Sue Riley always knew that music would be her life’s calling. Drawn to music from the age of 5 when her Grandfather, Waldo, started helping her with piano, she began playing in churches at age 11, and began giving private piano lessons at age 18. Believing in the power of positive music to touch hearts and heal lives, Sue continues to mentor, teach, and share music.

Sue is co-founder of emPower Music & Arts, with the mission of “Changing the World, One Song at a Time”. Empower hosts the yearly Posi Awards, which recognizes excellence in songwriting for artists who create songs with messages of peace, oneness, and joyous living, as well as the annual Posi Fest.

A prolific singer-songwriter herself, Sue has created 8 albums of original uplifting Posi music, along with numerous songbooks. Her song  “Grandpa’s Hands” won a First Place Gold Medal in the SAW song competition in Washington, DC. Sue and Glen Roethel just released a CD/songbook combination called “Go Out and Shine” with all new congregational songs.

Sue has been involved in the music program of Unity Church of Clearwater, Florida for the past 20 years, where she currently oversees a band, and a choir, and continues to encourage the members of the music ministry to seek out their musical gifts and to find their own voices.

Sue was the chairperson for the Music Ministry Team of Unity Worldwide Ministries for 11 years. Through her leadership, the team created 10 songbooks of Positive New Thought Music for use in our spiritual centers, and online choral library, and created the Sound Connections Music Conference, now part of the Posi Music Festival.  This conference provides practical hands-on training for turning your church music department into a music ministry.

Sue and her business partner, Richard Mekdeci, have published a handbook on Music Ministry, full of practical tips on how to turn your weekly music into a “music ministry”, host successful special events, create a great service flow, hire a music director, speak “music-ese”, and many other topics vital to successful ministries.

In addition, Sue tours the country performing in the emPower “PosiPalooza” concerts. These unique, uplifting performances bring Posi award-winning artists together in a song-swap format for an organic musical conversation. To date, they have produced over 300 of these concerts in the US and Canada to rave reviews.