Members of the Goshen College Community School of the Arts Rejoice Children’s Choir (left to right) Mackenzie Mast, Priya Sommers, Ava Miller, Abigail Click, Kyle Deal and Allison Sapp rehearse for their upcoming spring concert on May 5 at 4 p.m. in the Goshen College Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall.
(Photo provided by the Goshen College Music Center)

Concert:  Community School of the Arts Showcase Concert
Date and time:  Sunday, May 5, 2013 at 4 p.m.
Location: Goshen College Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall
Cost:  $7 adults, $5 seniors/students, available at the door. GC students/faculty/staff free with valid ID.

Two Community School of the Arts children’s choirs will be joined by graduating CSA student performers as part of the annual spring Community School of the Arts Showcase Concert on Sunday, May 5 at 4 p.m. in the Goshen College Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall.

Performing will be Rejoice Children’s Choir (grades 3-5), directed by Kristin Kauffman, and Shout for Joy Children’s Choir (grades 6-8), directed by Sandra Hill. Each choir will perform choral works individually, and then join together forming a 75-voice combined choir.

Graduates from each choir will be recognized and receive awards during the showcase.

The concert will also feature performances by three high school seniors who will be graduating from the Community School of the Arts this spring:  pianist Wade Troyer, of South Bend; and vocalists Aaron Yoder, of Middlebury, and Sadie Gustafson-Zook, of Goshen.

Tickets cost $7 adults, $5 seniors/students, and are available at the door beginning one hour before the concert. Goshen College faculty/staff/students are admitted free with ID, as well as CSA students and their immediate family members.

The CSA children’s choirs will be holding auditions for new members for the 2013-2014 school year on Monday, May 13 and Tuesday, May 14 from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Goshen College Music Center.  New students may reserve an audition time by calling the Music Center Main Office at (574) 535-7361. Singers in the choirs will be registered through the Community School of the Arts. Tuition is $75 per term, plus registration fee. Need-based scholarships are available.

The mission of the Goshen College Music Center is “Enriched lives and enhanced community through quality artistic programming and educational opportunities for all.” The Community School of the Arts serves hundreds of community families each season, offering private lessons, two children’s choirs, five orchestras including the Elkhart County Youth Honors and Intermediate Concert Orchestras, and Music Together classes for preschool children in Elkhart County. Need-based scholarships are available for every CSA activity. For more information, please visit www.gcmusiccenter.org or call 574-535-7361.

Doyle Armbrust, Austin Wulliman, Aurelien Fort Pederzoli and Russell Rolen make up the Spektral Quartet.

Visiting Artist Recital: The Spektral Quartet
Date and time: Friday, January 18 at 7:30 p.m.
Location: Goshen College Music Center’s Rieth Recital Hall
Cost: $7 adults, $5 seniors/students. GC faculty/staff/students free with ID. Tickets available one hour before the concert.

The Spektral Quartet, one of the nation’s fastest-rising young string quartets and the ensemble-in-residence at the University of Chicago, returns to Goshen College Music Center on Friday, January 18 at 7:30 p.m. for a program of quartets by Mozart, Verdi and Hugo Wolf in Rieth Recital Hall.

Spektral violinist Austin Wulliman, a Goshen native, received musical training as a youth in the Goshen College Strings Preparatory Program, a progenitor of what is now the Community School of the Arts. He also attended Goshen College before receiving degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Michigan.

Spektral’s Friday concert and Saturday coachings of young musicians in the Music Center’s Youth Honors Orchestras are presented in part through the Lon and Kathryn Sherer Preparatory Music Endowment. It carries on the legacy established through their more than 60 combined years of teaching music, most of them at Goshen College. In addition to college teaching, Lon and Kathryn taught hundreds of pre-college students; Lon in violin and Kathryn in piano. Throughout their careers, they were advocates for making music accessible to young people. The activities of this endowment will continue to support their interests of accessibility and excellence in pedagogy in the life of the Goshen College Community School of the Arts.

