Album Review: Arcade Fire – The Suburbs After releasing two highly praised albums in six years, Arcade Fire has raised the bar once again with their newest release, The Suburbs.  Husband and wife duo, Will Butler and Régine Chassagne, guided Arcade Fire to commercial and critical success with their edgy, emotionally charged debut LP, Funeral in 2004 and an equally brooding, overtly political follow-up album, Neon Bible in 2007.  The Suburbs, released in August, is no less compelling in its musicality and message than its predecessors. Musically, The Suburbs branches out from Arcade Fire’s usual minor focus. “Month of May”...

By Mary Roth • September 15, 2010 • Arts

Most know Robert Plant as the rock-god front man for Led Zeppelin. Some know him transforming into a roost singer as the better half of Alison Krauss when they released their folksy 2007 album, Raising Sand. Some may even know about the early ‘60s pre-Zeppelin rock band, Band of Joy. Now, he is making noise with his highly anticipated solo release that revives the name of his very first band: Band of Joy. Robert Plant smartly carries over the learned musical tastes of roots folk/rock to the new Band of Joy. Discovering that collaboration can make the album that much...

By Trisha Danielle Handrich • September 9, 2010 • Arts

The chorus to Goshen’s anthem begins with “Goshen College, ever singing,” and if you hadn’t noticed, music does indeed ring through the dorm halls, the cafeterias, the sidewalks, and of course, the music center. Most recently, Goshen’s choirs were showcased in the Earthtones concert last Saturday. Over 100 students congregate in the music center for four-and-a half hours per week to sing, under the tutelage of directors Debra Brubaker and Scott Hochstetler, and accompanist Christine Seitz. While some are required to join as a fulfillment of their music majors, the majority are simply lured by the joy of singing. It’s...

By Andrea Kraybill • April 21, 2010 • Arts

Rapper and GC student AJ Crew (AJ Phomalee) had an hour after last week, and for those of you who weren’t in attendance, you certainly missed a treat. AJ Crew has been celebrated for his creativity and uniqueness. He has collaborated with other up and coming rappers like Rhymefest and Cleveland native Chip the Ripper. AJ is a hip hop enthusiast who brings an energy and a passion to his shows that excites the crowd almost as much as the songs he performs. AJ’s Friday performance was high energy despite lower than expected attendance. Those who were at his show...

By Jennifer Speight • April 21, 2010 • Arts

GOSHEN, Ind. – The 2010-11 season of the Goshen College Performing Arts Series will again bring an incredible breadth of top quality arts performances to the college, including Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Conspirare, Wailin’ Jennys, Shawn Colvin and Loudon Wainwright III, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, The 5 Browns and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. The line-up was publicly announced last night, March 30, at the final concert of the 2009-10 season, which featured the African Children’s Choir. Initial reservations were available immediately following the concert, and season tickets formally go on sale to the public at 9...

By Marlys Weaver • April 8, 2010 • Arts

The African Children’s Choir graced the stage of Sauder Concert Hall last Tuesday with songs of harvest, celebration, courtship, and hope. The African Children’s Choir has been in existence for 23 years. The goal of the choir is to “raise the awareness of the light of the orphaned and abandoned, but also showing the beauty, dignity, and potential of the African child.” Since it’s beginning, the choir has expanded greatly. To date, the choir cares for around 7,500 underprivileged children throughout seven countries in Africa: Uganda. Kenya. Rwanda. Congo. Nigeria. Ghana. Sudan. South Africa. The choir is currently partnering with...

By Andrea Kraybill • April 1, 2010 • Arts

Friday night at 7:30 p.m. Lavender Jazz will be playing their final concert of the year. They will perform a mix of jazz standards and vocal jazz, and will be joined on some numbers by a student-led Dixieland combo. Charts by Jobim, Gillespie, Coltrane, Charlie Parker and more are included. The band will be playing a tune arranged by Tito Puente especially for Lavendar Jazz–“Oye Comó Va.” Swing dancers will also dance to “Jump, Jive, & Wail,” and Anna Pasquarello will sing Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing.” The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Sauder Music Hall. Goshen...

By Andrea Kraybill • March 25, 2010 • Arts

This Friday and Saturday, Anna Pasquarello and friends will be hosting an Hour After entitled “Parsley Pants and Pom-Pom Socks.” Unlike the past couple Hour Afters, this one will be a more traditional Hour After with mostly acoustic-style music. “I chose selections from some of my current favorite female vocalists such as K.T. Tunstall, Corrine Bailey Rae and Lisa Hannigan,” said Pasquarello. “I’m also doing a couple songs from JRL, a musician who used to perform in Goshen. As a fellow musician, the things he talked about in his music meant a lot to me. I wanted to bring him...

