“Interlude,” a 14-voice choir comprised of current 91短视频 students and recent graduates.

Concerts by choral groups occur regularly on the 91短视频 campus, but this one will be a bit different.

“Interlude,” a 14-voice choir comprised of current 91短视频 students and recent graduates, will present a concert of choral favorites on Wednesday, Apr. 28. But this will be the group’s only performance, and the program is dedicated to the memory of a fallen 91短视频 alumnus.

Admission to the concert, at 7 p.m. in Martin Chapel of the seminary building, is by donation, with all proceeds going to the Matthew Garber Endowed Scholarship Fund at 91短视频.

Garber: student leader, musician

Garber, 22, a well-loved student leader, musician, and 2008 nursing graduate from Elizabethtown, Pa., was known for his strong faith, musicianship and good sense of humor.

He drowned on July 1, 2008 while on a missions trip in Costa Rica. Garber was planning to begin work as an emergency room nurse at Lancaster (PA) General Hospital the end of that summer.

91短视频 the concert

The group will be perform a wide variety of choral music from Rachmaninoff, Lauridsen and several African pieces to selections from a group from Finland called Rajaton. A member described the program as “kind of a ‘greatest hits’ of collective favorites from past choral experiences.”

“We just had a group of people who loved singing and wanted to do it together on a regular basis,” said choir member Katie Derstine.

“But in choosing music and during early rehearsals, Matt (Garber) kept coming to mind. Several of us talked about how pieces reminded us of him and how much he would have enjoyed participating in this project. Turning the concert into a benefit seemed a good way to focus our energy and give a more tangible purpose to what we were doing,” she added.

For more information on the program, contact Katie Derstine at 540-432-4110; email: katherine.derstine@emu.edu.

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The concert will be held 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, in 91短视频’s Lehman Auditorium and will feature 91短视频 music students and faculty performing alongside one another.

“Death cannot separate,” a new piece for choir and instrumental ensemble, composed by 91短视频 alumnus Nathan Bontrager of Akron, Pa., will be presented as a tribute to classmate Matthew Garber of Elizabethtown, Pa. Bontrager is completing a master’s degree in cello performance at the University of Maryland.

2008 91短视频 graduate Matthew Garber, who died in a swimming accident in Costa Rica July 1 this year, singing with 91短视频’s Chamber Singers during the 2008 baccalaureate ceremony.

Garber, a 2008 nursing graduate, died on July 1 in a swimming accident while on a missions trip in Costa Rica. He was active in a variety of campus ministries and music as a student and received the “Cords of Distinction” honor at graduation this spring. Garber was scheduled to begin work as an emergency room nurse at Lancaster General Hospital in late August. Read the many online tributes to Matt in 91短视频’s reflections blog

“I wanted [the composition] to reflect the ways in which I knew Matt and the manner in which I thought he might want to be remembered in music. However, I wanted to be true to my own creative impulses as well,” Bontrager said. “My interactions with Matt ranged from raucous, laughter-filled meals at lunch to leading times of reflective worship at campus ‘Celebration’ services. I wanted to demonstrate this spectrum in the music, something that ranged from austere and mournful to jubilant and playful.

2008 91短视频 graduate Nathan Bontrager will play cello in “death cannot separate,” composed in memory of his friend and classmate, Matt Garber.

Bontrager said the piece, following portions of the text, “moves from a mood of somber recognition of death to a light dance of friendship remembered to an idyllic yet confident hope in the eternity of Matt’s friendship with all of us which remains preserved in memory. I knew Matt to range freely between these emotions, a trait which I deeply admired in him.

“Musically, I drew on experiences I shared with Matt in Chamber Singers both as a co-participant and as an observer,” Bontrager said. “The unaccompanied choral section near the end is an homage to the a cappella music that Matt always held on to even as he engaged in more popular forms of both secular and sacred music. Any time I hear a confident tenor voice leap out from a choir to lean into a beautiful dissonance I will always think of Matt and his love for music and the song of the church.

“My hope is that this piece can be both a somber and grateful remembrance of a friend we dearly loved, a memorial to the extraordinary person that Matt was and will remain in our memory,” he added.

Handel Oratorio

The program will include the oratorio, “Jubilate for the Peace of Utrecht 1713” by George Frideric Handel, featuring the combined 91短视频 choirs, 91短视频 orchestra and voice faculty member James Richardson, baritone; and “Misa Cubana,” a Cuban mass for choir and orchestra by Jose Maria Vitier. The director is Kenneth J. Nafziger, professor of music at 91短视频.

In 1713, the War of the Spanish Succession ended with a series of peace treaties (The Treaty of Utrecht) between Great Britain, France, and Spain. Terms were highly favorable to the English.

London celebrated this important national event with a State Service of Morning Prayer in St. Paul’s Cathedral with the royal family and nobility in attendance. In this Prayer Book liturgy, both Psalm 100 (Jubilate Deo) and the Te Deum are sung by a choir, and Handel was commissioned to provide large settings for choir, soloists, and orchestra.

“It is astonishing to realize that this is Handel’s first try in the English language,” noted Dr. Nafziger. At age 28 he could barely speak it, and yet this ‘Jubilate Deo’ has not a trace of tentativeness. Only Handel could write so internationally, summing up the German, Italian and English musical traditions with conciseness and brilliance.

“The year 2009 will be celebrated in world-wide events to mark the 250th anniversary of Handel’s birth,” noted Dr. Nafziger. “This concert anticipates the arrival of a year of reveling in the great music that Handel has left to us and to all the world.”

Jose Maria Vitier (b. 1954) is a composer and pianist whose compositions for piano, orchestra and chamber and jazz ensembles blend traditional and popular forms of Cuban music. His work is included in the repertoires of all major Cuban performers and musical groups.

