Six students showcased their musical talents during the 58th Concerto-Aria performance at the Goshen College Music Center on Saturday Feb. 17. The six students — Anna Buckwalter, Joshua Liechty, Monica Miller, Tyrus Tucker, and Mark Kreider — were selected through competition to perform at the event. Twenty students competed, and selecting who would perform at Saturday’s concert “was a difficult decision,” said Jose Rocha, associate professor of music and conductor of the GC Symphony Orchestra. “Each student competed in ‘Hunger Games’ fashion,” Rocha said. During the concert, each student performer was accompanied by the GC Symphony Orchestra. The performance started...

By Kory Stoneburner-Betts • February 22, 2018 • Arts

Goshen’s three choirs — Men’s Chorus, Chamber Choir and Women’s World Music Choir — joined together for the Goshen College Winter Choral Concert last Saturday night, Feb. 7. The result was a lively performance complete with exultant celebrations and lustrous harmonies. People packed into the Sauder Music Hall, ready to be amazed. A hush fell over the crowd as the Men’s Chorus took the stage. They opened up the concert singing praises in the song “Zion’s Walls.” The song built as they clapped their hands and stomped their feet in unison to the beat of the music. Hearing their upbeat...

By Emily Bennett • February 15, 2018 • Arts

The rhythmic pounding of drums will fill the air of Sauder Concert Hall. Starting at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 9, the members of Yamato: The Drummers of Japan will take the stage as part of the 2017-2018 Performing Arts Series. Founded in 1993 in Japan’s Nara Prefecture, Yamato: The Drummers of Japan have performed over 2,500 times in 51 countries. The members of the group specialize in Taiko, a style of drumming traditional to Japanese culture. Led by Masa Ogawa, artistic director, the group consists of 16 musicians highly trained in the intense, kinetic art of Taiko. “These specific...

By Kory Stoneburner-Betts • February 8, 2018 • Arts

LAURA MILLER Staff Writer lymiller@goshen.edu   On the evening of Friday, Feb. 2, the Goshen College Men’s Chorus joined with local ensemble The Open Fifths and men’s choirs from Goshen High School and Bethany Christian Schools for a concert in Sauder Concert Hall. This was the second annual rendition of the Men’s Choir Festival. Each ensemble performed individually, and as part of the joint group of all four choirs. According to Scott Hochstetler, a music professor who directs the GC Men’s Chorus, the joint choirs spent about three hours together on the day of the concert. Their afternoon included campus...

By Laura Miller • February 8, 2018 • News

On Friday, Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m., Rieth Recital Hall was filled with the sounds of music as Goshen College welcomed Glenn Miller, organist and basso-profundo singer, in a collaborative performance with the GC Chamber Choir. The show featured Glenn Miller on organ for the first half and in choral selections for the second half. The audience was invited to join in for hymns throughout. Glenn Miller returned to Goshen College following a collaboration in 2016 with the St. Joseph Valley Camerata. Specializing in Russian liturgical choral pieces, he maintains a successful musical career. Miller serves as director of music...

By Siana Emery • February 1, 2018 • Arts

Parables is a worship ensemble from Goshen College, that combines music, original drama and personal stories to create an engaging worship experience designed to inspire, comfort and challenge. Members are senior Julian Harnish, juniors Aidan Friesen and Jonah Yoder, and sophomores Rebecca Choi, Yejin Kim, Lauren Myers, Sharada Weaver, and Matthew Smucker. What is one memorable experience so far? Yoder: Definitely going on our Fall Break Tour was a lot of fun. We went to Eastern Mennonite University, Washington D.C., Hyattsville [Maryland], State College [Pennsylvania], and Kidron [Ohio]. We performed multiple times in most places. The best part was traveling...

By Elsa Lantz • February 1, 2018 • Features

Continuing on from the success of last semester, worship night returned this Sunday, the 28th of January. The night offered a place for students at Goshen College to come together and worship through singing, as well as time to break off to either pray for oneself, others or journal. “It’s a really good time to connect with God and also to support other people who are there,” Kelsey Winters, the organizer of the event, said. “It’s not just focus on yourself all the time.” Winters, a sophomore from Upland, Indiana, is a ministry leader this year at GC. She first...

