Join us in a celebration of Tony Brown as we honor his lifelong pursuit of peace building through music. Masterworks chorus and orchestra, along with soloists Dr. Holly Swartzendruber and Keith Harris, will perform many of Tony’s favorite works.

November 11, 2023, 7:30 p.m.
Pre-concert Life Story Sharing, 7 to 7:20 p.m.
Hesston Mennonite Church

Holly Swartzendruber, D.M.A. is on the faculty at Hesston College where she teaches private voice and Aural Skills 1 and 2, and serves as director of Sunflower Performing Arts. She earned a B.A. in music from Goshen College and a Master of Music in vocal performance with a vocal pedagogy emphasis from Ohio University. She completed work for her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Kansas in 2001. Among the operatic roles Holly has performed are Lucia from Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Despina from Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Susanna from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. She has performed the soprano solos for Handel’s Messiah, the Brahms Requiem, Mozart Requiem and Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate. In addition to performing and her duties at Hesston, Holly teaches private voice lessons to area high school students, leads voice performance classes and adjudicates regionally and statewide.

Praised for the distinctive warmth of his voice, clear diction and exceptional musicianship, American baritone Keith Harris is captivating audiences in his performances on both operatic and concert stages. Mr. Harris’s credits include performances with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Israeli Opera, Teatro Comunale Bolzano, Seattle Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Lyrique en Mer France, Opera Tampa, Toledo Opera, and is a frequent soloist at Carnegie Hall and the theaters at Lincoln Center. He has sung almost 50 roles and more than 100 recitals. Some of his opera repertoire includes Papageno in Die Zauberflöte (where he was awarded Best Actor in the Tampa Bay Theatre Awards), Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Dandini in La Cenerentola, Valentin in Faust, Silvio in Pagliacci, Marcello and Schaunard in La Bohème, and numerous concert works including Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Five Mystical Songs of Vaughan Williams, and the Messiah. His album Keep on Climbing, a collection of inspirational and religious music can be found on iTunes and Amazon and his book The Odds Against: Finding the advantage in your disadvantage, also available on Amazon, discusses his journey with dyslexia and becoming a professional singer. Mr. Harris is a sought-after voice teacher, choral conductor, voice over artist and jingle singer.