Leslee Smucker, a senior violin performance major, will present her senior recital on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Rieth Recital Hall. Chara Sonntag will provide piano accompaniment. Smucker began taking lessons at age seven, and by fifth grade began studying with Lon Sherer, former professor of music at Goshen College. In her senior year of high school Smucker began studying with her current violin instructor, Solomia Soroka, an assistant professor of music at Goshen College. Smucker’s recital program consists of a wide range of pieces, from the Baroque era “Sonata No. 1 in G Minor: Adagio and Fugue” by J.S....

By Elizabeth Beachy • March 4, 2009 • Arts

Contrary to students who spent their spring break basking in the Floridian sun, members of the chamber choir spent their spring break performing 12 concerts in six states. The choir left on Feb. 21. bound for Illinois to sing in the first concert of their tour and returned on Mar. 1 for a homecoming concert in the Church-Chapel. For many choir members, Iowa proved to be a memorable state. Greg Yoder, a senior, remembers the time at Iowa Mennonite School as an opportunity to sing for pure enjoyment. “We sang informally in the halls … for close to a half...

By Alysha Landis • March 4, 2009 • Arts

Kevin Kleptz talks about booking bands as if asking for musicians’ phone numbers and haggling over guarantees is something he’s done for the past decade, not just the past ten weeks. “It’s just like being friendly,” he explained. By now, “being friendly” has resulted in approaches from, on average, five bands per day. Local musicians are enthusiastic about JC’s Corner, the new concert venue in Elkhart that Kleptz started with three friends who have known each other since high school: Keith Beber, a junior communication major who handles the sound and technical aspects, and Nathan Martin and Knox Capre. Kleptz, a...

By Kathryn Birky • March 4, 2009 • Features

Members of the Goshen College Chamber Choir will spend their spring break traveling across the north-central United States on their annual tour. Deb Brubaker, professor of music, will lead the group. The theme of the tour is "Encountering God's Hope." Stops include: Saturday, Feb. 21 – 7:30 p.m., Mennonite Church of Normal (Ill.) Sunday, Feb. 22 – 9 a.m., Metamora (Ill.) Mennonite Church Sunday, Feb. 22 – 7 p.m., First Mennonite Church, Iowa City, Iowa Monday, Feb. 23 – 9:45 a.m., Iowa Mennonite School, Kalona, Iowa Monday, Feb. 23 – 7 p.m., Sugar Creek Mennonite Church, Wayland, Iowa Tuesday, Feb....

By Ben Noll • February 18, 2009 • News

Celtic fiddler Eileen Ivers and her band Immigrant Soul presented a diverse Performing Arts Series concert of Irish and American folk tunes to a sold out crowd in Sauder Concert Hall on Saturday. The multicultural music influences reflect Ivers’s own experiences growing up in New York as a second generation Irish immigrant. Ivers was accompanied by band members Tommy McDonnell (vocals, percussion), who was a member of the member of the “ORIGINAL Blues Brothers Band”; Buddy Connolly (accordion, whistles, keyboards), a three time All-Ireland accordion champion; Greg Anderson (guitar, bouzouki), who played with The Klezmatics when they toured with Itzhak...

By Elizabeth Beachy • February 18, 2009 • Arts

Spring break 2009 kicks off tomorrow. Those of you stuck in wintry Goshen will no doubt be searching for activities to occupy your sudden burst of free time. Fortunately, we here at the arts page have a list of suggestions to help stave off boredom and make for a memorable break. What to watch According to most projections, “Slumdog Millionaire” will take home the best picture prize at the Oscars ceremony on Sunday. You can catch “Slumdog,” the movie that everybody’s talking about, right here in Goshen at the newly-expanded Linway Plaza Cinema. But “Slumdog” is no “Departed.”  This is...

By Ben Noll • February 18, 2009 • Arts

Called “the Jimi Hendrix of the violin” by the New York Times, Eileen Ivers will perform with Immigrant Soul on Saturday as part of the Performing Arts Series. The sold-out show begins at 7:30 p.m. Ivers has previously performed in the musical “Riverdance,” as well as with the London Symphony, the Boston Pops and the Chieftains, among many others. Eileen Ivers & Immigrant Soul perform music from a variety of roots, with African and Latin percussion and bass, Irish instrumentalists and American vocals. The band includes Tommy McDonnel (vocals and percussion), Buddy Connolly (accordion, whistles, keyboards), Greg Anderson (guitar and...

