The honor, co-sponsored by the Forbes Center, the Arts Council of the Valley, and the College of Visual and Performing Arts at James Madison University, recognizes “individuals and organizations in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley that enhance and strengthen the cultural community by promoting and advocating for artistic excellence.”

Nafziger – hymnal editor, choral conductor, and founder, conductor and artistic director – has done precisely that.

The timing of the awards presentation was fitting, as shortly after Nafziger began channeling his music-making prowess into the 23rd annual festival, a week-long summer event which gathers musicians and singers from around the country. Three concerts, all in Lehman Auditorium, remain on the schedule: Friday and Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m., and the Sunday morning Leipzig service at 10 a.m.

The award ‘belongs to us all’

During his acceptance speech, Nafziger celebrated the collaborative efforts of his many fellow musicians: “This award is a reminder that, in my primary means of music-making, which is conducting, there is nothing I can do alone. Therefore, this Circle of Excellence award belongs to us all who have often shared workspace – concert hall stage, or rehearsal room, or church – each in some way a playground of the inner life. I cherish the sounds, the beauty, the work, the risks, the joys and the moments that we have experienced together.”

He also saluted past recipients Stan Swartz, a theater teacher at Harrisonburg High School, and OASIS Fine Art & Craft, a Harrisonburg art cooperative.

A member of the faculty at 91����Ƶ since 1977, he was nominated for the award by his colleague, Professor . (Griffing, concertmaster of the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival Orchestra, was unavailable to comment).

“Due to his many years of experience and stellar reputation as a conductor, the Bach Festival regularly attracts highly talented instrumental and choral musicians from around the U.S. and Canada each summer,” wrote President in his supporting letter to Griffing’s nomination.

To the region and beyond

In addition to the Bach Festival, Nafziger has a long legacy of bringing musical excellence to the region. This is his 20th year as the music director of , a chamber choir based in Winchester. With both Musica Viva and the 91����Ƶ , he’s toured widely in local venues, including participating in and planning worship services of various denominations.

Mennonite congregations in the Valley and indeed, all of North America, also worship using the songbook staples that bear his editing mark– Hymnal: A Worship Book, Sing the Journey and Sing the Story.

“Ken is known across the Mennonite Church, and in many other denominations, as a dynamic worship planner and leader,” wrote Swartzendruber.

Nafziger has also opened the world to area musicians, taking both choral groups on tours of Cuba, and traveling himself to the island as a guest conductor, master class professor and project collaborator.

As his acceptance speech suggests, Nafziger’s unflagging enthusiasm and dynamism will continue to shape the Shenandoah Valley’s music scene.

“This honor is encouragement to keep on musicking – no slowing down, no quitting, no easing up,” said Nafziger. “Rather, it tells me that I should take seriously this terse bit of American industrialist Henry J. Kaiser’s advice, ‘If your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt!’”

 For more information about the remaining Bach Festival concerts, click . For tickets, click .

A freewill offering will be taken at Sunday’s 10 a.m. Leipzig service.

The Nov. 15 event at Lehman Auditorium includes a collaborative performance of Handel’s “Messiah” and two pieces composed by new professor , as well as a wide variety of selections from the campus’s musical community. The performance begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free, but a suggested donation of $10 per person benefits the music scholarship fund.

The wind ensemble, with more than 25 student musicians, will open the gala with Jean-Joseph Mouret’s “Suite des Symphonies.” Conductor John Dull appreciates the increased exposure the group will receive, as the gala is their largest audience of the year.

The centerpiece of the concert is the popular Part I of Handel’s “Messiah,” performed by the Chamber Singers, men’s and women’s choirs, with the orchestra. Popularly called the “Christmas” movement, Part I celebrates the birth of Jesus and ends with the rousing “Hallelujah” chorus.

“Every student should have a chance to sing it or play it some time,” says Nafziger, of the Baroque oratorio.

Music professor , the orchestra’s conductor who will play the violin as well, says she enjoys the camaraderie of playing alongside her students. “The collaboration is what I really enjoy,” she says.

instructor Christa Hoover and graduate student Katrina Gehman will also play violin in the gala as soloists in Sarasate’s “Navarra” with the orchestra, a “super effervescent, whirlwind violin duo,” says Hoover.

