HBPA holiday concert to feature America’s Got Talent finalists
General
Music
Sons of Serendip, finalists in season nine of NBC’s America’s Got Talent, will ring in the Christmas season for Hesston-Bethel Performing Arts (HBPA) with their unique combination of harp, cello, piano/keyboard and voice at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 4 at Hesston Mennonite Church on the Hesston College campus.
As graduate students in a variety of fields at Boston University – law, cello performance, harp and theology – the men met through a series of serendipitous events. Though music had been a part of each man’s life since childhood, music was not the primary focus for all of them. After graduating and working for a couple of years, vocalist Micah Christian, was presented the opportunity to audition for America’s Got Talent. He invited his friends to join him, forming Sons of Serendip and shifting each man’s plan for his career and life.
The quartet appeared on America’s Got Talent in May 2014 for season nine, finishing in fourth place later that fall and gaining national attention. The end of the show was beginning of a musical journey for the newly-formed group.
Now with three albums to their name, including a Christmas album, Christmas: Beyond the Lights (October 2015), the group continues to grow in popularity, with recordings used in several performance-based reality television shows, touring nationally and collaborating with orchestras and other musicians.
Sons of Serendip features Micah Christian, who earned a master of divinity and spent time serving overseas prior to launching the group. Christian became interested in music as a child and spent his undergraduate years following his passion for music and spending summers performing with an a cappella group, Hyannis Sound.
Kendall Ramseur is the group’s cellist, and is also a singer-songwriter and composer. His history with the cello dates back to the age of 10, and his studies and career have all involved cello.
Featured on harp with Sons of Serendip is Mason Morton. After accepting a free offer to learn the harp as a child, Mason continued to play and teach others, eventually taking him to Boston University to learn from the teacher of his undergraduate instructor.
Cordaro Rodriguez, pianist, began teaching himself piano at the age of 10. After completing an undergraduate degree in psychology, he spent a year volunteering as an English teacher in Ecuador before earning his juris doctorate degree from Boston University. Rodriguez has also produced music for several well-known international artists.
Reserved seating and general admission tickets for Sons of Serendip are available through the HBPA website or by calling 620-327-8105. Single tickets are for sale at the Hesston College Bookstore in Erb Hall or Bethel College’s Thresher Shop in Schultz Student Center during regular business hours. Reserved seating is $27 for adults and senior citizens, and general admission seating ranges from $18 to $23. Discounts are available for students and senior citizens.
Started in 1982 as Hesston Performing Arts, the series expanded in 1998 when Hesston College joined forces with Bethel College for The Hesston-Bethel Performing Arts series. The series presents five performances by world-renowned or regionally acclaimed artists each year. HBPA is funded in part by the city of North Newton, Excel Industries and Hustler Turf Equipment (Hesston), the North Newton Community Foundation and the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Area businesses and patrons provide additional funding for the HBPA series.
Night of entertainment with talent show
General
Hesston College students will showcase a wide array of talents at the annual talent show at 8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 9, at Hesston Mennonite Church on the Hesston College campus.
Hosted by the Bills and Normas, a group of students known for ridiculous antics and entertainment value, and a Hesston College tradition dating back to the 1980s, the talent show will feature skits, humor, music and talents of all kinds.
Cookies and other refreshments will be served as a pre-show snack from 7:15 to 7:45 p.m. in the church’s community center.
The Hesston College talent show is free, open to the public and fun for the whole family.
Celebration and gratitude themes of annual Alumni/Community Basketball Night
General
The local community and alumni of Hesston College are invited to campus on Wednesday night, Nov. 7, for Alumni/Community Basketball Night, a free event featuring varsity basketball games, entertainment and fun for the whole family.
The Larks will take on Butler County Community College in Yost Center, with the women’s game scheduled for 6 p.m. and the men’s game following at 8 p.m. The evening will be filled with games, prizes, snacks and entertainment.
“Alumni/Community Night allows us to thank alumni and the wider community for all the ways they are involved with and support the college,” said Dallas Stutzman, director of Alumni and Church Relations. “It’s a way Hesston College can give back.”
In addition to the basketball games, the lineup for the evening includes free haircuts by CC’s Family Hair, Lark megaphones and free popcorn, Lark tattoos, the Hesston High School pep band and halftime entertainment.
High school students are invited to a pre-game devotional at 6:30 p.m. led by men’s basketball coach Dustin Galyon. Students who wish to attend the devotional session should RSVP to brandy.quinn@hesston.edu by Friday, Nov. 2. Devotional participants will meet in Yost Center at 6:20 p.m. to walk together to Kropf Center for the meditation. Following the devotional, participants will be treated to free pizza.
Bel Canto Singers prepare for fall tours
General
Music
Hesston College’s premier vocal ensemble, the Bel Canto Singers, is preparing for short fall tours over two weekends in October and November.
The 27-voice mixed chamber choir, under the direction of Dr. Russell Adrian, will present a program entitled “Grant Us Peace,” which was inspired by the college’s International Peace Day celebration in September. The program features a wide range of genres.
