For some Goshen College students, wrapping up senior year can look like papers, projects and presentations. Other students have something else to work towards: their final shows as students.  For the arts program, students get the chance to exhibit their work in Hershberger Art Gallery. For music students, they compile an hour’s worth of music to perform for a live audience in Rieth Recital Hall. This year there are four students having their work featured in the senior art show, using their own mediums to create something unique to display as a marker of their growth in the program.  There...

By Sarah Miller • March 16, 2023 • Arts

Sauder Concert Hall was full on Saturday night as students, families and community members gathered to hear the sounds of the 63rd Concerto-Aria Concert. The yearly competition was held last fall to determine the lineup for the concert. After extensive preparation, competitors auditioned with their chosen repertoire. There were seven winners that got the chance to showcase their talents with the Goshen College Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Victoria Petrak.  The concert opened with GCSO performing Ethel Smyth’s “Overture to ‘The Wreckers.’” The piece, from one of Smyth’s operas, was chosen because of her determination to have her work...

By Sarah Miller • February 23, 2023 • Arts

On Friday, Feb. 24, Goshen College’s Chamber Choir will kick off a weeklong tour spreading love across churches, colleges and high schools in Illinois, Kansas and Iowa.  The theme of this year’s tour is “Lead with Love,” named after the final song of the repertoire by Melanie DeMore. Other songs of the tour also connect to the theme of love in many forms: love of God, neighborly love and even love of country through a Ukrainian hymn.  According to Chamber Choir director and music professor Scott Hochstetler, “‘Lead with Love’ helps us focus on being a leader for people instead...

By Amelia Witmer-Rich • February 23, 2023 • Arts

When people think of Goshen College, some may think of the Mennonite background or SST units. But Priscilla Tanujaya, a recent graduate with music and art degrees, had an unusual thought about GC’s small campus.  As a lover of sci-fi movies and video games, Tanujaya imagined a very different version of GC.  “What if Goshen College is being invaded by aliens?” she asked herself. And there, her senior art project was born.  She initially began with her painting of the Science Hall and Coffman Residence Hall being swarmed by aliens.  “Cool thing about this project was how Randy [Horst] just...

By Fatima Rhana • February 16, 2023 • Arts

On a sunny Sunday afternoon last week, Rieth Recital Hall was filled with chamber music as Goshen College’s Sherer Trio performed works by Beethoven and Brahms. The hall was filled with students and community members eager to attend. Members of the trio include Matthew Hill, Solomia Soroka and Dato Machivariani — all music professors at GC. Machivariani teaches applied cello at Valparaiso University along with GC. Soroka teaches private violin lessons, music theory and chamber music. Hill is faculty chair and music department chair in addition to his responsibilities teaching applied piano lessons and various other classes around the music...

By Sarah Miller • February 16, 2023 • Arts

GoDance Studio in downtown Goshen was buzzing last Friday night with people swarming around a show put on by Brides of Neptune and BEE! Both bands are based in Goshen, but BEE! includes Evan Judson on the keyboard and trumpet, GC alumni Evan Krabill (‘21) as lead vocalist and guitarist and current GC seniors Birch Baer on drums and Isaac Fisher on bass guitar.  The group got its start in 2021 as a way for some of the members to make music together. “We took the first letter from each of our names [at that point] to create the name...

By Sarah Miller • February 2, 2023 • Arts

Mandolinist Chris Thile, a MacArthur Fellow and Grammy winner, will perform at Sauder Concert Hall on Saturday, Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m. Thile has performed at Sauder three previous times: as a part of the trio Nickel Creek, which won the International Mountain Bluegrass Award, in 2006; with the quintet The Punch Brothers, which won a Grammy Award, in 2009; and as a solo act in 2015.  This will be the first show for the Goshen College Performing Arts Series in 2023, due to the rescheduling of popular public radio host Ira Glass’ “Seven Things I’ve Learned” that was originally...

By Ana Yoder • February 2, 2023 • Arts

Former Goshen College art professor Randy Horst presented his new art exhibit in GC’s Hershberger Art Gallery on Sunday, Jan. 22.  The opening also included a reception where Horst reflected on his work, which is titled “Inside Voices.” After serving as a professor at GC for 13 years, Horst retired last spring. He graduated from GC after transferring from Hesston College, and received his Master of Fine Arts from Bowling Green University in 1986. Horst remains involved in the local community, and his passion for art extends past the visual — he is currently in two local musical groups: “The...