By Megan Bower • February 1, 2018 • News

On Saturday, Jan. 20, the Goshen College Community School of the Arts (CSA) held its first student recital of 2018 in the Rieth Recital Hall of the Goshen College Music Center. Led by director and piano faculty Mary Rose Norell, the Community School of the Arts is an extension of the Music Center and offers a variety of learning opportunities for aspiring musicians of all ages. “I’m thankful that the CSA can offer both young and adult members of our community the opportunity to experience this type of mentorship in the musical arts, which helps develop the whole person physically,...

By Kory Stoneburner-Betts • January 25, 2018 • Arts

This upcoming weekend, the Goshen College Symphony Orchestra and Choirs will reunite on the Sauder Concert Hall stage for “A Festival of Carols” at the Goshen College Music Center. “A Festival of Carols” is a highly-anticipated Goshen College tradition that showcases the GC Symphony Orchestra, Women’s Choir and Men’s Choir, as well as the audience themselves. The groups come together for three holiday-themed performances in a lavishly decorated Sauder Concert Hall. “I always get excited during this special time of year and ushering in the Christmas season for each of our audience members,” said Scott Hochstetler, professor of music and...

By Kory Stoneburner-Betts • November 30, 2017 • Arts

Way, way back in 2008, a storm hit Goshen College’s campus. It took the unexpected form of three intellectual (nerdy) seniors: Jesse Landis-Eigsti, Greg Yoder and David Kempf. While this was a time far removed from present-day Goshen, that last name may sound familiar. Kempf works at Goshen as the audio-visual/IT systems manager, handling specialized computers and network administration. But nine years ago, Kempf was one third of the aforementioned storm, the explosive campus band, Happy Camper & the Bees. I had the chance to interview Kempf about his past glory days. We met at the campus coffee shop, Java...

By Lucia Nisly • November 16, 2017 • Features

Before a screening of Lon Chaney’s silent film, “The Phantom of the Opera,” the interior of the theater darkens. The audience begins to turn their faces away from the soft blue glow of their smartphones and attend to the direction of the stage. A spotlight focuses on the stage as an organ plays opening notes of Camille Saint-Saens’ “Danse Macabre,” and music fills the theater. As the song approaches its climax, the sounds of organist Clark Wilson and a 1924 Kimball, slowly rise from the orchestra pit. As Wilson continues to play the several rows of keys, you hear not...

By Kory Stoneburner-Betts • November 2, 2017 • Features

The evening of Oct. 27, the Goshen College Symphony Orchestra and the Goshen Combined Choir shared the stage for a night of music in Sauder Concert Hall. The choir and the orchestra performing together is not new for either group, but is still a fairly unique experience for the audience and students involved, as they do not frequently perform together. Orchestra director Jose Rocha said that performing before such a large crowd “made everyone more excited and focused.” The concert began with the orchestra performing two pieces they had worked on for this performance. The first piece was “Overture to...

By Luke Vance • November 2, 2017 • Arts

A few years ago, hundreds of people filled Sauder Concert Hall for the annual Music Gala during Homecoming weekend. All Maryn Munley needed to do was move the restored Steinway grand piano, worth $120,000, to the center of the stage. By herself. Matthew Hill, a Goshen College music professor, was waiting in the wings to enter and play a piece by Beethoven. “Well, I’m a fairly petite person,” said Munley, the performance venue production manager for Goshen College. “So usually, it takes a little bit more muscle than just me to get that piano rolling.” The stage was set up...

By Samantha Horsch • October 26, 2017 • Features

On the evening of Oct. 14, the Music Center hosted Mary Chapin Carpenter in a return performance for the most recent installment of the 2017-2018 Goshen College Performing Arts Series. Chapin Carpenter is a five-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and an inductee in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Her back catalog consists of an expansive 14 albums, the latest being, “The Things That We Are Made of,” released in 2016. Chapin Carpenter previously performed at Goshen College in 2006. Chapin Carpenter’s bassist Don Dixon and Marty Jones opened the show. Performing before an audience of 863 people in Sauder Music...

By Kory Stoneburner-Betts • October 26, 2017 • Arts

On Friday, Oct. 6, Lavender Jazz, Goshen College’s resident big band, performed at the Goshen Theater as part of Goshen First Friday and Goshen College Homecoming Weekend. The performance was spread over two extended sets starting at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. respectively. Lavender Jazz is an ensemble consisting of students from GC with a variety of majors. The group is directed by Christopher French, an adjunct professor of music. French is a multi-instrumentalist who earned a master’s in music from the Juilliard School in New York City. In addition to these roles, French teaches music at Holy Cross College...

By Kory Stoneburner-Betts • October 12, 2017 • Arts