The Hesston College Performing Arts department will cap off the academic year with a weekend full of music and theatre performances during the college’s Commencement Weekend celebration May 11 to 13. All performances are free and open to the public.
• The Chamber Orchestra will kick off the weekend with the Spring Sophomore Soloists Concert at 7 p.m., Friday, May 11, at Hesston Mennonite Church. The concert will feature five sophomore students chosen by audition – Elizabeth Miller (Archbold, Ohio), marimba; Mackenzie Miller (Lancaster, Pa.), soprano voice; Adrian Rogers (Newton, Kan.), trumpet; Angus Siemens (Newton, Kan.), double bass; and Noah Yoder (Harrisonburg, Va.), baritone voice.
A free will offering will be collected to help offset concert costs. A reception with cookies and punch will follow in the concert in the Hesston Mennonite Church Community Center.
The large orchestra pieces will include the fanfare piece “Celebration and Tribute” by James Swearingen, that features the brass and woodwinds in flourishes and more emotional, subtle solo passages. The orchestra will also perform the rigorous “Capriccio Espagnole by Rimsky-Korsakov, a gypsy dance in five movements which features soloists throughout the orchestra.
The Hesston College Chamber Orchestra is under the direction of Rebecca Schloneger, and is made up of Hesston Colleges students, recent alumni, community members and hired professionals.
• Noah Yoder will perform the first student recital of the weekend following the Chamber Orchestra concert at 9 p.m., May 11, in the Keim Center Black Box Theater. Yoder is a baritone voice. During his time at Hesston College, he has been a member of the college’s premier choir, Bel Canto Singers, led Campus Worship, performed as part of student music groups of varying styles and is a member of the International Chorale that will depart for a three-week European tour following Commencement.
• Saturday morning will bring another student recital by Anna Breckbill (Kidron, Ohio), a soprano voice, at 11 a.m., Saturday, May 12, in the Keim Center Black Box Theater. Breckbill has been a member of Women’s Chorus is a member of the International Chorale.
• The final student recital for the weekend will feature Mackenzie Miller and Sarah Miller (Freeman, S.D.), both soprano voices, at 1 p.m., May 12, at Hesston Mennonite Church. Both women are two-year members of Bel Canto Singers, members of International Chorale and have had several other solo and group performance opportunities during their time at Hesston.
• The International Chorale will perform a bon voyage concert at 4 p.m., May 12, at Hesston Mennonite Church. The International Chorale has formed every other year for thirty years for a three-week European tour. The 2018 choir, under the direction of Dr. Russell Adrian and tour leader Ken Rodgers, will perform eight concerts in four countries – the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and France. The program entitled “My Father’s World,” includes a repertoire of both sacred and secular pieces, and celebrates international community.
• Theatre students will be featured in a theatre showcase at 7 p.m., May 12, in the Keim Center Black Box Theater, where a themed collection of scenes and monologues will be performed by the spring semester Acting I and Acting II classes. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. and close at 7 p.m.