They brought down the house at Kick-Off and Howell-o-ween this year, and they have no plans on stopping. They’re Goshen Panic, a group made up of seven Goshen College students: Sam Scheele, Ben Good-Elliot, Jonathan Orjala, Isaac Fisher, Birch Baer, Grace Hitt and Isaac Bontrager.
Scheele, a junior music major and history minor who plays the euphonium and trombone, assembled the group in 2019 for a Kick-Off audition.“We just kept going [after that],” he said.
Scheele is responsible for composing and arranging most of the band’s sets.
“I look at a mix of jazz and funk, and I add pop and a bit of rock,” he said, regarding his arrangement process.
The band mainly plays arrangements of recognizable tunes. Take, for instance, The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” — Fisher’s favorite arrangement from this semester — which the band performed at Kick-Off this past October. For Scheele, composing these arrangements is his favorite part of being in Goshen Panic. The band has also played music from current artists such as The Weeknd.
“We also cover a brass band called Lucky Chops,” Scheele added.
“It’s a lot of fun, playing with those guys,” said Fisher, a junior mathematics and education double major and the band’s tuba player. “It’s a different vibe from orchestra or jazz band, from anything else that I’ve been a part of. I’m glad that it’s continued and that I’ve gotten to be a part of it.”
“There are people in the band whom I wouldn’t have met otherwise,” Scheele said.
Goshen Panic plans to play again at Celebrating Scholars Weekend on January 29, and they’re willing to perform at student-led parties and other events. Interested parties can contact Sam Scheele (sischeele@goshen.edu) to book Goshen Panic for their next event. Goshen Panic will lend any event a brassy, eclectic soundtrack with an innovative blend of genres that everyone can vibe with.
“We’re always open to play,” Scheele said. “We love performing for people.”
Follow them on Instagram: @goshenpanic.
