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 Theater Department’s 2020-2021 COVID-19 Season continues this upcoming weekend with “Orfeo ed Euridice.” Composed by Christoph Willibald Glück in 1762, “Orfeo ed Euridice” is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which Orpheus travels to the underworld to rescue his wife Eurydice after she dies of a snake bite. In the opera version of the story, love triumphs, and Orpheus is successful in his mission to save Eurydice. However, according to Amy Budd, assistant professor of theater, “Orfeo ed Euridice” didn’t always have a happy ending. “[Orfeo ed Euridice] was a commission… for the name...

By Patrick Webb • March 25, 2021 • Arts

Thirty-five students took the stage this past weekend to perform in Goshen College’s annual International Student Club (ISC) Coffeehouse. The ISC leaders kicked off the event by welcoming both the socially-distanced audience in Sauder Concert Hall and the virtual viewers watching via livestream all over the world. The welcome was followed by 10 acts representing a variety of cultures, countries, and musical styles. Meghna Das performed “Kaisi Paheli Zindagani” alongside Goshen Panic, while Bohan Lin, S ubin Park, and Melissa Ma danced their hearts out to “Bombtastic.” Yujin Kim and Gogo Liegise slowed things down with a performance of “San...

By Augusta Nafziger • March 25, 2021 • Arts

The annual International Student Club (ISC) Coffeehouse will take place this Saturday, March 20, in Sauder Concert Hall. The event celebrates the many international cultures and students of Goshen College.  Last year, the coffeehouse was one of countless events cancelled due to COVID-19. Yujin Kim, a junior from Chuncheon, South Korea, was relieved when it was confirmed that the event would be taking place this semester. “I’m just really happy that it’s happening this year,” she said. “Last year, everything was just closing down and being cancelled, including the coffeehouse. I was going to perform with my sister; it was...

By Augusta Nafziger • March 18, 2021 • Arts

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

Student-led productions are taking the (virtual) stage this semester. Gloria Bontrager-Thomas, a third-year theater major, and Abigail Greaser, a fifth-year theater and music major, are preparing to direct productions for Goshen College’s 2021 Winter One-Acts performance. Bontrager-Thomas is relatively new to directing, but not to the realm of theater. She is currently serving as stage manager for GC’s spring mainstage.  “I’m a stage manager by trade and practice,” she said. “I’ve always been interested in directing but haven’t really had the opportunity until now. I took a directing class last semester and was able to … learn the craft.” Greaser...

By Augusta Nafziger • January 21, 2021 • Arts

When Goshen College’s campus shut down last March, the cast of “Cymbeline” was only two weeks away from opening night. “Cymbeline,” the theater department’s spring mainstage, was then put on hold as performing in front of a live audience was no longer possible. The cast and production teams eventually chose to postpone the play until this fall, when it could be presented in a nontraditional format. “We thought about moving immediately to a Zoom format and finishing the production right away,” said Anna Kurtz Kuk, associate professor of theater. “We thought about doing something online during May term or perhaps...

By Erica Gunden • October 22, 2020 • Arts

The Goshen College Theater Department presented its first program of the 2020-2021 theater season this past weekend as a part of Goshen College’s virtual Homecoming Weekend.  A livestreamed production of “Peace, Play, Pandemic: A Virtual Theater Experience” revisited the winning works of the 2008 and 1984 Goshen College Peace Play Contests: Here to Serve You by Barbara Lindsay and After the First Death by Richard Stayton.  Here to Serve You was presented as a stage performance, while After the First Death was presented in a split-screen Zoom format. Both plays were pre-recorded.  In order for the productions to take place,...

By Augusta Nafziger • October 8, 2020 • Arts

On Sunday March 8, Goshen College’s Umble Center stage witnessed and heard 27 personal stories and reflections presented by 16 cast members. With more than 200 audience members in attendance, Goshen Monologues was able to deliver the “unspoken” words of women and non-binary members of our community. Monologues committee members this year included: Stephanie Dilbone, Genevieve Cowardin, Rachael Klink, Sophia Martin, Kyra Krall, and Ana Avila, who started the preparation of this event at the beginning of the fall semester.  After more than six months of preparation and six weeks of practicing and rehearsals, the Monologues committee – along with...

By Nasim Rasoulipour • March 13, 2020 • Arts

Twenty-nine performers. Three shows. One show-stopping weekend. In the latest installment of the Goshen College theater department’s “Season of Love and Light,” the college’s music and theater departments worked together to showcase a variety of musical theater and operatic scenes.  “A Musical Cabaret of Love and Light” was performed over Valentine’s Day weekend: Feb. 14 and 15 at 7:30 p.m., as well as a matinee at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 16. While this was not the first time a cabaret like this was performed, 2020 marked the first time the scenes made their way to the Umble stage from...

By Cristina Jantz • February 21, 2020 • Arts

Every February, for one night only, Newcomer 19 becomes a tightly packed performance venue celebrating one thing: gettin’ down to the feminine sound. The show, aptly named Chocolate House for the abundance of sweets provided, is an annual showcase of non-binary and female student talent put on by the Goshen Student Women’s Association (GSWA). Acts can be anything from singing to spoken word, but the door is also open to discussing more taboo “lady problems,” like social pressures on women or periods.  In continuing with flipping the script, GSWA always invites the men to hit the kitchen for the event....

By Olivia Smucker • February 16, 2020 • Arts

Editor’s Note: In this reflective essay, Pamela Ortiz, LSU’s student president, talks about the experience of planning the Dancing with the Leafs event and all that transpired. For more information about the dance, dinner, or LSU club, contact Ortiz or any of the other student leaders. Dancing with the Leafs was one of the biggest events of the year for the Latino Student Union.  Goshen College students here in 2018 would remember “Dancing with the Profs.” It was designed to be a dance competition for students and professors to show off their talent.  This year, Latino Student Union was determined...

By Pamela Ortiz • February 7, 2020 • Arts

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

Elena Meyer Reimer first encountered aerial silks while visiting her college-age cousin. “I was like, ‘That looks really fun’…so I started Googling and I found a place in South Bend that taught silks and I was like, ‘OK, I’m gonna do it.’ And then I went,” said Meyer Reimer. That was during her sophomore year of high school. Most of the people in her class at ESA Aerial Arts were significantly younger than her. “It was good to start so late in that I had a lot of motivation, but also bad in that I felt very behind, and a...

By Kristin Jantzen • November 6, 2019 • Arts

Umble Center was filled on Sunday night for the presentation of the sixth annual Goshen College Monologues. Monologues is a space created for women and non-binary students and faculty of GC to share stories and experiences.   During the fall semester, women and non-binary people submitted a monologue to the steering committee, who then reviewed the stories and assigned them to cast members during the spring semester. People’s stories are shared anonymously.   This year, there were stories about identity, relationships, sexual assault, mental health, body image and friendship. Including the committee members, 25 people made up the cast.  ...

By Mary O’Connell • April 4, 2019 • News