Steve Kocher, Director of New Chapel Music
Email: steve@good-samaritan.org

Martha Koeneman, Assistant Organist

Martha Koeneman has had a distinguished career as Solo Pianist for the Pennsylvania Ballet for the past thirty years. In that capacity she has performed numerous concerti, solo and chamber works in Philadelphia and throughout the United States and Canada. Responsible for the musical preparation for the Company, she works in close collaboration with Music Director Beatrice Jona Affron as well as guest choreographers and conductors. In other areas of dance, she performed frequently with the Carlisle Project Choreographer/Composer Collaboration and in 1979 was the accompanist foir the silver and bronze medalists at the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi.

For five years, she was the accompanist for the Singing City Choir, first under the direction of Joseph Flummerfelt and then for Jeffrey Brillhart during his first year as Director. She is also the accompanist for the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Chamber Singers.

Growing up at Church of the Good Samaritan, she was an organ student of William C. Dickey and at the age of 14, began her first job directing the girls choir, playing chapel services and substituting for her teacher on occasion.For nine years she served as Music Director and Organist at St. Francis in the Fields, Sugartown, PA. and for the past six years she has served at the Church of the Good Samaritan as Assistant Organist, Interim Organist and for a time, Interim Director of Music. She continues to hold the position of Assistant Organist to current Music Director, Christopher Garven. She delightfully shares her home with her rescued family of five dogs and seven cats in an Orthodox Quaker schoolhouse in Malvern.

Deborah Garven, Director of Children’s Music
Email: debbie@good-samaritan.org

Debbie Garven graduated from Philadelphia Biblical University (then PCB) in 1993 with a BS in Music Education and a BS in Bible. Over the last 10 years, she has taught private French horn and piano lessons, served in developing a Conservatory of Music in Ormond Beach, FL, as well as writting and directing multiple Fine Arts productions for a children’s arts program in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Debbie is presently the director of the children’s music programs at Good Sam, and along with her husband Chris, has developed the arts for kids program that runs on Sunday afternoons through the school year.

Gwen Prestwood, Director of Dance Ministries

Gwen Prestwood has trained in the Cecchetti style of Classical Ballet for 20 years. She has studied under Jeanne Hansberry, James Kenny, and Andrew Pap, and is a former member of the Devon Festival Ballet.

Sensing God’s call on her life to dance for Him, in 1985 Gwen began to look for a way to further use her talents to glorify the Lord. This desire led to a period of intense study under the tutelage of Valerie Henry, a 17-year principal soloist and choreographer for the International Christian Celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, and founder of the Good Samaritan Dance Choir. While studying with Valerie, Gwen had the additional privilege of being exposed to such diverse dance styles as Modern, Folk, Character, Lyrical and Mime. During this time, she also gained an appreciation for using these various techniques in worship through studying with Christian artists such as Mikhael Murnane, Pam Smith, Randall Bane, Karen Seran and Yvonne Peters. Throughout her career, Gwen has been privileged to dance with Steve Fry and Alyosha Ryabinov, to teach at various Christian dance conferences and workshops, and to reset and stage Valerie’s innovative choreography for Handel’s “Messiah”.

After serving as assistant director for 11 years, Gwen assumed the position of director of the expanded Good Samaritan Dance Ministry in 1996, continuing to teach both ballet and worship dance classes, choreograph for children and adults, and minister in dance herself. Gwen looks forward to continuing to provide a place for dancers of all ages to learn to worship the Lord and magnify His name through dance, and to raise up a new generation of dancers who will catch this vision and carry it forward.