The musical worship ensemble will perform songs and dramas about love this year. Parables, Goshen College’s traveling worship ensemble, is kicking off its performance series for the year. The small ensemble, made up of current Goshen College students, performs primarily during Sunday morning church services in the Northern Indiana area. Parables has been rehearsing weekly for these performances since mid-August. Each performance includes music, drama and personal faith stories – all related to this year’s theme: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Parables has chosen to highlight the self-love portion of...

By Maggie Weaver • September 24, 2014 • Features

Next Wednesday, the Goshen College Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Christopher Fashun, will present its Spring Concert. The orchestra will perform iconic works by Aaron Copland, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Franz Schubert. “I especially love the Rimsky-Korsakov,” said Stephen Graber, a junior clarinetist, “this concert is going to be really good.” One of the compositions the orchestra will perform is Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony.” “I love that symphony… the beginning of the first movement alone is indescribable,” Becky Snider, a junior flautist, said. “If you’re not there to hear it, you’ll seriously be missing out. Seriously.” Before his death in 1828, Schubert...

By Reuben Ng • April 10, 2014 • Arts

The Goshen College Choirs will be presenting a multicultural concert experience this Saturday. “EARTHTONES: Songs from Many Cultures,” will feature performances by the Chamber Choir, Men’s Chorus, Women’s World Music Choir and student vocal ensemble the MennoNotes. The global theme of the concert has been special for many choir members. Prashansa Dickson, a sophomore, said, “We in the Women’s World Music Choir like to feel like we sing connected to the earth and the women around the world who are working with the earth. So, singing songs from around the globe helps reiterate that message deeper in us as we...

By Chenoa Mitchell • April 9, 2014 • Arts Shina Park • April 9, 2014 • Arts

Lavender Jazz will perform their spring concert this Friday at 7:30pm in Sauder Concert Hall. The ensemble, led by director Christopher Fashun, is considered Goshen College’s “big band.” Student musicians of any major audition and join the ensemble every year, getting together to play classic jazz hits and standards, as well as their own interpretations of hits from contemporary rock and pop bands. At least one Radiohead cover will be performed during their spring concert, as well as charts and covers of works by Otis Redding, Nat King Cole and Thad Jones. Student singers will be showcased in the concert,...

By Chenoa Mitchell • March 19, 2014 • Arts

Ten years ago Goshen College had only a chamber choir and a chorale. Debra Brubaker, a current choir director, remembers when James Hikes, a former choir director, wanted to grow the program. “He said, ‘You can’t have a choral program without a men’s chorus,’ and I said, ‘Well, you can’t have a men’s chorus without a women’s chorus,’” said Brubaker. Ten years later, Brubaker still directs the Women’s World Choir and Scott Hochstetler has taken direction of the Men’s Chorus.  They will lead the GC choirs and two guest high school choirs in a celebration of GC’s decade of gendered...

By T.J. Keiderling • February 12, 2014 • Arts Annette Conrad • February 12, 2014 • Arts

December was a fabulous month for independent Goshen folk band Moral Circus. GC seniors and members Phil Scott, Henry Stewart and Lauren Treiber, all seniors, not only received more than three times as much money as they needed to fund their first studio album, but they were also featured in Independent Music News’ Staff list “Discover 50 Independent Artists in December.” Moral Circus’s debut album, “Set in a Stem,” was also released. In September 2011, Scott, Stewart and Treiber performed the song “Goshen” by Beirut at Kickoff, and they had so much fun making music together that they decided to...

By Chenoa Mitchell • January 22, 2014 • Arts

The Fort Wayne Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble will perform in Reith Recital Hall this Sunday, as the third concert in the Reith Chamber Series. The Freimann ensemble, made up of principal members of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, will play a variety of musical combinations such as Benjamin Britten Phantasy Quartet for Oboe, Violin, Viola and Cello and W.A. Mozart’s “Kegelstatt.” The ensemble gives a musical taste to what is to come; the full Fort Wayne Philharmonic orchestra will perform an orchestral concert at Goshen on April 11.

By Dona Park • January 22, 2014 • Arts

This Friday, the folk music and a cappella ensemble, moira smiley and VOCO, will perform in Sauder Concert Hall. According to the band’s website, moira smiley and VOCO was named the number one a cappella group in 2007 and have since been called, “persuasive, near perfect musicians,” by the Herald Times. Their original pieces have been adapted for larger choral groups and have been performed on multiple occasions by Goshen’s own International Women’s Choir. The voices of the trio of women make one cohesive sound. However, each individual uses their voice and body as distinct “instruments.” One is a body...