Both violinists are Wheaton College alumni now teaching with the . Their friendship contributes to the close listening required to harmonize in the duet. Gehman, who has played violin since she was eight, hopes “that the audience in this gala can connect through the music with the parts of themselves that cannot be expressed in words, and yet still long to speak.”

Sharing personal experience and reflective moments are also what rewards Keebaugh when writing music. The chamber choir and string quartet will perform one of his compositions, titled “…Thy light which is brighter than the sun and the moon.” Keebaugh wrote the piece for Winchester’s Musica Viva concert last year in tribute to Jim Harmon, a beloved Virginian singer who died of cancer.

“It was an act of love and sorrow and respect,” said Nafziger, who upon hearing the piece, immediately wanted the chance to conduct it.

“To have that honor to commemorate someone’s life in a piece of music is a wonderful thing,” said Keebaugh. The piece, which revolves around themes of light and dawn, took him eight months to compose.

Junior Sarah Sutter will sing the melody in Keebaugh’s adaptation of “The Lord’s Prayer” with the women’s choir. She appreciates the unique opportunity to work with the composer and learn the inspiration and intent behind the music. In this version of “The Lord’s Prayer,” the choir surrounds the audience while mimicking the echoes of singing in a cave or cathedral. With this format, Keebaugh intends to make the audience part of the ensemble – breaking down the “us versus them” structure of traditional performance to better commune the personal sacred themes he writes into music.

Other musical numbers include Bartok’s “Romanian Folk Dances,” a contemporary orchestra piece, and “Music Down in My Soul,” a spiritual arrangement by Moses Hogan in the chamber singers’ repertoire.

“Even if you think that classical music isn’t your thing, you should come and give it a shot,” says Sutter. “We’re doing things in a whole range of styles and eras, so come and listen before you say you don’t like it!”

For more information, contact the at 540-432-4225.

• Sing a classical aria in a voice lesson on Monday mornings;
• Rehearse works by Mozart and Bono in Chamber Singers on Wednesday afternoons;
• Perform in the spring musical (Into the Woods this year) on Thursday night; and
• Play music at Celebration, a contemporary worship service on Sunday evenings.

All are parts of the challenging environment offered by 91����Ƶ’s music department, which combines academic rigor, individual attention and flexibility to pursue individual interests in a supportive community.

Many college music programs in the U.S. are marked by sharp competition. While friendly competition and challenge are parts of a music education at 91����Ƶ, department chair said individual attention and support from accomplished faculty and fellow students add to the depth of the experience.“When prospective students visit us, they see cooperation and camaraderie,” said assistant professor of music .

“We get to know students on an individual basis and help them along the path to reach their goals,” she said. “Our students accomplish much more than they ever thought they could when they walked in here on day one.”

A student-produced video focusing on the distinctive values of 91����Ƶ’s music department was posted online in March. It can be viewed at: .

In it, senior Brandy Clark, a music education major from Woodstock, calls the department’s “really supportive atmosphere” unique. “There’s a lot of working with our fellow students,” she said.

Lauren Gibson, a church music major who graduated in 2013, said 91����Ƶ felt like home when she first came for a visit.

“Before coming to 91����Ƶ, I felt confident calling myself a vocalist but never a musician,” she said. “But now I feel with the utmost confidence that I can call myself a musician and not just a vocalist.”

The video opens with a student string quintet performing Franz Schubert’s “Kyrie” from his Mass in G Major.

“In a small program like ours, music majors have more opportunities to perform and to build their resumes,” Richardson said. He calls 91����Ƶ a place “where you are nurtured and encouraged and where you establish yourself.”

The students in the string quintet are involved in various 91����Ƶ music activities. Some are pursuing musical interests along with another major through a new interdisciplinary studies concentration. Students can add another subject to study, taking courses chosen with the help of advisers from both departments.

