Dr. Mark Peters

Mark Peters, Ph.D., is professor of music and director of the Center for Teaching and the Good Life at Trinity Christian College. He teaches courses on music and the arts in relation to individuals, societies, and cultures, seeking to instill in students the perspective that practices of creating and of engaging human creativity are fundamental aspects of our shared humanity. Peters is course director for Thinking and Writing courses in Trinity’s Foundations curriculum and teaches two Thinking and Writing courses: Imagination and Community, and Longing for a Good Home. In Thinking and Writing courses, Trinity students develop their self-awareness, their powers of discernment, and their ability to think and write about the question, “What is the good life?”

Peters holds a Ph.D. in historical musicology from the University of Pittsburgh. He is author of A Woman’s Voice in Baroque Music: Mariane von Ziegler and J. S. Bach (Ashgate, 2008) and co-editor with Reginald L. Sanders of Compositional Choices and Meaning in the Vocal Music of J. S. Bach (Lexington, 2018). His other publications include articles in Bach: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute and the Yale Journal of Music & Religion and chapters in U2 and the Religious Impulse: Take Me Higher (ed. Scott Calhoun) and The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach (ed. Robin A. Leaver). He is a past-president of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music (2019-2021) and served as Book Review co-editor of Christian Scholar’s Review (2016-2020). Peters has presented his research at meetings of the American Musicological Society, American Bach Society, Bach Colloquium, and the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music. His current research explores theological, liturgical, poetic, and musical perspectives on the Magnificat in eighteenth-century Germany.

During the spring 2018 semester, Peters served as guest professor of church music at Seminari Alkitab Asia Tenggara (SAAT, Southeast Asia Bible Seminary) in Malang, Java, Indonesia, where he directed two choirs and taught courses in music history. While in Indonesia, Peters presented on topics in church music at SAAT, Wesley International School (Malang), the SAAT Ministry Center (Jakarta), and Sekolah Tinggi Theologia HKPB (Siantar, North Sumatra).

In addition to his work as a professor and scholar, Peters sings and plays trumpet for services and serves on the worship committee at his home congregation, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oak Lawn, Illinois. Since 2009, he has played cornet for the Great Western Rocky Mountain Brass Band Festival in Silverton, Colo.

Books
J.S. Bach’s Magnificat. ABS Guide. Oxford University Press. (anticipated 2023)

Compositional Choices and Meaning in the Vocal Music of J. S. Bach. Co-edited with Reginald Sanders. Contextual Bach Studies, edited by Robin A. Leaver. Lexington, 2018.

A Woman’s Voice in Baroque Music: Mariane von Ziegler and J. S. Bach. Ashgate, 2008.

Articles and book chapters

“Experiencing White Evangelical Hymnody in the Contexts of the Cold War and 9/11.” In The Oxford Handbook of Music and Christian Theology, vol. 4, ed. Alexander Lingas and Martin Clarke. Oxford University Press. (anticipated 2023)

“J. S. Bach’s Church Cantatas and Church Music Today.” Veritas: Jurnal Teologi dan Pelayan 20 (2021): 137-52.

“Learning To Be More Human—A Review Essay.” Christian Scholar’s Review 49 (2019): 189-202.

“Death to Life, Sorrow to Joy: Martin Luther’s Theology of the Cross and J. S. Bach’s Eastertide Cantata Ihr werdet weinen und heulen (BWV 103).” In Compositional Choices and Meaning in the Vocal Music of J. S. Bach, ed. Mark A. Peters and Reginald L. Sanders. Lexington, 2018.

“U2 and the Art of Being Human.” In U2 and the Religious Impulse: Take Me Higher. Edited by Scott Calhoun. Bloomsbury Studies in Religion and Popular Music. Bloomsbury Press, 2018.

“Marian Theology in the Church Cantatas of J. S. Bach and His Lutheran Contemporaries.” Yale Journal of Music & Religion 3 (2017): 93-118.

“Vocal Music.” The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach. Edited by Robin A. Leaver, 267-94. Routledge, 2017.

Conference presentations

“Teaching Music History for All Persons.” Annual meeting of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music, Mercer University, Macon, GA, March 4-6, 2022.

“From Appropriation to Appreciation: Reconsidering U2 and Black Music on Rattle and Hum.” U2 Conference 2020, From the Heartland (online), October 19, 2020

“The Mercy of God in the Magnificats of J. S. Bach and His Contemporaries.” Midwest Chapter of the American Musicological Society (online), 21-22 March 2020.

“Creating a Mission-Specific Departmental Curriculum: A Case Study,” presented with Helen Van Wyck (Trinity Christian College, music) and Aron Reppmann (Trinity Christian College, philosophy). Shaping Christian Learning: Kuyers Institute Conference 2019, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, 3-5 October 2019.