 Front row: Ben Kropf, Naomi Tice, Jasmine Martin, Tara Harms-Becker, Bethany Miller, Jeremy Snyder, Virginia Sauter Second row: Drew Nussbaum, Erica Stoltzfus, Jonna Buller, Katelin Unruh, Stephanie Wyse, Bradley Kauffman Third row: Michael Steury, Kaitlyn Schmucker, Jessie Neer, Yvonne Hooley, Ken Rodgers Fourth row: Mitch Stutzman, Abby Erb, Linea Bartel, Annali Murray, Oliver Kropf, Caleb Detweiler Back row: Caleb Hartman, Marcus Unruh, Todd Stutzman, Daniel Penner, Jeremy Hassman Not pictured: Jackie Shaw, Lauren Zehr |
May 5, 2008
The Hesston College European Chorale—29 students and two music faculty members—will embark on a tour of nearly one month Tuesday, May 6, returning to Hesston Tuesday, June 3.
The two music faculty members—Bradley Kauffman, director of Bel Canto Singers and director of the college’s instrumental music program, and Ken Rodgers, director of the Hesston College Chorale and keyboard instructor—will co-direct the tour. This will be Rodgers’ 13th tour; his first was as a Hesston student in 1984. Meanwhile, Kauffman will experience the tour for the first time. And this will be the first time for each to conduct the ensemble; they’re dividing the responsibilities equally. Hesston College has offered the European Chorale tour in alternating years since 1980.
“We’ll start in Paris,” Rodgers said, describing tour highlights, “then visit the Black Forest region of Germany. From there, we go to Switzerland, to Milan, Italy; back into Germany, and complete the tour in the Netherlands.
“Always a highlight for students is the fact that 70 percent of the time, we’ll stay in homes,” Rodgers said. “It’s always a great chance for students, an opportunity for learning about different people, cultures, and languages.
“Culture, history, as well as Anabaptist and church history are also an important part of the tour,” Rodgers said. “And we’re singing at a wedding Saturday, May 31 at the Mennonite Church of Haarlem (the Netherlands).
“Highlights for me,” Rodgers said, “include the chorale singing two selections in Milan, Italy, with the Milan Bach Choir. In addition, near the end of our tour, we connect with the Hesston College 2008 Europe Alumni Tour. That group will hear our final concert in Haarlem.”
Rodgers will co-direct the alumni tour with Dallas Stutzman, vice president of Alumni and Church Relations at Hesston College, leading a group of 26 May 30-June 12.
Kauffman said he’s looking forward to his first European Chorale tour. “The students will have their world expanded,” he said. “We’ve chosen a body of work as a choir that engages a wide variety of time periods, while in part focusing on American music, which Europeans enjoy hearing. I feel good about what we’re taking artistically speaking.
“It is also a chance for us to present an alternative view of what can come out of North America,” Kauffman said. “We are ambassadors for our continent, and for ourselves.
“A strength of this trip for us,” he continued, “can be examining humanity and our awareness of our global citizenship.”
Rodgers noted that each student earns three hours of humanities credit, and can pick up an additional hour of choir credit. “The students will have on-site projects that they’ll work on and complete. They’ll also keep a journal, then write a reflection paper after they return to the United States.”
The 29 students have been members of the Hesston College Chorale or Bel Canto Singers. Six are Kansans, including Abby Erb, Tara Harms-Becker, and Todd Stutzman from Hesston.
They are:
- Linea Bartel – Iowa City, Iowa
Jonna Buller – Goshen, Indiana
Caleb Detweiler – Washington, Iowa
Abby Erb – Hesston, Kansas
Tara Harms-Becker – Hesston, Kansas
Caleb Hartman – Wooster, Ohio
Jeremy Hassman – Washington, Iowa
Yvonne Hooley – Wayland, Iowa
Benjamin Kropf – Oregon City, Oregon
Oliver Kropf – Oregon City, Oregon
Jasmine Martin – New Holland, Pennsylvania
Bethany Miller – Marion, South Dakota
Annali Murray – Orrville, Ohio
Jessie Neer – West Liberty, Ohio
Drew Nussbaum – Apple Creek, Ohio
Daniel Penner – Harper, Kansas
Virginia Sauter – Pawnee Rock, Kansas
Kaitlin Schmucker – Sacramento, California
Jackie Shaw – Croghan, New York
Jeremy Snyder – Kalona, Iowa
Michael Steury – New Paris, Indiana
Erica Stoltzfus – Harrisonburg, Virginia
Mitch Stutzman – Middlebury, Indiana
Todd Stutzman – Hesston, Kansas
Naomi Tice – Salisbury, Pennsylvania
Katelin Unruh – Durham, Kansas
Marcus Unruh – Wayland, Iowa
Stephanie Wyse – Mt. Pleasant, Iowa
Lauren Zehr – Wauseon, Ohio
Hesston College Music Department