Lon Sherer and Kathryn Summers met as college students at Michigan State University in the early 1950’s. Throughout their marriage, their music-making was a shared life work, first at Woodstock School in Mussoorie, India (1956-59) and then at Goshen College (1959 onward). In the early 1960’s Lon earned his Doctorate in Music Performance from the University of Michigan. Kathryn earned her Masters in piano performance from Southern Methodist University in 1979.

Lon and Kathryn arrived at Goshen College at a time when interest in instrumental music was beginning to expand at the college and more generally in the Mennonite Church. Their energy and creativity helped raise music-making at Goshen College to new heights and spurred programmatic innovations. Lon built up the college orchestra, expanded the WGCS classical music collection, brought recorders, early music and opera to the college, and started high school music week. Kathryn, along with John T. O’Brien, launched the piano pedagogy program and the annual piano workshop. In 1979 Lon studied with Shinichi Suzuki and later founded the GC string preparatory program, incorporating the tenets of the Suzuki method into his teaching of children and youth from the community.

In addition to their lives as performers, as teachers Lon and Kathryn gave uncommon attention to the learning process and how students achieve mastery of their chosen instruments. During their careers, they studied and worked with master teachers such as Frances Clark, Kato Havas, George Sebok, John Owings and Shinichi Suzuki, ultimately becoming master teachers in their own right.

Lon continues to connect in various ways to the musical life of the Goshen community. Kathryn died this past February from pulmonary fibrosis. Their life-long interests in seeing musicianship developed to a high level in young students, and in promoting excellence in ensemble music-making will be honored in these events.

Community School of the Arts choirs’ singers (beginning on the left side of the piano): Ava Miller, Jocsan Barahona, Lauren Kauffman, Alison Robinson, B. Kesler, Alex Mast, Nate Ganger, Phillip Krabill, Hannah Kurtz, Hayli Harley and Samantha Stoltzfus.
(Photo provided by the Goshen College Music Center)

Two Community School of the Arts (CSA) children’s choirs will be joined by student instrumentalists and pianists as part of the fall Community School of the Arts Showcase Concert on Sunday, Nov. 11 at 4 p.m. in the Goshen College Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall.

More than 80 young singers will be performing in this concert, including CSA’s Rejoice Children’s Choir (grades 3-5), directed by Kristin Kauffman, and Shout for Joy Children’s Choir (grades 6-8), directed by Sandra Hill. The choirs will perform works for treble chorus, including arrangements of American folk songs, South African spirituals and works by Jay Althouse, David Waggoner and Mary Lynn Lightfoot. The concert will also feature a work for two pianos and eight hands by Mack Wilberg (“Fantasy on Themes from Bizet’s Carmen”) performed by CSA piano students coached by Anna Bauer, as well as CSA Suzuki String Academy students led by Suzuki Academy Director Rosalyn Troiano.

Tickets cost $7 adults, $5 seniors/students, and are available at the door beginning one hour before the concert. Goshen College faculty, staff, and students are free with valid ID.

The mission of the Goshen College Music Center is “Enriched lives and enhanced community through quality artistic programming and educational opportunities for all.” The Community School of the Arts serves hundreds of community families each season, offering private lessons, two children’s choirs, four orchestras including the Elkhart County Youth Honors and Intermediate Concert Orchestras, and Music Together® classes for preschool children in Elkhart County. Need-based scholarships are available for every CSA activity. For more information, please visit www.gcmusiccenter.org or call 574-535-7361.

Nov. 2          7:30 p.m., Goshen College Symphony Orchestra Fall Concert, Music Center, Sauder Concert Hall

The GCSO, conducted by Dr. Christopher Fashun, will present their fall concert in Sauder Concert Hall.
The GCSO will be joined by the Goshen College Chorale, directed by Dr. Scott Hochstetler, in a performance of Mozart’s Litaniae Lauretanae K. 109. The program will also feature works by Franz von Suppé, Anatoly Lyandov, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”).
Tickets are $7 adults, $5 senior/students, available at the door one hour before the concert. GC students/faculty/staff free with ID.