By Kate Bodiker • January 26, 2023 • Arts

For the first time, the Goshen College Symphony Orchestra (GCSO) is directed by a female conductor: Victoria “Tori” Petrak.  After Brian Mast transitioned from orchestra director to director of facilities across the GC campus, the GCSO leadership shifted to interim director Petrak, a graduate of Baldwin Wallace University and Kent State University.  Petrak, who has been working with the Youth Honors Orchestra within Goshen College’s Community School of the Arts for three years, explained that Mast and Matthew Hill, chair of GC’s music department, approached her in August about filling the position. Although previous commitments did not allow her to...

By Amelia Witmer-Rich • January 26, 2023 • Arts

On the same day GC students began their classes for the semester, many students, including myself, went to the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival at the University of Michigan-Flint. A five-day event, the festival is a giant celebration of theater with college students, working professionals and casting organizations gathering from across the Midwest. The festival included workshops such as “Acting Through The Microphone” and “Consent In A Knife Fight.” A challenge of the festival was not being able to attend everything, so one had to plan out their day very carefully.  We also saw many incredible performances and captivating...

By Fatima Rhana • January 19, 2023 • Arts

Goshen College’s 2023 King Celebration honored the life Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 20 with a faculty recital by H. Roz Woll, associate professor of music, and colleague Roy Jennings, pianist, arranger and founder of Arch Angel Productions.  The recital included music from all African-American composers and spoken word from Jakyra Green, a junior English and secondary education major and a song performed by Nakiyah Kilpatrick, a senior sign language interpreting major. Initially slated for October 2022, the recital was postponed to GC’s King Celebration due to Jennings being ill.  With the date change, Woll decided to have...

By Sarah Miller • January 19, 2023 • Arts

As Goshen College is preparing to host their annual Christmas music concert, Festival of Carols, students and staff are working behind the scenes to prepare for the three highly anticipated performances. This year, the festival will also be recorded by FiveCore Media for a PBS special. Aysia Adkins lights the lobby tree. Tyson Miller//The Record The festival is being produced with the help of students, including Tyson Miller and Sarah Miller.  “Festival of Carols is different from our other shows in that it’s cue based,” Tyson Miller said. “So a lot of it is coordinating that with the start of...

By Albert Aguilar • December 2, 2022 • Arts

Students had the opportunity to participate in a student art sale for downtown Goshen’s First Friday this past weekend. The theme of the November First Friday was “Art Tour.” The event called for artists of the Goshen area to present their work at the Goshen Farmers Market, Goshen Brewing Company, The Painted Finch and other local businesses. “The November First Fridays were focused on local artists throughout downtown,” said Emma Zuercher, a senior sign language interpreting major with a minor in art. “A few months ago, folks at the Goshen Farmers Market contacted Merrill [Krabill] about featuring Goshen College students...

By Faith Fegley • November 11, 2022 • Arts

The fall mainstage, “Everybody” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, will feature something uncommon in theater productions — an onstage lottery to determine which actor plays which character. Among the cast, five out of the ten actors have taken on the task of learning five different parts instead of just one. Daniel Stoltzfus, Kate Bodiker, Meredith Blossom, Fatima Rhana and Jocsan Barahona Rosales will take turns playing the titular character, known as Everybody, as well as a host of other characters named after various virtues.  Among all the characters, Everybody has been the most challenging to get comfortable with.  “We’re getting to a...

By Tyson Miller • November 11, 2022 • Arts

Halloween — the spookiest holiday of the year, best known for the costumes, candy and activities that come along with it. This year, Halloween Weekend (affectionately called “Halloweekend” by students) included two costume contests at GC events. One of the contests was at Howell-ween, a celebration put on by the residents of Howell House, while another took place at the Haunted Ball, hosted by The Role-Playing Game Club (RPGC) and the Campus Activities Council (CAC).  The winner of the Haunted Ball contest was senior Skyler Van Antonides, dressed as a “Wandering Wizard.” Runner-up was faculty advisor Greg Sommers, who spoke...

By Sarah Miller • November 3, 2022 • Arts