By Natalie Hubby • January 15, 2014 • Arts

Each December – and November, and October – Goshen College students prepare for the Christmas choral and orchestral concert, Festival of Carols (or, as they refer to it affectionately, FOC, an endearment whose irony is not lost on them). Festival of Carols features three Goshen College choirs—the men’s choir, the women’s world music choir and the chamber choir—as well as the Goshen College orchestra and Shout for Joy, a children’s choir. This year’s concert will be held this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. According to Deb Brubaker, professor of music and director of the women’s world music choir, the Festival of...

By Nina Fox • December 7, 2013 • Arts

The Performing Arts Series of Sauder Concert Hall offers a range of performances, from radio hosts to symphonies to folk singers to classical boys’ choirs.  The series is meant to create a space for campus and community members to interact with Goshen College’s campus and each other in the presence of eclectic performers. One such talent is the Vienna Boys Choir, which has been a long sought-after performance. However, due to scheduling, they were unable to come to Sauder until this performance season. The Vienna Boys Choir will be performing at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Sauder Concert Hall. Brian Mast,...

By Elizabeth Franks-North • November 22, 2013 • Arts

Blend and balance: these seem like essential elements in a college student’s life.  But for members of Goshen College’s singing group Parables, blend and balance are crucial in both their lives and performances. Parables consists of eight students. Sophomores in the group are Paul Zehr, Martin Flowers, Prashansa Dickson, Miranda Earnhart and Benjamin Ganger.  Remaining members are Becky Snider and Brody Thomas, juniors, and Rachel Mast, senior.  Dr. Deb Brubaker leads and directs Parables, and Gwen Gustafson-Zook, minister of worship, provides spiritual focus. Blending and channeling diverse personalities into a polished product is challenging, but the group has made it...

By Mia Engle • November 22, 2013 • Features

Goshen College sent eight talented vocalists to compete at the annual NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) competition at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. on November 1. Two of Goshen’s students, Rhianna Cockrell and Ben Ganger, both music performance majors with concentrations in voice, returned from the competition with top honors, each winning first place in their divisions. The NATS competition is an annual event that draws students from colleges and universities across the state, including the University of Indianapolis, Ball State University, Indiana University Bloomington, Butler University and others. Each student competed in divisions separated according to age...

By Nina Fox • November 15, 2013 • Arts

The long-awaited Hour After will return to campus this weekend when 22nd Century takes the Newcomer stage for a night of jazz and pop entertainment. The diversity of performances the males of 22nd Century are providing for Hour After mirror their actions. The group is able to flip from banter and playful insults to harmonizing, quasi-romance songs in one breath. The group is composed of 12 members, including Tim Bixler, Aaron Bontrager, Neal Brubaker, Jackson Bush, Brendyn Cane, Andre Eisenbeis, Taylor Ermonian, Caleb Harnish, Lucas Harnish, Benson Hostetter, Minah Kim and Jared Zook. The band was formed by Minah Kim,...

By Elizabeth Derstine • November 15, 2013 • Arts Kate Stoltzfus • November 15, 2013 • Arts

Deb Brubaker has been a music professor at Goshen College for 25 years. She teaches several music courses and conducts the Women’s World Choir, started in 2008.  She talks about her experience of connecting women’s voices with world music.   Q: How do you describe music as a part of your life? A: I think I’ve always been singing. Singing is kind of how I express my Christian faith and also my passion for justice, for good things for all people. Q: What do you like about teaching music?   A: It’s really exciting to see how music is a...

By Chau Ngoc Bao Bui • November 8, 2013 • Arts

The Goshen College Symphony Orchestra will hold its fall concert in Sauder Concert Hall at 7:30pm Friday. The concert will have a few interesting surprises. This concert will feature classical compositions such as “Serenata Notturna” by Mozart and “Hungarian Dance No. 1” by Brahms, and will conclude with an exciting finale—the Midwestern premiere of a new concerto composed by Michael Udow, professor emeritus of percussion at the University of Michigan. Udow’s piece, “Moon Shadows: Concerto for Solo Multiple Percussion and Orchestra,” draws inspiration from ten Japanese haikus about the moon. The piece is meant to be transparent and beautifully simple...

By Kolton Nay • November 4, 2013 • Arts