Community programs

Students can also take part in three programs, each more than 20 years old, that have helped put 91����Ƶ and its music department on the map: the , the and the .

The Bach Festival, led by , brings dozens of professional performers to campus each year. The next festival, June 8-15, will include an encore performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Canadian soloist Daniel Lichti.

The Children’s Choir includes 140 children in auditioned performing choirs and non-auditioned early elementary classes.

The Preparatory Music Program instructs more than 400 children in several areas, including individual instruction, a youth symphony, a strings ensemble and strings programs in Harrisonburg City Schools.

The hour-and-a-half-long show will feature a wide variety of music, showcasing the diverse talents of 91����Ƶ’s music department, including the . The show will be sprinkled with smaller performances — 10 to 15 minutes in length — complementing two larger numbers, which include a concerto and a choir-led performance.

“This is a celebratory event,” says , chair of the music department. “This is an opportunity for people to come celebrate the arts … and specifically music at 91����Ƶ.”

Griffing — who will be conducting the orchestra pieces — says that the music department’s isolated location on campus — the first floor of the Lehman Auditorium building — causes it to be overlooked. This concert will allow both students and the general community an opportunity to take advantage of a performance that the department has been practicing months to perfect.

Highlights include Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 4,” which will be performed by new piano faculty member, Dr. ; the performance will also feature the department’s orchestra.

Additionally, the concert will feature classical music from Gustav Holst and Franz Schubert, along with the Beatles song “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.”

“People come from quite a distance to see this show,” says , who has been a professor at 91����Ƶ since 1977. “This is a significant event for our institution.”

Schubert’s “Mass in G Major,” will be the largest performance of the night, which will be performed by the 75 member choir and conducted by Nafziger.

“There will be a wide range of musical styles and musical groups, an eclectic mix of music,” says Griffing. “The concert will have something for everybody.”

Donations collected in lieu of admission; suggested price of $10 per person. Proceeds benefit the music scholarship fund.

For more information about the gala concert, contact the 91����Ƶ Music Department at 540-432-4225.

Courtesy Daily News Record, Nov. 7, 2013

When this year’s festival orchestra, made up of 63 professional musicians from a dozen states, gathered June 9-16 at 91����Ƶ (91����Ƶ) in Harrisonburg, Va., it was like a family reunion. The musicians keep coming back. “This festival operates on the loyalty principle,” said Hartman.

The festival musicians are “crazy busy,” he said, as they get ready to perform the first Sunday afternoon and then three times the next weekend. Some of them play in smaller groupings at one of the noon concerts during the week in downtown Harrisonburg. Hartman joined a cellist and pianist on Monday to perform a contemporary piece by Paquito D’Rivera.

Hartman played in rock bands during his growing-up years. After he discovered the violin he went on to earn a college degree in violin at the North Carolina School of the Arts.

This year’s festival opened with five concertos presented in the 17th-century Baroque style, with a smaller orchestra and most of the members standing. , founder, artistic director, and conductor of the Bach Festival, explained to the audience what was going on. The first piece, by Arcangelo Corelli, was performed by a core of three featured musicians surrounded by 12 others. There was no conductor. “This is the simplest visual presentation of a concerto,” said Nafziger, who is a longtime 91����Ƶ music professor. “It’s interactive, like watching a tennis match.”

Each year the festival features the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, the prolific 18^th-century German composer, along with one or two others. This year the others were 19^th-century composer Giuseppe Verdi of Italy and 20^th-century composer Benjamin Britten of England.

The second major concert at this year’s festival featured seven popular arias from Verdi’s operas, sung by this year’s internationally known soloists – soprano Veronica Chapman-Smith, tenor Kenneth Gayle, mezzo-soprano Heidi Kurtz, and baritone Grant Youngblood. The concert also included Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 and Britten’s “Four Sea Interludes” from the opera Peter Grimes, which was first performed in the newly re-opened opera house of London after World War II.

Festival Concert 3 was devoted entirely to Verdi’s Requiem, his masterpiece that premiered in Milan in 1874. The full orchestra and featured soloists were joined on the crowded stage by a choir of 88 volunteer singers from near and far. , a flutist and 91����Ƶ music professor who is the festival’s executive director, said Verdi’s Requiem may have drawn the biggest crowd to Lehman Auditorium in the Bach Festival’s history.

