LSM Honors Rev. Ewald Mueller and Joan Mueller with 2026 Dr. Carlos Messerli Service Award
Lutheran Summer Music is honored to announce that Rev. Ewald Mueller and Joan Mueller posthumously, and the entire Mueller family, are the 2026 recipients of the Dr. Carlos Messerli Service Award. An award given to those who represent the values and foundational mission of LSM, the Mueller family could not be more deserving. Rev. Ewald and Joan Mueller reside at the very cornerstone of LSM, having been the primary driving force from the program’s inception. From the initial spark of the LSM idea to generous philanthropic support, their legacy begins with the program’s founding and extends through the decades that have followed. Quite simply, their vision, dedication, and enormous appreciation for the Lutheran heritage of liturgy, music, and hymnody are the reason the academy was established in 1982.
Joan Scheele Mueller and Ewald H. Mueller
The award will be presented during LSM 2026 at the annual Board of Directors Reception on Saturday, July 18th at 5:00pm.
Rev. Ewald Mueller, son of a Lutheran schoolteacher and an active and accomplished violinist, had spent a summer at Interlochen Arts Camp in high school. This experience was equally enlightening and impressionable for him, and he began wondering about the potential of future summer music camps.
In the 1960s, the region that was formerly known as “Lutherland” in Pocono Pines, Pennsylvania was bought by Valparaiso University in hopes of developing an east coast campus. While this vision never came to life, Valpo owned the property for the decade and housed 3 summer camps during that time, one of which being Beaverbrook Music Camp. When the opportunity came to work on the administrative level in Pocono Pines at Beaverbrook, it was with natural inclination that Rev. Ewald Mueller accepted. Rev. Ewald Mueller oversaw and shepherded his summer music enrichment concept, born from his time at Interlochen, throughout the 60s in upstate PA. He enthusiastically assisted and promoted the bringing in of music professors along the east coast for the high school students to learn from until the camp closed in 1969.
As a member of the Board of Directors of Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, in the school year 1979–1980, Rev. Ewald Mueller took his dream of a “Lutheran Interlochen” to President Robert Schnabel who authorized Dr. Frederick Telschow, Chair of the Music Department, and Dr. Richard Baepler, Dean of the Faculty, to approach Aid Association for Lutherans (AAL) in Appleton, Wisconsin, for support of such a concept. Dr. Martin Koehneke, Senior Vice-president of AAL for fraternal relations and former president of Concordia Teachers College, River Forest (now known as Concordia University-Chicago) immediately saw the potential of the concept. He agreed to fund a study to determine the feasibility of the concept, and he held out the possibility of later support from AAL for the venture itself. Koehneke proposed a stratagem that the summer program serve all Lutherans but be independent in structure, that it strive for excellence in all components, and that it be located annually at various Lutheran college campuses.
On May 7, 1980, an Advisory Council of selected educators and musicians held an exploratory meeting in Chicago with representatives of AAL. They agreed to investigate the possibility of establishing “a program of high quality that would . . . provide Lutheran youth [with encouragement for] growth in musical skills and understandings . . . to regenerate interest in the arts in Lutheran circles.” Dr. Carlos R. Messerli, a long-time church musician and for many years a member of the faculty at Concordia Teachers College, Seward, Nebraska, (now known as Concordia University, Nebraska), was engaged to conduct a nationwide feasibility study to determine the extent of interest in such a project.
Naturally, Rev. Ewald Mueller was delighted when he learned that the AAL would assist in giving the program its start, and was equally enthralled when Dr. Messerli agreed to take on the executive director role for the program’s first year.
The first summer program, Lutheran Summer Music–1982, would be held at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota. The atmosphere, adventure and enjoyable spirit of a summer camp, similar to that of Interlochen, was exemplified in the informal “Sounds of Summer” advertising motto. The Board of Directors adopted a statement of purpose for the program that had been prepared by LSM staff and a board committee. Remarkably, these concepts have remained largely intact through the years:
The Objectives
To provide talented youth with an extended summer music program under the leadership of a skilled and dedicated faculty.
