Performing arts prepares for busy Commencement Weekend

Hesston College Performing Arts will showcase music and theatre students several times during Commencement Weekend May 5 to 8 in a variety of concerts and sophomore recitals. All performances are held on the Hesston College campus, and are free and open to the public.

Sophomore recitals throughout the weekend include:

  • Zac Headings (Hutchinson, Kan.) and Elliott Liechty (Harrisonbug, Va.) will perform a vocal recital at 7 p.m., Thursday, May 5, at Hesston Mennonite Church. Headings, tenor, and Liechty,     bass, are both members of Bel Canto Singers and study voice with Matthew Schloneger. Both men have been part of the cast for Hesston College drama and musical productions. Headings has also been a member of the Chamber Orchestra.
  • Mezzo sopranos Casey Perez (Kalona, Iowa) and Meredith Spicher (Belleville, Pa.) will perform a vocal recital at 8:30 p.m., Thursday, May 5, at Hesston Mennonite Church. Perez has been a member of Bel Canto Singers for two years. Spicher was a member of the Hesston College Chorale during her freshman year, and Bel Canto Singers during her sophomore year. She has also been a member of the cast for musical theatre productions of “Little Women” in spring 2015 and “Working” in spring 2016. Perez studies voice with Matthew Schloneger, and Spicher studies with Holly Swartzendruber.
  • Eleya Raim (Oxford, Iowa) and Irenea Soetjoadi (Depok, Indonesia) will perform a voice and piano recital at 1 p.m., Friday, May 6, at Hesston Mennonite Church. Raim, soprano, has been a member of Bel Canto Singers for two years, as well as a flautist with the Hesston College Chamber Orchestra and a member of the cast for musical theatre productions of “Little Women” and “Working.” She studies voice with Matthew Schloneger. Soetjoadi studies piano with Patricia Neufeldt.
  • Pianists Lydia Holland (Russell, Kan.) and Shelby Miller (Archbold, Ohio) will perform at 2:30 p.m., Friday, May 6, at Hesston Mennonite Church. They are students of Patricia Neufeldt.
  • Anna Martin (Harleysville, Pa.) and Lorren Oesch (Caldwell, Idaho) will perform a vocal recital at 11 a.m., Saturday, May 7, in the Helmuth Studio Theatre in Northlawn Center for Performing Arts Education. Martin, alto, and Oesch, soprano, are both members of Bel Canto Singers and study voice with Holly Swartzendruber. Martin has also been in the cast for several Hesston College plays and musicals.
  • Caleb Schrock-Hurst and Andry Stutzman, both of Harrisonburg, Va., will perform a voice, cello and piano recital at 6:30 p.m., Saturday, May 7, at Hesston Mennonite Church. Both men have been members of Bel Canto Singers for two years and study voice with Matthew Schloneger. Schrock-Hurst is also a cello student of Seth Girton. Stutzman is a piano student of Patricia Neufeldt.

A music department showcase highlighting Bel Canto Singers, Chamber Orchestra and sophomore soloists will be at 7 p.m., Friday, May 6, at Hesston Mennonite Church.

The theatre department will also host a showcase at 1 p.m., Saturday, May 7, in the Helmuth Studio Theatre in Northlawn Center for Performing Arts Education.

The International Chorale will perform a bon voyage concert at 4 p.m., Saturday, May 7, at Hesston Mennonite Church as a precursor to their European tour May 10 to 31.