3          7:30 p.m., Performing Arts Series: Del McCoury Band, Music Center, Sauder Concert Hall

This season, we bring back the much-loved bluegrass of the Del McCoury Band. Since he was last here in 2004, Del McCoury has received a National Heritage Fellowship lifetime achievement award and was elected into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, honoring his 50-plus years making music. Del McCoury and his faithful band demonstrate that bluegrass isn’t just for those with an acquired taste; it’s about presence, passion, and the musical marriage of sound old and new.
15 percent special discount off regular prices for all in-person or phone sales with mention of promo code “PAS.” Non-discounted tickets: $40, $35, $25

7          7:30 p.m., Visiting Artist: Phoenix Park-Kim, Music Center, Rieth Recital Hall

Visiting artist and pianist Phoenix Park-Kim will present a solo piano recital. Park-Kim’s program will include arrangements of J.S. Bach by Wilhelm Kempf and Egon Petri, as well as works by Haydn, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, Verdi/Liszt and Frederic Rzewski.
Tickets are available for $7 adults, $5 seniors/students, available at the door one hour before the concert. GC Students/faculty/staff free with ID.

9, 10    8 p.m., Fall Mainstage: Urinetown, The Musical, Umble Center

Urinetown, The Musical offers a unique “what if” story. What if in the near future the world has nearly exhausted the earth’s water supply? What if our 21st century Goshen, Indiana, lifestyle isn’t as sustainable as we think it is? How could a musical comedy make fun of musical comedy (insert laugh here) and make us think (analyze and gasp) all at the same time?
Tickets are $10 adults, $5 seniors/students/GC employees. Tickets can be purchased from the Goshen College Welcome Center or online at www.goshen.edu/tickets.

11        4 p.m., CSA Fall Showcase Concert, Music Center, Sauder Concert Hall

Community School of the Arts music ensembles will perform a Showcase Concert in Sauder Concert Hall. The performance will feature the Rejoice Children’s Choir (grades 3-5), directed by Kristin Kauffman, and Shout for Joy (grades 6-8), directed by Sandy Hill. Also performing will be CSA Suzuki String Academy students, directed by Rosalyn Troiano, and CSA piano students, coached by Anna Bauer.
Tickets are $7 adults, $5 senior/students, available at the door one hour before the concert. GC students/faculty/staff free with ID.

12        8 p.m., The Harbor Trio (Jesse Blumberg, Deborah Selig and Cameron Stowe), Music Center, Sauder Concert Hall

The Harbor Trio, a vocal-piano ensemble based in New York and Boston, will present a visiting artist recital featuring art songs and duets from a wide variety of composers, including Brahms, Clara Schumann, Duparc, Sibelius, Ives, Barber, and Bernstein, as well as modern composers Daron Hagen, Lori Latiman, William Bolcom, and Christina Courtin.
Tickets are $7 adults, $5 seniors/students, available at the door one hour before the concert. Goshen College faculty, staff, and students are free with valid ID.

16, 17  8 p.m., Fall Mainstage: Urinetown, The Musical, Umble Center

Urinetown, The Musical offers a unique “what if” story. What if in the near future the world has nearly exhausted the earth’s water supply? What if our 21st century Goshen, Indiana, lifestyle isn’t as sustainable as we think it is? How could a musical comedy make fun of musical comedy (insert laugh here) and make us think (analyze and gasp) all at the same time?
Tickets are $10 adults, $5 seniors/students/GC employees. Tickets can be purchased from the Goshen College Welcome Center or online at www.goshen.edu/tickets.

18        3 p.m., Fall Mainstage: Urinetown, The Musical, Umble Center

Urinetown, The Musical offers a unique “what if” story. What if in the near future the world has nearly exhausted the earth’s water supply? What if our 21st century Goshen, Indiana, lifestyle isn’t as sustainable as we think it is? How could a musical comedy make fun of musical comedy (insert laugh here) and make us think (analyze and gasp) all at the same time?
Tickets are $10 adults, $5 seniors/students/GC employees. Tickets can be purchased from the Goshen College Welcome Center or online at www.goshen.edu/tickets.

