Meet the Minister of Music

Joy Rachor brings a broad variety of musical experience to her position as the Minister of Music at First Cumberland Presbyterian Church. She earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Peabody College, where she majored in piano and minored in organ and voice. She also holds a Masters degree in Church Music from Scarritt Graduate School.

Joy began her career as a public school music teacher. She taught music at all grade levels, from elementary through high school, in Colorado and Indiana before returning to her native Tennessee. She says that, while she is a music educator at heart, her true calling is, and has always been, church music.

Her resume includes many years of service as a choir director and organist at various churches in the Cookeville area, as well as Nashville (TN), Colorado Springs (CO), and Bloomington (IN). Joy spent seventeen years as an adjunct instructor in TTU’s Department of Music and Art, where she taught piano and sight singing/ear training, directed the Men’s Ensemble, and was in great demand as an accompanist for both student and faculty recitals. She directed Mastersingers, the Cookeville area community chorus for eight years, and served as the musical director for numerous Cookeville Summer Theater and Cookeville Children’s Theater productions.

Joy has developed a vital ministry of music and drama at First Cumberland Presbyterian Church where there are 75 – 100 participants on a regular basis. She says of her work here, “I feel as though all of my earlier experiences as a teacher, director, and performer were intended to prepare me for this position. Music has been my life’s work. It is wonderful to be able to share the gifts God has given me for His glory!”