By John Tamrat • March 17, 2010 • Arts

Six-time Grammy winning Irish band, the Chieftains filled Sauder Concert Hall on Friday night with lively music and dancing. Formed in 1962 by Paddy Moloney, the group was one of the first bands to make Irish traditional music popular around the world. While uncovering a wealth of traditional Irish music, the Chieftains make music that defies any one style. The latest release in a history of 40 albums is titled “San Patricio” and traces connections between Mexican folklore music and Irish traditional music. Over the band’s 40-year career, they have collaborated with famous names across genres from Ziggy Marley to...

By Andrea Kraybill • March 10, 2010 • Arts

This past Friday and Saturday in Reith Recital Hall, students in the opera workshop showcased their voices and acting skills in the 2010 Opera Scenes Performance. The performance consisted of eight scenes from eight different operas. Listeners also participated: audience members could purchase flowers for 10 cents to throw at their favorite performers. At opening, cacophonous cackling was heard from the back of the hall and a rather large group of witches crept upon the audience from behind, proceeding towards a cauldron on the stage. This scene from “Dido and Aeneas” by Henry Purcell featured Molly Kellogg as a sorceress...

By Elspeth Stalter • March 10, 2010 • Arts

During the tedious midterm week leading up to spring break, students, faculty and community members took some time out of their busy schedules to attend Wednesday’s special chapel called “Songs of Iona” led by John Bell.  What most audience members noticed immediately about Bell was his Scottish accent, which he addressed in the introduction of his presentation. “It’s better for me to sing than speak, because you all have an accent,” he joked, promising to speak slowly. Bell’s animated and casual tone continued throughout his presentation, in which he led the audience in song and discussed the surprising origins of...

By Kate Walker • February 18, 2010 • News

While some students may be traveling next week during Goshen College’s midterm break for fun, 46 men from the college will be trekking eastward for the men’s choir tour, “Healing the World, Song by Song.” The choir will perform at a number of schools and churches in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, but also at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., and end the tour on-campus with a final performance at College Mennonite Church. Along with pieces from around the world, the choir will also perform songs from Goshen, including junior Patrick Ressler’s arrangement...

By Laura Schlabach • February 18, 2010 • Arts

Goshen College’s winter concert highlighted the fact that Valentine’s Day was only several hours away. Scott Hochstetler and Debra Brubaker, the two choral conductors at Goshen College, clearly knew what they were about on Saturday, Feb. 13 when they opened the winter choir concert, “All About Love,” with the sweeping chordal grandeur of Johannes Brahms in  “Der Gang zum Liebchen” (The Walk to the Beloved). The Goshen College Chorale was the first group to perform, singing two contrasting Russian settings of the same piece, “Bogoroditse Djevo,” and a piece by the British composer Gerald Finzi, which ended their section of...

By Elspeth Stalter • February 18, 2010 • Arts

Ralph Stanley, who “The New York Times” described as “the living patriarch of bluegrass,” performed in  Sauder Concert Hall last Friday night along with the bluegrass Clinch Mountain Boys as part of the Performing Arts Series. Stanley, 82, began performing professionally with his late brother, Carter, in 1946. He has since won wide acclamation and numerous Grammys, including one for his part in the “O Brother Where Art Thou?”  soundtrack. The first numbers of the program featured the quick-picking Clinch Mountain Boys, decked out in black suits and tan cowboy hats, whose various soloists had the crowd clapping. Soon after, Ralph...

By Andrea Kraybill • February 9, 2010 • Arts

Passionate performance and rigorous rehearsing reached its culmination at Saturday evening’s 50th annual Concerto-Aria Concert competition. Held in Sauder Concert Hall, 446 students, family and friends witnessed a musical event highlighting six student performers. Students audition in the fall and are judged by the Goshen College music faculty. Concertos feature soloists backed by the orchestra, and it involves intense rehearsal for both parties. “Concertos are some of the most difficult things for orchestral musicians to play,” said Gregg Thaller, orchestra director. “They’ve got to count beats and measures, watch the conductor, and listen like crazy—all at the same time while playing the...

By Andrea Kraybill • February 9, 2010 • Arts