30        7:30 p.m., Lavender Jazz Fall Concert, Music Center, Sauder Concert Hall

Lavender Jazz, Goshen College’s big band, will present their fall concert in Sauder Concert Hall. LJ is directed by Christopher Fashun.
Tickets are $7 adults, $5 senior/students, available at the door one hour before the concert. GC students/faculty/staff free with ID.

Goshen College’s Administration Building, Church-Chapel, Good Library, Music Center, Newcomer Center, Union Gymnasium and Umble Center are accessible to people using wheelchairs and others with physical limitations.

Directions to the college and a campus map are available at: www.goshen.edu/virtualgc/tour.  For ticket information, contact the Welcome Center, at (574) 535-7566, or e-mail welcomecenter@goshen.edu.

Kristen Kauffman

The Goshen College Community School of the Arts (CSA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Kristin Kauffman as the new director of the Rejoice children’s choir, a community chorus for area boys and girls in grades 3 through 5.

A soprano, Kauffman has taught private voice lessons to students in the Penn-Harris-Madison and Concord school districts, as well as at Bethany Christian Schools. In August, she began teaching voice lessons to students in the Goshen Community Schools. She was vocal music teacher at Central Noble High School and Central Noble Middle School in Albion, Ind. from 2000 to 2004, where she directed six choirs, provided private voice instruction and taught courses in music theory and musical theater.

Kauffman also serves as a guest song leader for area retreats and conferences, as a flute and vocal soloist and as an adjudicator with the Indiana State School Music Association. She remains active in music at her home congregation of Belmont Mennonite Church, where she directs the Belmont Children’s Choir and serves as congregational song leader. Kauffman is a 1998 graduate of Goshen College with a degree in K-12 music education.

CSA offers two community choirs: Rejoice and Shout for Joy, directed by Sandy Hill, for students in grades 6 to 8. All area youth in grades 3 to 8 may audition for the choirs regardless of singing experience or past participation.

Both choirs rehearse Thursday evenings from 7 to 8:15 p.m. in the Goshen College Music Center. Concerts take place in the Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall and elsewhere in the Goshen area. Tuition is $130 for the year with registration through the Community School of the Arts required. Financial aid is available. Visit www.gcmusiccenter.org for more information.

Community School of the Arts cello instructor Brook Bennett teaches student Jacob Murphy in 2011.

Private lessons for all ages and levels in voice, piano, strings, flute, guitar and pipe organ are available and taught by experienced professionals. Suzuki violin and viola lessons which include private and group instruction are also available for children age 4-8.

Individual Orff method music lessons for diverse abilities and needs will be taught by certified Orff instructor Kent Dutchersmith, who will work with children on music concepts such as steady beat, improvising, rhythm patterns and melodic patterns using xylophones, singing and movement. In addition, Dutchersmith will teach a Homeschool Music Class for grades 1-5 based on Orff techniques in a group setting.

Student instrumental ensembles include CSA orchestras, beginning with Allegro for young note readers, Youth Honors Concert Orchestra for upper intermediate players, and Youth Honors Symphony Orchestra for advanced high school players. Intermediate to advanced flute players may also join the Flute Choir.

Choir and group singing opportunities for youth include the Shout for Joy choir for grades 6-8 directed by Sandy Hill, and Rejoice choir for grades 3-5 led by new director Kristin Kauffman. Auditions will be held Aug. 20-21. Call the GC Music Center office (574) 535-7361 to learn more or to schedule an audition time.

Music Together® classes (music and movement) for preschoolers and a caregiver will be held at the Music Center and other locations in Goshen and Elkhart, beginning in September. Complete class listings will be available at www.gcmusiccenter.org or by calling the Music Center Office at (574) 535-7361.

CSA offerings particularly for adults include New Horizons String Orchestra for players at all levels, in addition to all private lesson options and the Flute Choir.

As a bonus, CSA students and immediate family members may attend many concerts and recitals at the Music Center for free that others pay admission to attend. A list of eligible concerts is available at www.gcmusiccenter.org/concerts.

Last year, 950 students participated in the programs offered through CSA. Space for some programs is limited so early registration is advised. Need-based scholarships are available for most programs. Please visit www.gcmusiccenter.org or call the Music Center office at (574) 535-7361 for more information or to register.