The noon chamber concerts during the week, held at historic Asbury United Methodist Church, included child-prodigy flutist Emma Resmini, pianist Naoko Takao, old Broadway show tunes, Dixieland jazz, organist Marvin Mills, and the premiere performance of Gwyneth Walker’s The Peacemakers.

The festival concluded on Sunday morning, as always, with a worship service patterned after the services that Bach led for 27 years at St. Thomas Church. His duties as cantor and organist included the ambitious – almost unbelievable − task of composing a cantata every week that illustrated the gospel reading of the day. This also meant that Bach had to prepare copies of music by hand and rehearse the musicians.

The gospel reading at the Bach Festival this year was Luke 5: 1-11, where Jesus called fishermen to leave their nets and join him as disciples. The orchestra and vocal soloists performed a Bach cantata on the subject, and the homily was delivered by Isaac Villegas, pastor of Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship in North Carolina.

Then the tired musicians returned home.

How do classical musicians – especially the members of the orchestra − make a living?

Hartman is typical of the musician who earns graduate degrees in his instrument and then struggles to pay his bills through music. One of his professors helped him prepare for a big break − auditioning successfully for the Winston-Salem and Greensboro symphonies in North Carolina.

But playing in small-city orchestras is not usually enough. So Hartman initially gave violin and guitar lessons and sought gigs as a solo player or as part of an ensemble.

Like many other musicians, though, Hartman found a more stable career at age 40 when he obtained a college teaching position. Today he is the orchestra director at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.

He plans to be back in 2014 for the Bach Festival, when – among other things – the festival welcomes Canadian soloist Daniel Lichti for an encore performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

“It’s simple,” says Ed Comer, MD.  “My mother made me take piano lessons when I was little, even though we could hardly afford it.” He has been hooked on classical music ever since. When he and his wife Cathy were filling 10 buckets with cut-flowers at their farm on a recent morning, the music of Chopin, his favorite composer, serenaded them. “Chopin was known as the poet of the piano,” he says.

Comer will preside over his first Bach Festival as board president when the event is held for the 21^st time June 9-16 in Harrisonburg, Va. For the first 20 years of the festival, the board president was Nelson Showalter, a local pharmacist.

“A lot of people in our area have no idea what an outstanding festival we put on right here in Harrisonburg,” says Comer. “We attract top musicians from all over the country, and they keep coming back.” He knows first-hand how the Shenandoah Valley festival stands out. Earlier this year Comer attended a similar festival in a bigger city with a bigger budget. “The quality of our music is better,” he says.

The driving force, Comer says, is , founder of the festival and its longtime artistic director and conductor. The annual event is sponsored by 91����Ƶ, where Nafziger is a music professor.

Comer also credits , an 91����Ƶ music professor who is executive director of the festival. “She and the board take care of the business side of the festival so that Ken can concentrate on the music side,” he says.

The 12-member board is a working board, he adds. The other day Comer and two other board members were seen passing out promotional brochures at . Board members also solicit donations from individuals and businesses. “Music festivals like this can never pay for themselves with ticket sales,” Comer says.

One way the Harrisonburg event saves money and promotes the feeling of family is that board members and others host the out-of-town musicians in their homes. Last year the Comers hosted two members of the festival orchestra − violinist Ralph Allen of New York and trombonist Ron Baedke of Richmond. The Valley’s Bach Festival tries to make its music accessible to a wide variety of people by holding noon concerts in downtown churches, with entry by donation. In recent years the venue has been historic .

After the concerts, some of the participants cross the street to the Hardesty-Higgins House, where they can get something to eat or browse the visitors’ center.  Previously they could buy a “Bach’s Lunch” at Mrs. Hardestry’s Tea House. Taking the place of the tea house since last December is New Leaf Pastry Kitchen.

