As music students prepare for their end-of-the-year recitals, students and professors share valuable pre-performance advice. All recitals will take place in Rieth Recital Hall.     Ainslee Zou (cello), senior music and biochemistry major:  I have my senior thesis defense for my biochemistry major before my senior recital. Although there’s a lot of stress surrounding those things, I’m trying to think of both of these things as a culmination and a celebration of my achievements. (Zou’s senior recital will take place April 3 at 7:30 p.m.)   Bohan Lin (violin), senior music and business major:  Practice. Be humble before the...

By Julia (Hyeyin) Jun • March 31, 2022 • Arts

Jorge Abreu Toyens, a fifth-year music major from Humacao, Puerto Rico, will present his senior violin recital on Dec. 9. This recital is not only one of Toyens’ last requirements as a music major, but also one of his last requirements before traveling to Barcelona for graduate school in February. Toyens was accepted at the renowned “Escola de Musica de Catalunya,” his first-choice graduate school, without even presenting a formal audition. In July 2014, Toyens was attending a music festival in Spain when he met someone who knew a professor from the Escola de Musica. After the festival, Toyens decided...

By Christina Hofer • December 3, 2015 • Arts

Next week the Goshen College theater department will top off the semester with a pair of senior theater recitals by Vanessa Jones and Sammy Rosario. The first of the two shows, “Almost, Maine,” is a collection of two-person vignettes that all take place at the same time on a snowy starlit night in a small, fictional town in Maine. Jones and her cast, Paul Zehr, Jay Mast, Lucas Nafziger, Christina Hofer and Liz Core, will perform five scenes from the full production, directed by 2012 GC alum Phil Weaver-Stoesz. Jones first saw the production at the American College Theater Festival....

By Mara Weaver • April 18, 2013 • Arts

What: Adriel Santiago’s senior theater recital When: Wednesday April 27, 2011 8 p.m. Where: Umble Center Why: The show is for the completion of Santiago’s degree as a theater and communication student. “It could be considered something like the theatrical equivalent of a thesis paper,” he said. About the play: “I put together a one-man show, which I have called Hephzibah,” said Santiago. “It is an abridged version of the book of Revelation, involving extreme physicality and aerial artistry. I truly believe this book—the revelation of Jesus—should awe us and reveal the heart of God, who will remove anything and...

By Maddie Ruth • April 21, 2011 • Arts

Three senior performances showcasing compositional, vocal, and instrumental talents will be featured this week in Rieth Recital Hall. Performers include violinist Greta Breckbill, music composition major Patrick Ressler and music/piano pedagogy major Ana Yoder. On Saturday, April 2, Breckbill will perform both solo violin and ensemble string pieces at 4 p.m. in Rieth Recital Hall. The performance will include a Bach piece in which she will demonstrate her individual talent by performing unaccompanied. Three fellow music students—Elspeth Stalter, Chelsea Wimmer and Justin Yoder—will be joining Breckbill on stage for the first movement of a Borodin piece. Work by Tchaikovsky and...

By Liz Core • March 30, 2011 • Arts

This Friday evening at 8 p.m. Angie Noah, a theater major, will present her senior recital to the Goshen College community, revealing bits of herself on the Umble Center stage. Noah’s production, directed by recent GC graduates Emily Swora and Grace Eidmann, comprises three smaller plays that all center on the creative theme “as I am.” “As an actress,” says Noah, “I’ve often dealt with my size. I never get cast as the lead characters—I’m always the old grandmas or imaginary friends.” In this production, however, Noah will take center stage. The first portion of Noah’s recital comes from a...

By Sarah Rich • September 16, 2009 • Arts

As several senior recitals are slated to take place on the Umble Center stage and in Rieth Recital Hall over the coming days, a few students are utilizing a new performance space on campus. Yost room in Umble Center is traditionally only a classroom, but Alison “Darcy” Brookins, a sophomore, and Phil Stoesz, a first-year, are presenting independent shows in the space next Wednesday and Thursday. Prior to these performances, Jesse Landis-Eigsti, will premiere his short opera, “I Fratelli Mario,” on the Umble Center stage. Though he completed his senior recital and officially graduated in the fall semester, Landis-Eigsti is...

By Marlys Weaver • April 15, 2009 • Arts

Showcasing a wide spectrum of theater, Gina Stutzman and Grace Eidmann will present their senior theater recitals as the spring semester comes to a close. Stutzman will perform “Vera or the Nihilists” by Oscar Wilde, under the direction of Angie Noah, a junior. Since the piece was originally a five-part play, a lot of material had to be cut. Stutzman wrote monologues to summarize the removed portions to convey the entire story. “Vera or the Nihilists” is a melodramatic play about a group of conspirators in Russia who attempt to kill the czar. To complicate matters, the leader ends up...

By Alysha Landis • April 15, 2009 • Arts

Tami Jantzi, Andrew Landis and Kaleem Kheshgi will give their senior music recitals in Rieth Recital Hall before this academic year comes to a close. Jantzi, a mezzo-soprano and continuing education student, will perform a program entitled “Angels and Sinners” at 9:00 p.m. on Friday. The recital will feature works by composers Robert Schumann and William Bolcom. These works, Jantzi said, “highlight the conflicting facets of female passions.” Although currently completing her music degree at Goshen College, Jantzi is a professional vocalist based in Germany. She has collaborated with world-renowned conductors such as Daniel Barenboim and Christoph Eschenbach, and regularly...

By Peter Miller • April 15, 2009 • Arts

This weekend, Nathan Swartzendruber, piano, and Peter Miller, cello, will present senior music recitals in Rieth Recital Hall. Both seniors have attended Goshen College for four years and are majoring in a musical field. Swartzendruber is a music education major and will student teach in Elkhart next fall. Miller is a senior English and music performance double major. Swartzendruber started his musical career in second grade when he first began taking piano lessons. Even before second grade, the love of the piano was surging through his veins. Swartzendruber had to complain and protest to his parents to let him start...

By Daniel Martin • April 1, 2009 • Arts

“You, dear listener, are separated from me by a wall of the greatest impenetrability,” Greg Yoder playfully commented as he discussed the difficulties of piano performance. “The only way I can hope to reach you is through my little, black box.” “I sit on the stage, and I pour myself into the box,” Yoder continued. “I pour in my dreams, my fears, my triumphs and my failures.” Audiences will have the opportunity to witness such a performance when Yoder presents his senior piano recital on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Rieth Recital Hall. Yoder feature works by Bach, Chopin, Brahms...

By Ben Noll • March 18, 2009 • Arts

Projecting feelings of joy, sorrow and reconciliation, Dara Joy Jaworowicz will present works from Monteverdi, Beethoven, Debussy, Wolf and Mozart in her senior recital on Friday. Jaworowicz will also premier an original composition, accompanied on piano by Nathan Swartzendruber, a senior. The recital is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Rieth Recital Hall. “A good portion of the pieces are pretty athletic vocally, and I like to stretch myself,” Jaworowicz said. “On the other hand, it’s very rewarding because it makes performing pieces that aren’t quite so demanding a breeze.” The atonal characteristics of the Stravinsky piece will provide a contrast...

By Alysha Landis • March 11, 2009 • Arts

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

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

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