To encourage youth to continue developing their artistic talents as a proper response to the Lord.
To assist the church in affirming the importance of music and the arts to human life and to life in the church.
To encourage the artistic and creative interaction among young people in the challenging yet informal atmosphere of a Lutheran summer music program.
The Components
A Christian community, in which the members are motivated by the desire to live in harmony and strive to be of service to one another and to their Lord throughout the four-week program.
Individual lessons that challenge the student to progress as rapidly and as far as personal ability permits.
Small ensembles, to study and perform masterworks of music and to develop the spirit of musical cooperation and sensitivity that ensemble performance requires.
Large ensembles, to experience the rewards that the study and performance of major masterworks provide.
The study of music literature and theory of the past and the present to better understand music and the arts.
Opportunities to perform individually and in groups as the natural expression of the musician who seeks to communicate to others and to respond to the Lord.
Frequent concerts, recitals and master classes, featuring students, faculty and guest artists.
Opportunity for regular daily Lutheran worship in a variety of historic and contemporary forms that will serve to focus attention on the Sacrament of Holy Baptism and the Christian vocation. Music will form an important part of daily worship.
Instruction in other arts and crafts, as time allows, in order to complement the study of music.
Recreational opportunities designed to develop a healthy body through individual and team activities.
A faculty that seeks to inspire and encourage the student to make full use of the experiences offered in the course of the program.
During his formative years of involvement with Lutheran Summer Music, Rev. Ewald Mueller served the community of Ridgewood, New Jersey, at Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church for over three decades. A surprise to no one, the music program at Bethlehem was outstanding, complete with organ recitals showcasing the talents of musicians such as Carl Weinrich, Paul Manz, and Virgil Fox. Rev. Ewald Mueller was a true visionary, a gift starkly evident throughout the Lutheran community.
Rev. Ewald Mueller passed away in February of 1991. While only alive for the first near-decade of the organization’s existence, Rev. Ewald Mueller was one of the many Lutheran giants who ‘willed it to happen’. In speaking with his son, Rev. Rick Mueller, he remembers that Rev. Ewald Mueller and Joan, “… had such enormous appreciation for Lutheran heritage in liturgy, music, hymnody…wanted to transmit that to another generation. To have another generation of young people fall in love with Lutheran hymnody the way they had … it was a huge part of their lives.” Rev. Rick Mueller states that, “It would absolutely thrill them to this day… that LSM continues to hold true to the pillars in which it was founded.”
Joan Mueller was an equal partner to her husband and the ideals around LSM. An avid advocate of the arts and philanthropic causes, as well as an active pianist and alto, Joan sat on the board for LSM from 1991 - 1996, and even after stepping down, remained an honorary lifetime member until her passing in October 2017. Joan’s philanthropic leadership was transformative for the organization for nearly four decades. Rev. Ewald Mueller and Joan are survived by their (4) children: Rick, James, Marjorie, and Kenneth.
The Mueller family continues to love and serve LSM in their parents’ memory through financial giving, the hosting of LSM events at church, and the enthusiastic recruitment of any and all students with musical abilities.
LSM remains a program rooted in the experiences only gained through long-term direct relationships with excellent faculty, nurturing counselors and staff, and supportive students and friends. Despite all of the competition for students’ time, talents and financial resources, this is an organization committed to supporting a bright future for young musicians. LSM remains committed to cultivating each young person’s discovery of their own musical gifts and to promoting the utilization of those gifts in worship and in daily life.
Dr. Carlos Messerli Service Award
In 2018, the Lutheran Music Program Board of Directors inaugurated the first annual Dr. Carlos Messerli Service Award. The award is given each year to someone who follows Dr. Messerli's example of outstanding service to the mission of Lutheran Music Program.
Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
—Ephesians 5:18b–20
Previous Recipients
2025: Dorothy Burroughs
2024: Mark and Kathy Helge
2023: Charles Sukup
2022: John Lunde
2021: Dr. Carl Schalk
2019: Phyllis Duesenberg
2018: Dr. Carlos Messerli