Music students to be featured in sophomore recitals during Commencement Weekend

Posted on by Rachel McMaster

Hesston College music students will be featured in sophomore recitals as part of Commencement Weekend activities. Recitals will be at Hesston Mennonite Church on the Hesston College campus.

Havela Lehman, Keizer, Ore., will present a recital in violin and voice at 7 p.m., Thursday, May 7. Mary Bender, Harrisonburg, Va., and Taylor Zehr, Wauseon, Ohio, will present a joint vocal and piano recital at 4 p.m., Friday, May 8.

Havela Lehman
Havela Lehman

Lehman will showcase contrasting violin works including Vivaldi’s Four Seasons: Spring, Allegro and D. Kabalewski’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Op. 48. Her vocal repertoire includes If Music be the Food of Love by Henry Purcell, as well as works by Caccini, Handel and Gilbert and Sullivan.

Vocalists Bender and Zehr will perform music that ranges from classical to modern. The classical end includes Domine Deus from Vivaldi’s Gloria and il pleure dans mon coeur by Claude Debussy. Modern selections include Broadway showtunes like I’ll Show Him from Plain and Fancy and Taylor the Latte Boy by Marcy Heiser and Zina Goldrich.

Taylor Zehr and Mary Bender
Taylor Zehr and Mary Bender

Bender and Zehr will also perform several duets: They Shall Hunger No More from The Holy City by Alfred Robert Gaul and The Call by singer/songwriter Regina Spektor. The I Love You Song from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn will be performed as a trio with 2014 graduate and current Bethel College (North Newton, Kan.) student, tenor Cameron Ponce.

Bender will also perform piano pieces featuring Beethoven and Mendelssohn.

All three students study voice with Dr. Matthew Schloneger. Bender is a piano student of Patricia Neufeldt, and Lehman is a violin student of Rebecca Schloneger. The students have all been members of the Bel Canto Singers under the direction of Bradley Kauffman for two years. Lehman was concertmaster of the Hesston College Chamber Orchestra, directed by Rebecca Schloneger, during the 2014-15 year. Zehr was also involved with theatre at Hesston, and performed the lead role of Jo March in the March production of the musical “Little Women.”