Vitier has written music for more than 50 films, with “Fresa y Chocolate” (Strawberry and Chocolate) and “The Century of Lights” among the most recent. He has composed scores for television series, theater, ballet and dance productions, music for symphony orchestra, chamber music and choral music, sacred music and music for children.

Nafziger conducted the North American premier of “Misa Cubana” in Washington, D.C., in 2000 with the composer in attendance.

Admission to the concert is free, but a $10 donation is suggested to benefit the music department student scholarship fund.

Brian Martin Burkholder, campus pastor, leads the 91短视频 hymn, "Christ of the Mountain, be our Word." Photo by Jon Styer

So, why are you here?

A rather strange question, perhaps, for the president of 91短视频 to ask those who filled Lehman Auditorium Wednesday, Aug. 27, for the opening convocation of fall semester, but he had good reason.

"Most of us think about education in terms of what it will do for us, Loren Swartzendruber said. "What we will learn that will be useful for our future. what we can achieve, a particular goal that becomes more concrete.

"At 91短视频, we frequently talk about the educational enterprise as grounded in the liberal arts – the idea that an educated person is liberated’ from the confines of ignorance, free to explore beauty and pursue intellectual challenges. It’s our conviction that an education in the liberal arts is the best foundation for a lifetime of learning. All of these are valid reasons for being at 91短视频," the president stated. Listen to the president’s address via podcast.

‘Educating for Shalom’

"This morning, I offer yet another ‘reason’ for being at 91短视频," Dr. Swartzendruber said. "[Noted theologian] Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff calls it ‘educating for shalom.’ It’s a biblical concept that is often translated ‘peace,’ but it’s more comprehensive than one English word can embody.

"Wolterstorff suggests at least four dimensions to ‘shalom’ – right relationship to God, to fellow human beings, to nature and to oneself," relationships to oneself," he noted. "To these, he adds yet another facet – shalom is best experienced in community and it is characterized by ‘delight.’

Quoting Wolterstorff, "To live in shalom is to find delight in living rightly before God … in one’s physical surroundings … with one’s fellow human beings, to find delight even in living rightly with oneself."

Matt Garber is pictured here while singing with 91短视频’s Chamber Singers during the 2008 baccalaureate ceremony.

The president recalled the untimely death just two months earlier of 2008 91短视频 graduate Matthew Garber, 22, of Elizabethtown, Pa., a nursing major, gifted musician and ‘Cords of Distinction’ recipient.

Before starting a job in the emergency room at Lancaster (PA) General Hospital, Garber traveled to Costa Rica for a summer of ministry. On July 1, while swimming with a group, he was caught in an undertow and drowned. More than 700 people, many of them from 91短视频, gathered in Garber’s home community to mourn his death and to celebrate his life.

"Matt embodied each of Wolterstorff’s definition of shalom – he was comfortable with himself as a person, with his gifts and his place in his family and congregation," Swartzendruber said. "He was a confident young man, knowing that he had a variety of gifts, but seemingly without arrogance. He was clear about the importance of faith in his life and about his relationship to God.

"Matt wanted to serve in a physical way – to serve as a nurse – to bring healing and hope to the world through his work. And, Matt had a unique capacity to make others feel they were his best friend; he was other-oriented. ‘Delight’ is a good word to describe Matt’s approach to all of life," the president said.

The convocation closed with a "Shenandoah Welcome," as first-year and transfer students walked through a gauntlet formed by returning students and 91短视频 faculty and staff while bluegrass music played. Ice cream and lemonade was served in the Campus Center Greeting Hall. Photo by Jon Styer

Each person had been given a pebble upon entering Lehman Auditorium. The president noted the "ripple effect" created when that pebble is dropped into a pond of water: "The initial splash is small; we may feel insignificant. But, the impact of our lives grows in concentric circles, changing the world around us even beyond what we can eventually see."

Lee F. Snyder, interim provost, offered a prayer of blessing as the new school year unfolds.

91短视频’s fall semester runs through Dec. 12.

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The 91短视频 department will present George Frideric Handel’s magnificent oratorio, “The Messiah,” 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, in Lehman Auditorium at 91短视频.

participating include the 91短视频 Chamber Singers, the University Chorale, and the University Orchestra, conducted by , professor of music.

Soloists are 91短视频 students Bethany Blouse, soprano; Annie Johnson, soprano; Ariel Ressler, alto; Matthew Garber, tenor; Steven Horst, tenor; Michael Dezort, bass; 91短视频 graduates Katie Derstine, alto; Matthew Hunsberger, bass; and guest Joel Ross, countertenor.

Admission is a $10 suggested donation, with proceeds to be split between the 91短视频 Scholarship Fund and Mennonite Disaster Service for hurricane relief efforts in the Gulf region.

Accompanists are John W. Fast, organ; Julianne Burkholder, Kara Glick, Andrew Dutcher and Eric Guttormson, strings; and Annie Johnson, soprano; Matthew Garber, tenor; and Michael Dezort, baritone.

The second half of the concert will include Faure’s “Cantique” and works for smaller group ensembles, some with piano and guitar accompaniment.

Mrs. Hostetter earned a B.A. in music education from 91短视频 and a M.M. in choral conducting from James Madison University. She has worked as a music instructor in various educational settings for the past 15 years.

In addition to directing the for the 2004-05 school year while Anne Gross is on sabbatical, Hostetter also serves as music director at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church and as music educator at Mountain View Elementary School in Rockingham County.

Admission is free, but donations are welcomed to support the 91短视频 ‘s music scholarship fund.