The Goshen College music department will present the “Rosary Sonatas” in a violin studio recital this Friday.  The “Rosary Sonatas” were composed by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber in the 17th century, but were not discovered until 1905. Consisting of 15 sonatas and a final passacaglia, the collection is an adaptation of the 15 Mysteries of the Rosary, reflecting key moments and events in the lives of Christ and the Virgin Mary.  Solomia Soroka, professor of music, chose the “Rosary Sonatas” as studio recital repertoire in honor of the Easter season. “I was trying to time it with Easter,” she said....

By Augusta Nafziger • April 9, 2021 • Arts

The Goshen College music department will present the “Rosary Sonatas” in a violin studio recital this Friday.  The “Rosary Sonatas” were composed by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber in the 17th century, but were not discovered until 1905. Consisting of 15 sonatas and a final passacaglia, the collection is an adaptation of the 15 Mysteries of the Rosary, reflecting key moments and events in the lives of Christ and the Virgin Mary.  Solomia Soroka, professor of music, chose the “Rosary Sonatas” as studio recital repertoire in honor of the Easter season. “I was trying to time it with Easter,” she said....

By Augusta Nafziger • April 9, 2021 • Features

Goshen College’s 61st annual Concerto-Aria Concert took place this past weekend in Sauder Concert Hall.  One of Goshen College’s long standing traditions, the annual Concerto-Aria competition is open to students enrolled in applied music study at Goshen College. Students audition in the fall semester within the categories of solo vocal, solo instrumental, solo piano, ensemble, or original composition.  The winners are selected by a committee of Goshen College faculty members.  Brian Mast, director of the Goshen College Symphony Orchestra, notes that the selection committee goes into the audition process “wide open.”  “Really, it’s about the performance and who earns it,”...

By Augusta Nafziger • March 12, 2021 • Arts

Singing out amidst the worry and fear of the current political climate and pandemic can feel impossible, and, yet, that is exactly what H. Roz Woll would have the Voices of the Earth choir do.  Woll, assistant professor of music, began teaching at Goshen College this fall. She teaches classes such as Aural Skills, private voice lessons and vocal masterclass, as well as directing Voices of the Earth.  Recently, Woll received her Doctorate of Musical Arts in vocal performance from the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Graduate Center.  During this process, Woll had to complete three vocal recitals as...

By Record • February 19, 2021 • Arts

Though Sauder Concert Hall will be empty of audience members for this year’s Festival of Carols, the concert – one of Goshen’s most treasured traditions – is still on. In its 16 previous years, the event has featured performances by each of the college ensembles, as well as scripture readings and carols sung by the three college choirs, the children’s Shout for Joy choir and the audience. Brian Mast, executive director of the Music Center, has been working to make the event possible in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re trying to capture the things that everyone has come...

By Augusta Nafziger • November 19, 2020 • Arts

Goshen College violin and viola students will present a studio recital featuring works by  American composers on Friday, Nov. 13. Solomia Soroka, professor of music, chose to make American music the focus of the recital for several reasons, one of which is her passion for American works. “My interest in American music started quite a few years ago,” she said. “When I dug into this subject, I found that there is so much American music that is generally not well-known by American audiences or programmed by orchestras. And so I was interested in this phenomenon—why do Americans still prefer European...

By Augusta Nafziger • November 12, 2020 • Arts

Goshen College has welcomed two new faculty members to the performing arts department this year: assistant music professor H. Roz Woll and assistant theater professor Amy Budd.  Woll and Budd are each filling vacancies in their respective departments. In the spring of 2019, longtime faculty member and beloved professor Deb Detwiler passed away after 20 years of teaching at Goshen College. Woll is succeeding her as the new assistant professor of music and Voices of the Earth director. Meanwhile, Budd is taking on her new role following Professor Doug Caskey’s retirement last year.  Woll grew up in Chicago, where she...

By Augusta Nafziger • September 3, 2020 • Arts

When Goshen College Chamber Choir performed with Conspirare, a Grammy award winning choir based in Austin, Texas, as part of the 2018-2019 Performing Arts Series, no one knew COVID-19 would bring them together again. This past Tuesday, Conspirare, in cooperation with the University of Albany, released a virtual choir recording of the final piece of the oratorio “Considering Matthew Shepard: All of Us,” which featured not only Conspirare, but also 477 singers from over 45 choirs in four different countries. Those invited to sing along were choir members who sang “Considering Matthew Shepard” alongside Conspirare in concert over the course...

