50th Annual Prayer Breakfast Keynote Speaker: Rev. Dawn Holt Lauber
Keynote Speaker: Rev. Dawn Holt Lauber, Glen Ellyn Evangelical Covenant Church
Rev Dawn Holt Lauber is an ordained minister, a recording artist, and a professional musician. She has served as a worship pastor and as a chaplain, and currently is the Associate Pastor of Congregational Life at the Glen Ellyn Evangelical Covenant Church. Rev. Dawn closed out our 2022 Christmas Prayer Breakfast with an amazing sung Benediction!
Hailed as “exquisite” by Howard Reich of The Chicago Tribune for the world premiere performance of William Russo’s Jubilatem with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, Lauber also performed with the CJE in Russo’s Chicago Suite 2 and Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts. The soprano first performed Ellington’s Sacred Concerts at The Riverside Church of New York City which ignited an interest in sacred jazz. She reprised her role as soloist in Ellington’s Sacred Concerts at Wheaton College, in honor of the work’s 50th anniversary.
On the big screen, Lauber plays the role of Carol Davis in “The Rocket,” the 2018 inspirational sports film by director Richard Blake. She has performed her music for numerous benefit concerts including for World Vision, World Bicycle Relief, the Jimmy Carter Foundation, and the Student Global AIDS Campaign.
As a songwriter, she is at work on a new recording of sacred music based on scripture, following four other solo albums: Joy (original sacred jazz compositions), Everlasting (jazz hymns and spirituals, featured on the Sounds of Gospel Network), Heavenly (American jazz standards), and Something Borrowed, Something Blue (a collection of wedding music with Albany Records).
Other solo appearances include Chicago Humanities Festival, Midwest premiere of Wynton Marsalis’ Abyssinian 200, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Conductor John Nelson, and at The Riverside Church in Bach’s Magnificat, Mozart’s C Minor Mass, Faure’s Requiem, and Kodaly’s Missa Brevis among other classical sacred works.
Emcee: Dr. Gene A. Frost Jr., Executive Director, Wheaton Academy Foundation
Gene Frost has been involved with Wheaton Academy since he began there as a freshman in the fall of 1967! He has been a faculty member (teaching Bible and psychology), a coach (boys’ soccer and girls basketball), board member, school parent (Mark ’99; Peter ’01; Robin ’03; Amy ’07), and finally Head of School from 2006-2018. He now serves as the executive director of the Wheaton Academy Foundation and the Wheaton Academy Institute. He loves Wheaton Academy, and some people believe he bleeds maroon & white. He and his administrative assistant, Barb Frost, have been working together since 1977.
When Gene is not traveling, or visiting alumni, or speaking at Christian schools around the country, he enjoys golfing and spending time with the family at their lake house at Lake Holiday.