. Her scholarly work has appeared in 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era; The Shandean; The Scriblerian and various literary encyclopedias.

She is a contributing editor for Comment, a founding member of The Pelican Project, a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum, a Senior Fellow at the International Alliance for Christian Education, a Senior Fellow at the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture and is a former member of the Faith Advisory Council of the Humane Society of the United States. She and her husband live on a 100-year old homestead in central Virginia with dogs, chickens, and lots of books.

Jonathan Mueller is Vice President for Faculty Affairs and Houston Associate Head of School at The Saint Constantine School, where he also serves as an Instructor of Great Texts in Upper School and College. He is currently completing a doctoral thesis on music and poetry in Plato's Phaedo at University of Birmingham (UK). He holds a Master of Liberal Arts degree from Houston Christian University, and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Biola University where he is also a perpetual member of the Torrey Honors College. For a number of years he served as the co-creator and lead teacher of The Academy at HCU’s Junior High program, and truly enjoys engaging great texts and great ideas with young students.

Jonathan loves to travel and learn about other cultures and languages, and is incorrigibly interested in a wide variety of pursuits, such as literature and poetry, archery, the history of aviation, and philology. He and his wife Megan have three children. They attend St. Matthias Anglican Church in Katy.