The Shout for Joy children's choir peforms at Goshen College's 2011 Festival of Carols Christmas concert.

Concert: Community School of the Arts Showcase Concert
Date and time: Sunday, May 6 at 4 p.m.
Location: Goshen College Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall
Cost: $7 for adults, $5 for students/seniors, available at the door one hour before the concert

GOSHEN, Ind. – Two Goshen College Community School of the Arts (CSA) children’s choirs will perform as part of the Spring CSA Showcase Concert on Sunday, May 6 at 4 p.m. in Goshen College Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall.

Performing will be Rejoice (grades 3-5), directed by Rosemary Rupp, and Shout for Joy (grades 6-8), directed by Sandy Hill. The concert will also feature a performance by CSA students Carol and Lauren Weirich. The Weirich sisters study violin, viola, piano and organ in the CSA and participate in the Youth Honors Orchestra ensembles.

Tickets are $7 adults, $5 seniors/students, available at the door beginning one hour before the concert. Goshen College faculty/staff/students are admitted free with ID, as well as CSA students and their immediate family members.

The CSA children’s choirs will be holding auditions for the 2012-2013 ensembles in early May. Rejoice will be holding auditions on Thursday, May 10 from 6:30-8:15 p.m. Shout for Joy will be auditioning new students Thursday, May 10 from 6-8:15 p.m., Wednesday, May 16 from 7-8 p.m. and Thursday, May 17 from 6-7 p.m. New and returning students may reserve an audition time by calling the Music Center Main Office at (574) 535-7361.

Singers in the choirs will be registered through the CSA. Tuition is $60/term plus registration fee.

The CSA serves hundreds of community families each season, offering private lessons, two children’s choirs, five orchestras, including the Elkhart County Youth Honors and Intermediate Concert Orchestras, and Music Together classes for preschool children in Elkhart County. Need-based scholarships are available for every CSA activity. Registration for Fall 2012 lessons and activities begins June 15, 2012.

For more information, visit www.gcmusiccenter.org or call (574) 535-7361.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College Acting News Bureau Coordinator Alysha Bergey Landis at (574) 535-7762 or alyshabl@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a 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.

New sign language program combines songs and playtime at Community School of the Arts

GOSHEN, Ind. – Beginning Jan. 28, Goshen College’s Community School of the Arts will offer a new music and sign language program called Sign & Sing for parents and their children ages six months to three years. This research-proven program is based on methods shown to speed language development in hearing children, ease frustration and enhance long-term learning abilities.

Jenny Campagna, a Kindermusik educator, is teaching the program created exclusively for Kindermusik by leading experts in sign language for hearing children called Signing Smart Inc. This new class combines songs and playful interaction to help children learn American Sign Language.

“Instinctively your baby reaches up when she wants to be held, and you instinctively pick her up and dance and sing to soothe her,” said Campagna. “Sign & Sing helps you see these moments happening every day in your life and gives you the language to improve that communication, and strengthen the bond between you and your child.”

The five-session class gives parents the tools to learn more than 50 American Sign Language signs for children ages 6 months to 3 years. Campagna will teach signs such as “help,” “change,” “bed,” “where” and “thank you.”

The class experience also includes a set of clip-on flashcards of American Sign Language that features photos of both a parent and a child making the signs. Also included is a booklet of activities for parents and their children to learn and play with at home, and a DVD glossary that features adults using sign language.

“One of the best ways to draw a child into learning sign language is through what they love: songs and play,” says Carol Penney, Kindermusik’s manager of curriculum development.

The class will be held on five consecutive Saturdays, beginning Jan. 28, and it will meet from 9:30 to 10:15 a.m. at the Goshen College Music Center. Cost for the class and materials is $85.

Kindermusik International is the world’s most respected publisher of music and early childhood education programs. Signing Smart Inc. is a nationally-recognized program for hearing infants and toddlers created by Michelle Anthony and Reyna Lindert, experts in language and child development.

For more information or to register for the class, contact Community School of the Arts by calling (574) 535-7361 or emailing csa@goshen.edu.

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 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.