By Kristin Jantzen • August 27, 2020 • Arts

Before her death last year on April 22, Dr. Deb Detwiler left one last mark on Goshen College.  What was formerly known as Women’s World Music Choir was re-named to Voices of the Earth, a move made in order to include not just women, but also non-binary voices. Detwiler conducted her final concert on April 6, 2019, though no one expected it to be her last. Sixteen days later, she passed away unexpectedly in her home.  Almost a year later, Voices of the Earth is still singing strong. As the anniversary of Detwiler’s death approaches, it is only appropriate that...

By Greta Lapp Klassen • March 13, 2020 • Arts

As a first-year student at Goshen College in 1992, Bradley Kauffman witnessed the publication of Hymnal: A Worship Book within the Mennonite community; he performed the new hymns as a member of the Goshen College Chamber Choir. Now, 28 years later, he leads a committee as general editor and project manager in working to publish Voices Together in September 2020. While this hymnal will be different than those prior in a variety of ways, the addition of audio recordings in an online application by GIA music will be at the forefront. Kauffman has invited five Mennonite-affiliated singing ensembles to record...

By Mackenzie Miller • March 13, 2020 • Features

The highly anticipated The Wailin’ Jennys will return to Goshen this Friday, January 31 at 7:30 p.m. for their third Goshen performance in Sauder Concert Hall. The Wailin’ Jennys is a Canadian folk music group with humble beginnings at a guitar shop in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 2002. What started out as a small gig turned into multiple performances by popular demand. The name Wailin’ Jennys is a play off of the name Waylon Jennings, a famous American country singer.  Since the release of their first album 40 Days in 2004, the group has been twice awarded the prestigious Juno...

By Ellie Keener • January 31, 2020 • Arts

There are three members in the band Girl Named Tom. But Tom isn’t one of them.  A nickname for the youngest Liechty sibling, Bekah, “Tom” became the inspiration for Caleb, Joshua and Bekah’s sibling band that formed in the spring of 2019 and is now in the middle of a year-long tour across the country.  The Ohio-based band stopped in Goshen last Sunday, sharing their acoustic sounds, light instrumentation and tight harmonies with the several hundred attendants at Goshen Brewing Company, convincing many that the Liechty siblings have been singing together for years. And in some ways they have. “Music...

By Mackenzie Miller • January 16, 2020 • Features

Those who were in attendance at the Homecoming Gala earlier this fall will remember witnessing an important announcement: the changing of the name of the Men’s Chorus to Vox Profundi, which is Latin for “Voices of the Deep.” The change came following the rechristening of the Women’s World Music Choir to Voices of the Earth last spring. That concert also marked the 15th anniversary of the creation of the two choirs. Deb Detwiler, the conductor of Voices of the Earth until her death last spring, thought that it was especially important to make sure that Goshen’s choirs were inclusive to...

By Kristin Jantzen • November 1, 2019 • Arts

Spooky season has arrived and with it comes copious amounts of candy, haunted houses, hayrides and Skelton. Yes, Skelton, you read that correctly. Red Skelton.    There are many local theater companies in the area, but none quite compare to Premier Arts, a community theater based out of Elkhart. From larger Broadway-like productions to smaller, more intimate shows, Premier Arts never fails to bring premium musical theater to Michiana.  This week, Premier Arts is putting on an original musical about the life and legacy of the American comedy entertainer, Red Skelton. Executive Artistic Director Craig Gibson wrote the script for the...

By Amber Heydon • October 9, 2019 • Arts

Three goatees, two baseball caps and one GC art professor play folk music on the lawn of Goshen Brewing Company (GBCo).  This is The Dawg. The Goshen-based trio is comprised of Duane Gundy on mandolin and guitar, Jim Shenk on guitar and pedal steel guitar and GC art professor, Randy Horst, on upright bass. On Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 7 p.m., the band played underneath a black lawn canopy with GBCo’s lettering and hop seed logo. On the grass, patrons sat on lawn chairs and milled about with beer and food in hand as the sweet sounds of folk music...

By Nathan Pauls • October 2, 2019 • Arts