Watching the festival-goers crossing the street from her second-floor office in Hardesty-Higgins, the director of , Brenda Black, feels proud that Harrisonburg is able to offer popular music events ranging from this high-brow classical festival to folksy bluegrass events where participants gather at campsites.

This spring Ed and Cathy, who operate a cut-flower business that serves local florists, hosted a garden party for the new Bach Guild, which includes people who give $1,500 or more each year for the festival.

At 75, Comer is retired from his practice as a children’s doctor. For nearly 40 years he worked in a group practice that is now known as Harrisonburg Pediatrics. But he will never retire from music. In fact, five years ago he returned to piano lessons. Now he studies with Sharon Bloomquist, a longtime piano teacher and performer and now a member of the Bach Festival board.

This summer’s festival will include the music of 19^th-century composer Giuseppe Verdi of Italy and 20^th-century composer Benjamin Britten of England. Selections from their operas will heighten the drama of the festival, said , an 91����Ƶ music professor who is the festival’s artistic director and conductor.

The festival, founded by Nafziger, will feature a diverse cast of artists this year. They include a cluster of New York musicians, a Cuban violinist, child-prodigy flutist, and many others.

Grant supports acclaimed artists

A $12,000 grant from the Rhodes and Leona Carpenter Foundation of Richmond, Va., is helping bring a number of acclaimed artists to this year’s festival.

The festival opens on Sunday, June 9, at 3 p.m., with a concert at 91����Ƶ’s Lehman Auditorium that includes Bach’s well-known Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, performed by the festival orchestra. Also on the program is Japanese pianist Naoko Takao, performing Britten’s Young Apollo. Tickets are available at 540-432-4582 or emu.edu/boxoffice.  

During the following week, June 10-15, the festival offers noon chamber music concerts at in downtown Harrisonburg. No tickets are required, but donations are requested at the door. The complete schedule for the noon concerts is available at .

The child prodigy flutist, Emma Resmini of Fairfax Station, Va., will perform at the Wednesday-noon concert. Last summer she studied in Switzerland with legendary flutist Sir James Galloway. She is the youngest person ever accepted in the National Symphony Orchestra’s youth fellowship program and has soloed with other major symphonies.

Concerts easily accessible to all

On Monday, June 10, at 5:30 p.m. is the annual faculty recital of the , an event sponsored by the Bach Festival. The recital features instruments and performance styles that were typical of Bach’s era. The event, held at Asbury United Methodist Church, requires no ticket, but donations are requested.

The Baroque Academy, held June 9-15, offers solo master classes and ensemble coaching by internationally acclaimed artists Arthur Haas, harpsichord; Martha McGaughey, viola da gamba; and Linda Quan, Baroque violin. More information is available at .

Festival Concert 2 on Friday, June 14, at 7:30 p.m., will feature the festival orchestra performing Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 and Britten’s “Four Sea Interludes” from the opera Peter Grimes. The orchestra will be joined by the festival’s internationally known soloists who will sing eight popular arias from Verdi’s operas.

The following night, Saturday, June 15, at 7:30 p.m., the orchestra will be joined by the featured vocal soloists and the festival chorus of 88 singers from near and far. They will perform Verdi’s Requiem.

On Sunday, June 16, at 10 a.m., Nafziger will lead the annual Leipzig service that is inspired by the Lutheran services for which Bach composed and directed music when he was a church organist. Nafziger will be joined by the festival orchestra, organist Marvin Mills, the featured vocal soloists, and North Carolina pastor Isaac Villegas, who will deliver the homily. The service will include Bach’s Cantata 88. No tickets are required for the service, but donations are requested.

New: Father’s Day brunch

New this year, after the Leipzig service, is a Father’s Day buffet brunch in 91����Ƶ’s Northlawn dining hall. Reservations must be made by June 1 at .

An event connected to the Bach Festival is the Road Scholar Program (formerly Elderhostel) that offers classes throughout the United States. From June 12 to 16 the participants will enjoy the history and culture of the Shenandoah Valley while attending the Bach Festival’s rehearsals, concerts, and classes with the musicians, conductor, and musical scholars. More information is available from .