By Alysha Landis • February 11, 2009 • Arts

3 out of 4 Maple Leafs All those still mourning the gaping hole in the emerging “new-grass” scene left by Nickel Creek might find comfort in “Adrienna Valentine,” the latest release from Harrisonburg, Virginia-based singer/songwriter Trent Wagler. “Valentine” is overflowing with lush bluegrass harmonies highlighted by Wagler’s warm, unique lead vocals and Jay Lapp’s expert mandolin picking and backup singing. They seamlessly transition from the upbeat folksy twang of “Darlin’ Cory” and “Honey Bear” to the beautiful, subdued Americana sounds of “Corinne” and “I Will Love You.” “Riverside” effectively blends Wagler’s blues influences with a gospel choral arrangement. It’s the...

By Ben Noll • February 11, 2009 • Arts

The distant echo of a bell will ring throughout Sauder Concert Hall on Saturday evening as the orchestra opens the Concerto-Aria concert with Mussorgsky’s “A Night on Bald Mountain.” The 7:30 p.m. concert will feature the nine winners of the Concerto-Aria competition held last November. Gregg Thaller, associate professor of music, will conduct the orchestra. The winners include: Peter Miller (cello), a senior; Anna Showalter (piano), a junior; and Leslee Smucker (violin), a senior, performing Beethoven’s “Triple Concerto” Greta Breckbill, a sophomore, performing the first movement of Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 56” Drew Stoltzfus, a junior, conducting...

By Alysha Landis • February 11, 2009 • Arts

One of Goshen’s best Valentine’s Day celebratory options doesn’t really have anything to do with the greeting card holiday. But your date will never know by its name. On Saturday at 7 p.m., Trent Wagler and Jay Lapp will take the stage at LVDs Concert Hall at the Old Bag Factory in Goshen to promote their new album “Adrienna Valentine.” “It’s not a Valentine album, per se, although the cover is red,” Wagler said over the phone from his Harrisonburg, Virginia home. Wagler and Lapp recorded the album in early 2008, but are only now bringing it to Midwestern audiences...

By Ben Noll • February 11, 2009 • Arts

While the past few weeks’ senior theater and music recitals have seen excellent attendance and gained audience approval, this weekend’s is guaranteed to have the crowd out of their seats. On Saturday evening, Josh Tyson, a senior music education major from Harrisonburg, Va., will begin his recital by performing five short pieces on the Opus 41 organ at the rear of Rieth Recital Hall. Once these pieces are over, the audience will reorient themselves to face the Rieth stage for the second half of the recital. The second half features Tyson on piano and will begin with a Beethoven sonata,...

By Ben Noll • February 4, 2009 • Arts

Students flooded the Kratz-Miller first floor connector hallway on Tuesday night in eager anticipation of a ticket to Aurora House’s Hour After this weekend. By 10:10 p.m. – just over an hour after ticket sales began – tickets were sold out for the Friday and Saturday performances. Participants from Aurora House will include Meaghan Hoover, Emily Swora, Grace Eidmann, Morgan Kraybill, Allison Landis, Ellen McCrae and Joanna Landis, all seniors. Special guests will include eight additional seniors: David Kempf (playing a notably large role), Paul Boers, Nathan Graber, Melissa MacGregor, Nathan Swartzendruber, Hillary Watson, Matthew Rody and Ben Jacobs. This...

By Alysha Landis • February 4, 2009 • Arts

Looking for something to do this weekend? Three theater events should be enough to keep anyone busy — and they’re all in one place. Umble Center will host Emily Swora’s senior theater recital on Friday at 7:30 p.m., Ben Noll’s senior theater recital on Saturday at 8 p.m. and a theater festival showcase on Sunday at 3 p.m. For her senior recital, Swora will perform seven scenes from four different plays about Orpheus and Eurydice. This Greek myth has been written and rewritten in various forms over time. The night will combine many playwrights’ contrasting versions of the story. The...

By Alysha Landis • January 28, 2009 • Arts

Organist Thomas Bara held a master class on campus for Goshen College student organists and several Organ Club members on Friday. He then presented a recital in Rieth Recital Hall on Sunday. The chairs in the hall faced away from the stage so audience members could gain a better view of the balcony where Bara sat at the organ. Chris Thogersen, assistant professor of music, was Bara’s registrant during the performance. Thogersen helped Bara pull out and push in the draw knobs. Bara opened his recital with “Präludium in E minor” by Nikolaus Bruhns, followed by “Concerto in D minor...

By Elizabeth Beachy • January 28, 2009 • Arts

Everyone at Sauder Concert Hall was out of their seats long before the standing ovation concluded Sunday afternoon’s sold-out Bobby McFerrin concert. McFerrin may go down in popular culture history as a one-hit wonder who sang “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” But with talent as playful, raw and imaginative as McFerrin’s, the fact that his definitive hit was conspicuously left off the set list did not seem to bother the crowd. They were given several opportunities to go on stage and perform alongside the music legend. In light blue jeans and a tight, short-sleeved black shirt, McFerrin’s dress was as unassuming...

By Ben Noll • January 21, 2009 • Arts