Bethel’s Renaissance Southern Gospel Quartet took top honors recently at the 2009 National Quartet Convention in Louisville, Ky., as they bested 41 other groups in the competition. Bethany Ellis, a Bethel Renaissance choral student, also brought home honors after earning a third place finish among 76 contestants in the solo talent competition. The National Quartet Convention is gospel music’s largest annual event, and as the winners of the talent competition, quartet members Anna Pirtle, Dustin Doyle, Blaine Sumler and Josh Murrell, accompanied by Adam Catt, Roger Morris and the group’s director Matthew Holt, opened the event’s Saturday evening concert on the convention’s main stage to an audience of 23,000. As winners, the group will also have the opportunity to record a new album compliments of Cross and Crown Music. The company will also include a free single to radio. As third place solo winner, Ellis will also get a free single to radio compliments of Cross and Crown Music. “This really is an amazing thing for these young people,” said director Holt, who has been involved in the gospel music industry for many years. Holt, a former member of the well-known gospel group the Perrys, pointed out the magnitude of the students’ convention experience. “There were thousands of people at this convention who have spent their entire lives hoping to sing on that stage like our southern gospel group got to do,” he said. “I feel confident that this experience will be something they’ll always look back on as a wonderful event in their lives.” “Being a part of the National Quartet Convention was an awesome experience,” said Pirtle. “Little did I know that we would go on to compete in the talent show and

win. And performing to one of the biggest gospel audiences anywhere – it really was a dream come true.” “I know a lot of people use that term loosely, but it really was a dream come true,” said

Doyle, who said he grew up watching his southern gospel heroes and dreaming that he would do the same thing. Sumler added what he felt like when the group was announced as the talent winner. “When they called our name, I was speechless,” he said. “A floodgate of emotions came over me, and even now I wake up each day thinking did that really happen?” Murrell is barely out of high school and only began practicing with them this past July. “I have just been so excited about even going to the quartet convention,” Murrell said. “So, when they announced us as winners, I was ecstatic!” Bethany Ellis, a McKenzie native, is also ecstatic. “The quartet convention was one of the best weeks of my life,” Ellis said. “Traveling with the quartet, my friends, to be supportive was all I was looking for, but I guess God had different plans.” Ellis, who also won at the Frank Arnold Ministries Songfest this year, will now have a single radio release to go along with a new release CD from Daywind – her prize from that competition. “This has been a great year,” Ellis said. “And through God’s blessings, these steps are moving me closer toward my goal of being a southern gospel singer.” Prospective students interested in Bethel’s Southern Gospel Music Division or who are interested in other areas of the Renaissance Performing Arts Program can contact 731-352-6445 or 731-352-6414 or they can go to www.bethelu.edu.

Above: Renaissance Quartet members (l to r): Dustin Doyle of Chalybeate, Ky., Blaine Sumler of Lexington, Tenn., Anna Pirtle of Bolivar, Tenn., and Josh Murrell of Paris, Tenn. They were accompanied by director Matthew Holt. Left: Bethany Ellis.

Students Win 1st Prize at National Convention

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