, an 91����Ƶ music professor who is also executive director of the Bach Festival, said the annual event brings a sense of imagination to the Valley. “It is an opportunity to feed the souls of residents,” she said.

Advance tickets for the festival are available at the 91����Ƶ box office – 540-432-4582 or . They will also be available at the door at slightly higher prices.

The complete program for the week is available at .

, artistic director and conductor for the , notes the weeklong, mid-June festival at 91����Ƶ is blessed with enthusiastic and faithful audiences. At the conclusion of its 20-year anniversary festival this month, he said, “The community has claimed this festival as an important part of life here.”

Events included on-campus, ticketed festival concerts, and daily, free noon concerts downtown. In addition, Nafziger notes, “Anyone can sit in on any rehearsals all week long.”

Bach “just seems indestructible. You can do anything with him,” said 2012’s featured composer and cellist , a Berklee College of Music professor in Boston and artist-in-residence at New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

The Saturday night concert featured the world premiere of Friesen’s “Glory” – commissioned to honor the Bach Festival’s 20-year history. The 20-minute cantata used Jean Janzen’s poem, “A Catechism.” Friesen and Janzen are cousins. The music incorporates Cuban and Latin rhythms along with compositional techniques that Bach used in his cantatas. The cantata was personalized for Friesen who found the words in Janzen’s poem to be an appropriate memorial to a young family friend.

Friesen’s touring, children’s “Cello Man” show was received enthusiastically in a noon concert. For reasons of the cello’s resemblance to the human voice and its versatility, the lifelong cellist said “I schlep the cello” rather than more portable instruments. He accompanied comic stories with pantomime and paired masks with music. After demonstrating cello blues and bluegrass, Friesen electrified the instrument for a haunting duet with a recording of humpbacked whales.

The orchestra for the concerts includes approximately 60 professional musicians from around the United States. The choir, 50 in number, is a volunteer, mostly local choir. Many return yearly.

Rehearsals are intense. Choral rehearsals began on the Saturday evening one week prior to the concert. Practice had to start earlier for “Glory,” says tenor soloist , who has performed in 18 of the 20 festivals. He found “Glory” “very, very challenging” and also “a highlight for me.” Helmuth and were the soloists in Friesen’s work. The first rehearsal of the new piece for the orchestra was on Wednesday prior to the Saturday concert.

The Bach “Mass in B Minor” opened the season. Nafziger described the work as the musical equivalent to the challenge of scaling Mount Everest. Conducting the piece for his 14th time, he said, “I learned so many new things this time around that influenced tempo and dynamics.” He reflected, with a slightly ironic smile, “I felt I figured out – anew – what Bach had in mind!”

Soloists for the “Mass in B Minor” included Bender, , , and .

A large crowd attended the noon performance of Igor Stravinsky’s tragicomic “Soldier’s Tale,” featuring and , along with a chamber music ensemble. Stravinsky’s work is a Faustian morality play in which a soldier returning home is tricked into trading his soul for power and possessions. There is no happy ending.

Each Bach Festival culminates in a Sunday Leipzig service (named for Bach’s primary job as cantor for the Leipzig churches, where duties included composing a new cantata weekly). This year’s service was centered on the Pentecost story, with one of Bach’s Pentecost cantatas (No. 34).

In addition to the cantata, there was a Baroque concerto for two trumpets and strings as the prelude, two hymn accompaniments arranged by Eugene Friesen, organ music played by , and abundant congregational singing.

, dean of , delivered the homily. In response to King’s suggestion that we ask forgiveness for our trespasses rather than debts. one attendee said King’s words “added understanding to the Pentecost theme and closed the week with a power I was not expecting.”

The festival drew diverse participants, including high school students for an early-spring Young Artists’ Concert and learners for both a Baroque Workshop and the “Roads Scholar” (formerly Elderhostel) program, which organizer Phyllis Coulter reported brought 14 this year from homeplaces as distant as California.

