Concert: “Singing Words” – A concert of Mennonite poetry set to music by Carol Ann Weaver (piano) and Rebecca Campbell (vocals and guitar)
Date and time: Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 8 p.m.
Location: Rieth Recital Hall, Goshen College Music Center
Cost: Free and open to the public
Event sponsor: Goshen College English Department

Canadian performers to present concert of Mennonite poetry set to music

GOSHEN, Ind. – In a unique concert, “Singing Words,” Canadians Carol Ann Weaver, pianist, and Rebecca Campbell, vocals and guitar, will set Mennonite poetry to music on Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. in Goshen College Music Center’s Rieth Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

Weaver and Campbell will perform selections from Weaver’s new collection, “Songs from Our Land,” which incorporates her settings of writings by Mennonite American poets Goshen College Associate Professor of Music Ann Hostetler, Bluffton (Ohio) University Professor of English Jeff Gundy and Pennsylvania State University Associate Professor of English Julia Kasdorf. The concert will be the American premiere of the song “Still Life,” based on Hostetler’s poetry.

l these voices variously reflect unique aspects of their shared cultural background, including an earthy love of the land. While the poetry acts as a basis for the music, each song weaves through the words in such a way as to create new routes and connections. The poetry inspires, instructs and invites this music into existence,” said Weaver.

 Weaver and Campbell will also perform from their recently released CD, “Awakenings,” which features texts by Canadian poets Di Brandt and Dorothy Livesay. The music styles on the album range from folk to avant garde, jazz to natural soundscapes, groove to meditative.

The music of Weaver and Campbell has been described as “adventurous and imaginative, with joyous fusions of folk, jazz, roots, art and world music — daring, calming, grounded and passionately connected with the world round about.” Listeners comment on their contrasting, but complimentary, performing/composing styles, which dovetail in intimate and refreshing ways.

 A Canadian treasure, Campbell has done extensive touring and recording on her own and in support of many artists, including Jane Siberry, Justin Haynes, Fat Man Waving, Three Sheets to the Wind, Lynn Miles and Ian Tamblyn. Her music, which is emotionally rooted, intimate, impressionistic and full of surprises, betrays a disregard for idiomatic boundaries, a love of words and a penchant for the sweet and sad.

Canadian eclectic composer and pianist Weaver’s genre-bending music blends classical, jazz, avant garde, folk, resulting in new fusions of roots and art music, often coloured by her passion for African music. Critics laud her work for its blending of cultural voices and its embrace of varied styles. Her CDs, “Dancing Rivers, Journey Begun” and “Daughter of Olapa” deal with African, Canadian and environmental themes. Weaver is a professor of music at Conrad Grebel University College/University of Waterloo, and a member of Canadian Music Centre, Association of Canadian Women Composers and SEM (Society for Ethnomusicology).

 Weaver and Campbell’s music has taken them to San Francisco, London, Austria, Slovenia, Hawaii, South Africa, Korea and to various places in the United States and Canada — from Buddhist temples to international conferences, from concerts to classrooms, from Canadian festivals to African jazz bars.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.