The Hesston College Bel Canto Singers will celebrate 30 years of making music with a May tour to the east coast May 6 to 16, highlighted by a four-day New York City excursion. While in New York, the choir will participate in a Carnegie Hall performance and perform solo concerts at Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.  The group will make other performance stops in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

In 1983 Hesston College’s then choir conductor, David Rhodes, expanded the college’s tradition of outstanding vocal music with the formation of Bel Canto Singers – a mixed vocal ensemble that has become the college’s premiere choir.

Bel Canto Singers typically has 20 to 22 members selected by competitive audition during the preceding academic year. Conducted by music faculty member Bradley Kauffman, the current roster includes 21 students from eight states and Indonesia. The choir will perform a program entitled “Songs of a Wayfarer,” a concert inspired by the campus-wide study of immigration during the 2012-13 year and the First Year Experience seminar common read “Enrique’s Journey” by Sonia Nazario.

Bel Canto Singers will join the Masterworks Festival Chorus presenting Johannes Brahms’ “Requiem” under the direction of Donald Neuen and with the New York City Chamber Orchestra at 2 p.m., Sunday, May 12, in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. Advance tickets are required and can be purchased by calling Carnegie Charge at 212-247-7800 or visiting carnegiehall.org. Hesston College alumni and friends can receive a 15 percent discount by using the code MTN16606. Go to hesston.edu for more information.

Donald Neuen is a conductor of international renown, a composer, arranger, editor and educator. He conducts the University of California-Los Angeles Chorale and teaches conducting at UCLA’s highly-acclaimed graduate program. Neuen has also served as artistic director and conductor for the Angeles Chorale (Los Angeles), the director of the Cathedral Choir at the Crystal Cathedral (Garden Grove, Calif.), assistant conductor and director of choral activities for the Atlanta (Ga.) Symphony Orchestra and has served on the faculties at the University of Wisconsin (Madison), University of Tennessee (Knoxville), Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana) and Georgia State University (Atlanta).

“Singers develop a reverence for venues that offer a satisfying acoustical experience,” said Kauffman. “Carnegie Hall is one of the few places that combines a world-class acoustic with an overall aesthetic that is difficult to describe in words. When an opportunity to Sing the Brahms ‘Requiem’ coincided with our biennial May tour, I knew I wanted our students to have that experience.”

Bel Canto will also present a full solo concert hosted by Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship at 7 p.m., Friday, May 10 at the 15th Street Friends Meeting House, and a 30-minute solo concert at the 1892 Gothic revival church Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City at 2 p.m., Monday, May 13.

The full Bel Canto tour includes:

• 4 p.m., Saturday, May 4 at Hesston Mennonite Church
• 7:30 p.m., Monday May 6 at Arthur (Ill.) Mennonite Church
• 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 7 at Belmont Mennonite Church (Elkhart, Ind.)
• 7 p.m., Wednesday, May 8 at Kidron (Ohio) Mennonite Church. The Central Christian School (Kidron) Varsity Singers under director and Hesston alumnus Tim Shue will perform with Bel Canto. A reception will follow the concert with reflections on education in Mennonite Church USA from Central Christian superintendent Eugene Miller and Hesston College President Howard Keim.
• 7 p.m., Friday, May 10 at the 15th Street Friends Meeting House (New York City), hosted by Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship.
• 2 p.m., Sunday, May 12 at Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium. Advance tickets required.
• 2 p.m., Monday, May 13 at Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City
• 9:24 a.m., Wednesday, May 15 at Christopher Dock High School (Lansdale, Pa.)
• 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 15 at Blooming Glen (Pa.) Mennonite Church
• 9:54 a.m., Thursday, May 16 at Lancaster (Pa.) Mennonite High School
• 7:30 p.m., Thursday, May 16 at Park View Mennonite Church (Harrisonburg, Va.)

With the exception of the Carnegie Hall concert, all performances are free and open to the public, though a free-will offering will be collected to defer expenses.

Members of Bel Canto are Alex Bargerstock (Massillon, Ohio), Josh Booth (Newton, Kan.), Cory Bowman (Millersburg, Ind.), Neal Brubaker (Goessel, Kan.), Deni Brummer (Hutchinson, Kan.), Broxton Busenitz (North Newton, Kan.), Kaci Diener (Harrisonville, Mo.), Emerencia Dudas (Walbridge, Ohio), Rebecca Eichelberger (Geneva, Neb.), Bonita Garber (Bainbridge, Pa.), Kayla Kauffman (Hutchinson, Kan.), Janae King (Gordonville, Pa.), Morgan Martin (New Holland, Pa.), Levi Miller (Hesston, Kan.), Alisa Murray (Orrville, Ohio), Rebecca Rhodes (Arthur, Ill.), David Rudy (Manheim, Pa.), Jeffrey Smoker (Harrisonburg, Va.), Redfa Titihalawa (Papua, Indonesia) and Emily Taylor (Buhler, Kan.).