Over the decades, Festival themes have paired Bach with such fellow-notables as Mozart and Mendelssohn, while connecting with Russian and Cuban traditions and American jazz and bluegrass. This season included music of Dvorak, including his beloved “Symphony No. 9: From the New World.” Next year’s theme, “Dramatic Connections: Bach, and Some Britten and Verdi,” will celebrate the anniversaries of Benjamin Britten’s 100th birthday and Giuseppi Verdi’s 200th.

As to theme ideas for the future, Nafziger says “I can’t imagine ever running out.”

Directed by Ken J. Nafziger, professor of music at 91����Ƶ, the Chamber Singers will blend the theme of Mary with unique holiday songs and carols. The 75-minute concert will include “Mary’s Song,” a piece composed by Celah Pence, a 1986 91����Ƶ alum, “Gabriel’s Message,” a Basque carol arranged by Joshua Shank and “Missa Brevis in Honorem Beatae Mariae Virginis” by Lithuanian composer Kristina Vasiliauskaite.

“Mary’s Song” and “Gabriel’s Message”

Commissioned earlier this year, Mary’s Song is a four-stanza piece that focused on the different stories in Mary’s life, according to Pence. “It was a meaningful experience, looking through Mary’s eyes at the events of her life and the responses they seemed to evoke in her,” said Pence.

Pence said two unique experiences in Mary’s life—the crucifixion and friendship between Mary and her sister, Elizabeth—shaped the composing process.

“I was touched by her spiritual connection Mary had with Elizabeth,” said Pence. “In addition, the crucifixion took on new levels of stark reality for me as I pondered what it would be like to lose an adult child and not be able to offer any solace or help in their darkest hour.”

“The concert is focused around Mary’s song, the Magnificat, a song that has been an important part of the church’s traditions for centuries,” said Nafziger. “The song combines both praise and justice that will be explored in this concert.”

Additional concert repertoire

The repertoire for the concert includes also a variety of carols and hymns related to Mary and the Magnificat: music of medieval Spain, Guatemala, African-American spirituals, and U.S. composers Ben Allaway and Craig Carnahan.

Admission to the program is free; donations are welcomed for the 91����Ƶ music student scholarship fund.

“We are designed to live in community and in close relationships,” Johnson explained in an interview with a reporter at a coffee break. “Love is not an intoxicating mixture of sex and infatuation.”

Instead love is having an emotional bond with others with whom we form “a safe haven from the storms of life,” she said. Johnson and several other internationally recognized speakers at the conference stressed that this type of love actually enables us to live longer, with less pain and sickness.

“Contact with a loving partner literally acts as a buffer against shock, stress, and pain,” Johnson said in Hold Me Tight. Conversely, “emotional isolation is a more dangerous health risk than smoking or high blood pressure,” she wrote, citing sociologist James House at the University of Michigan.

Of the five keynote speakers, Johnson and two others cited the results of several decades of research to support their assertions that caring relationships are as necessary to human life as air, food and water. The others referencing this research were neuroscientist James Coan, PhD, of the University of Virginia, and Dr. Daniel J. Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California-Los Angeles.

“The brain is a social organ, and our relationships with one another are not a luxury but an essential nutrient for our survival,” wrote Siegel in his latest book, Mindsight – The New Science of Personal Transformation, to which he referred frequently in his presentation. Siegel also described how our minds work in synchronicity with those around us.

Throughout the conference, which began the evening of March 31 and ended at noon on April 2, 2011, 91����Ƶ philosophy professor , offered brief, heartfelt responses following the major speeches, often tying modern scientific insights into love with the 2,000-year-old teachings of Jesus. “It is good for us to live in community,” said Early. “It is exhausting for us to live in isolation from each other.”

Early added, however, “Community can also be harmful.” Strangers cannot betray us – it is those closest to us who can betray us, he noted. As a result, we must cultivate “habits of repair,” in order to heal harms that have been done, in addition to learning how to love healthily.

Cult of Individual Questioned

The conference served to challenge the mythic image in the United States of strength being embodied in a lone individual making his or her way self-sufficiently through life, pretending not to need long-term, committed relationships.

“We are seeing a paradigm shift away from the cult of the individual and back to nurturing relationships,” said , a professor in 91����Ƶ’s counseling department. “This will be world-changing.”

