Music Ministry at Grace Lutheran Church

Michael Hoffman, Grace Music Director, is a native of Minnesota, who graduated from CU-Boulder in 2017. He is an avid performer of German Lieder, oratorio, and has performed Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin with Mutsumi Moteki, head vocal coach at CU-Boulder. He currently is an Opera On the Go Artist with Central City Opera, and in 2018, placed first in the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition for Colorado Singers. He holds a successful voice studio in Evergreen, and has a few cherished students here at Grace. In 2018, he and his wife Nadya founded the Mountain Area Chamber Music Festival, a week-long summer intensive for middle and high school vocalists and string players. He is thrilled to be your Grace Music Director! 

Boyd Hamilton brings many years of church musicianship to Grace. Boyd began playing in church at an early age and was the director of music at a church in his hometown of Kennett, Missouri at age 16. He received his degree in Piano Performance from the University of Oklahoma, where he continued to play both the piano and organ in numerous congregations. His major teachers were Marilyn Caldwell, J.D. Kelly, and Andrew Cooperstock. Boyd was most recently the Director of Music at McFarlin Memorial United Methodist Church and in 2010 he helped to found the Norman Philharmonic Orchestra and was the organization's first Executive Director.

Boyd is currently the store manager of Dillards at Flatiron Mall and lives in Louisville with his wife and two sons.

Simon Daum, tenor section leader, has been making music in the Boulder/Denver metro area since he moved here in 2018. With a degree in Music Education from Shenandoah Conservatory, he has over ten years of experience teaching a variety of subjects to students of all ages. Select musical highlights include singing choral music across France, music directing a production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, performing in a production of Next to Normal, and witnessing students’ development and passion. He is on faculty at Parlando School of Musical Arts and is currently singing with Elus Vocal Ensemble and the Boulder Chorale, in addition to Grace.

Melody English, alto section leader, spent her church childhood avoiding Sunday school so she could sing hymns in the adult service. As a teenager she spent a year in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK) where she sang with the Northern Opera Company. She has a degree in Music History from Seattle Pacific University where she studied voice, oboe, and recorder. As an adult, Melody has performed with the Boulder Bach Festival Chorus and the Boulder Renaissance Consort. Melody volunteers to prepare tax returns for AARP. 

Sebastian Schmidt, bass section leader, is a native of Leipzig, Germany.  Music has been part of his life since childhood. He studied the piano for twelve years and joined the children's choir of the Leipzig Opera at age eight.  As an adult, he sang in Leipzig's Gewandhaus and University Choirs. He studied physics in Germany and Scotland, earned his PhD in meteorology in 2005, and has worked at CU's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics since then. He also studied voice with teachers in Germany, Austria and Colorado. In Boulder, he sang with the Boulder Bach Chorale, CU Opera, and Grace, where he enjoys singing choral and solo repertoire.