Kara Story
Kara Story serves as the Director of Music and Fine Arts at Marvin Methodist Church in Tyler, TX. She graduated from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville with a Master‘s in Choral Conducting, and while at the U of A she served as conductor of the Donna Voce Women’s Ensemble. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Music at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, where she participat
ed in the Jazz Catz, the Jazz Band, the UAFS Chorale and the Vocal Performance Workshop. She was named Outstanding Soloist at the North Texas Jazz Festival in April 2008 and was invited to sing at the White House in Washington, D.C. In Fall 2014 she was a guest artist, along with her husband, Jonathan, in the Messiah Project’s tour of the United Arab Emirates, Greece, and Turkey, and she conducted the Messiah Project Singers on their 2016 tour of Austria. Between 2016 and 2022, she sang on various tours of Europe, including, England, Ireland, Austria, and Poland, and has sung on the stages of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York City. Kara served as Interim Director of Choral Activities at Tyler Junior College from 2020-2021. Jonathan Story
Jonathan Story serves as Organist/Associate Director of Music at Marvin Methodist Church in Tyler, TX. A 2021 graduate of the University of North Texas with a Graduate Artist Certificate in organ performance, he is widely renowned for his mastery of both organ and piano. He has collaborated with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, the Arkansas Philharmonic, and the University of Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and has performed as a pianist at The White House in Washington, D.C., Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Turkey, and on the inaugural gala concert of the University of Arkansas’ Faulkner Performing Arts Center. In June of 2016 he was featured as a guest artist on organ at the legendary Mozarteum Conservatory in Salzburg, Austria, and has also concertized in Vienna, Hallstatt and Kufstein, Austria, and made his Carnegie Hall debut on the “500 Voices for 500 Years” hymn festival in 2017. With over two decades of experience as a church musician, he blends his classical training with a thorough knowledge of hymnology and Scripture, and he seeks to present a musical offering accessible to audiences of all ages and pleasing to God.