Conference organizers expected about 700 participants, mostly from 91����Ƶ, but attendees from the community inflated the total to 1,200. Filling much of the University Commons arena, the audience included retirees, church personnel and health-care providers from the community (Rockingham Memorial Hospital was a co-sponsor).

As the developer of Emotion Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), Johnson led a day-long, pre-conference training on EFT for 300 people in the mental health field.

“Forget about learning how to argue better, analyzing your early childhood, making grand romantic gestures, or experimenting with new sexual positions,” Johnson said in her book and paraphrased in her speech. “Instead, recognize and admit that you are emotionally attached to and dependent on your partner in much the same way that a child is on a parent for nurturing, soothing, and protection.”

In the conference, Johnson, Coan and Siegel all made reference to the parent-child attachment studies begun after World War II by British psychologist John Bowlby. His Canadian assistant, Mary Ainsworth, continued this research through the 1990s, becoming a renowned psychologist in her own right. This research has now has been replicated and expanded by hundreds of other researchers; it demonstrates a child’s critical need for resonating with at least one caring adult in order to develop healthily.

Using MRI imaging of the brain, Coan and other researchers have found that interpersonal relationships, particularly secure ones, have a measurable impact on brain activity. If someone feels threatened – resulting in a fight-flight-freeze response – this can be monitored via the “signal change” in his or her right amygdala, said Coan in his keynote speech. This signal increases to a high level when the threatened person is alone. The signal is attenuated by having a stranger present. It registers lowest – meaning,  fewest signs of stress – when a partner is present.

This new research by Coan and others is revolutionizing the field of psychology. It  strongly suggests that humans are intended to live in relationship with others (that is, in families and communities), not as isolated individuals – in short, our brains function optimally when we have supportive relationships with others.

Conversely, if someone feels socially rejected, it registers in the same part of the brain (the anterior cingulate cortex) as physical pain does, according to research cited in Siegel’s book.

Underlying Spiritual Message

As he was wrapping up his presentation, Coan said with a smile, “I’ve never been invited to speak about spirituality at any conference, or about God.” In that respect, the 91����Ƶ conference was “uncharted territory,” he added.

Johnson told a reporter than when she was growing up in England, “my sense of spirituality got stuck in rules, dogma and dictums.” After Johnson included the words to a classic hymn “Abide with Me” in her presentation – noting that the words spoke of the need for attachment – 91����Ƶ’s veteran choral conductor, , surprised Johnson by leading the audience in singing “Abide with Me.” She later said the singing touched her deeply, bringing tears to her eyes.

In Mindsight, Siegel spoke of the importance of social “integration” by describing a choir in which “each member of the choir has his or her unique voice, while at the same time they are linked together in a complex and harmonious whole. One is never quite certain where the choir will take the song, but the surprises simply highlight the pleasure of a familiar, shared melody.”

Illustrating Siegel’s words, Nafziger and his student choral group, the Chamber Singers, performed a series of songs, with audience participation, including one that the entire audience of many hundreds was coached to create out of a spoken poem. The music seemed to transcend the boundaries between secular scientists, international students, devout Christians, and equally devout skeptics. Siegel publically summed up a feeling no doubt shared by many: “It’s incredible to be here.”

The two other keynote speakers – John Paul Lederach, PhD, professor of international peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame, and Nancey Murphy, PhD, professor of Christian philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary in California – offered insights into building relationships to emerge from conflict situations (Lederach) and into the links between Christian theology and the findings explored at the conference (Murphy).

The proceedings of the conference are to be edited for publication in the coming year. In the meantime, interested people can download PDFs of presenters’ PowerPoints at the .

and , a married couple with three young boys, conceived of the conference topic more than two years ago. They were two of the four 91����Ƶ professors and one staff member who spearheaded the conference. The others were biology professor , whose grant-writing yielded major funding from the John Templeton Foundation, and chemistry professor , who collaborated with Suter Science Center office coordinator Cheryl Doss in organizing the conference and ensuring that it ran smoothly.