Tour itineraries include:
- Thursday, Oct. 18, 7 p.m., Whitestone Mennonite Church, Hesston, Kan.
- Friday, Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m., Rocky Mountain Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Relief Sale, Rocky Ford, Colo.
- Sunday, Oct. 21, Beth-El Mennonite Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Saturday, Nov. 17, Salem Mennonite Church, Shickley, Neb.
- Sunday, Nov. 18, Bethesda Mennonite Church, Henderson, Neb.
Members of the Bel Canto Singers are: Erica Baer, Apple Creek, Ohio; Tanner DeGrado, Newton, Kan.; Harley Foster, Lancaster, Pa.; Risa Fukaya, Zushi, Japan; Elizabeth Fulcher, Goodland, Kan.; Esmi Hernandez, Newton, Kan.; Kytrena Hightree, Harper, Kan.; Jaden Hostetter, Harrisonburg, Va.; Leah Huyard, Staunton, Va.; Madi Kauffman, Haven, Kan.; Chris Lichti, Shickley, Neb.; Nicole Loewen, Hutchinson, Kan.; Taylor Longenecker, Harrisonburg, Va.; Mariana Martinez, Harrisonburg, Va.; Rachel Miller, Freeman, S.D.; Jared Oyer, Hubbard, Ore.; Emma Prowell, Lenexa, Kan.; Raelynn Reeves, Abilene, Kan.; Seth Rudeen, Osage City, Kan.; Kenton Schroeder, Harper, Kan.; Jack Shingler, Creston, Ohio; Dylan Slabach Brubaker, Harrisonburg, Va.; Therin Smith, Key West, Fla.; Addie Swartzendruber, Henderson, Neb.; Madison Swartzendruber, Goshen, Ind.; Stephen Waltner, Freeman, S.D.; and Navy Widyani, Jakarta, Indonesia. Music professor Ken Rodgers is accompanist for the group.
The 2018-19 year marks the 35th season for the Bel Canto Singers. The group carries out ambitious concert and touring schedules annually. Recent juried appearances have included performances for VOCES8, Chanticleer, The King’s Singers, Charles Bruffy and the Rose Ensemble.
High school theatre and performing arts students invited to sharpen their skills at TheatreFest
General
Theater
High school students with interest in any of the many areas of theatre and performing arts are invited to Hesston College’s first day-long TheatreFest on Saturday, Oct. 27, from 8:30 to 3 p.m., on the Hesston College campus.
“We want this day to be an opportunity for students to sharpen their skills, broaden their theatre and performance knowledge and have fun doing it,” said theatre professor Carla Lahey.
Led by Hesston College performing arts faculty and students, throughout the day, participants will attend three workshops from a list of options including:
- Mastering your Audition Monologue
- Actor’s Workshop, where participants bring in a monologue in progress to receive suggestions and feedback
- Dance for Musical Theatre
- Vocal Techniques
- Stage Management
- Sketch Comedy Writing
- Project Runway-style Costume Design Challenge
- What to Expect as a College Theatre Major
- Test Your Broadway Knowledge
The day will wrap up with an improv comedy mixer. Participants can also choose to meet individually with Admissions staff to learn about performing arts scholarships at Hesston College and more.
The cost to attend is $10, and includes breakfast and lunch. Participants who register by Oct. 19 will receive a free t-shirt. Find more information and registration online.
Contact Carla Lahey with questions at carla.lahey@hesston.edu or 620-327-8263.
Students with theatre interest – both as majors or extracurricular interest – have lots of opportunities to get involved at Hesston College as actors and crew. Each academic year, the theatre department performs several mainstage productions – a play during the fall semester and a musical during the spring semester – collaborates with the music department on a performing arts production incorporating both music and theatre, performs the plays of local playwrights at the annual Pen to Paper to Performance playwriting festival and wraps up the year with a theatre showcase, featuring students performing scenes, monologues and musical theatre numbers.
New in 2018-19 is the Traveling Theatre Company, which, this fall semester, has been traveling to area high schools to do improv workshops with theatre classes, and in the spring plans to take a show on the road.
Fall 2018 enrollment numbers show diversity on the rise at Hesston College
General
Following the first 20 classroom days of the 2018-19 year, Hesston College released official enrollment numbers for the fall 2018 semester. Total student headcount is 420, with 90 percent of students enrolled at a full-time status. The total enrollment falls right at the average of the last five years.
With an institution-wide focus on broadening global engagement launched a year ago, diversity at Hesston College is on the rise. For fall 2018, 56 international students are enrolled from 20 countries, which is 13 percent of total enrollment. While the percent of international students within the student body held steady from 2017, the countries students call home grew by three in 2018, widening the college’s global reach. U.S. students represent 28 U.S. states and territories, including about 51 percent from Kansas and 36 percent from other U.S. states.
Hesston is committed to being an institution that welcomes students from all backgrounds and beliefs. Hesston College is a part of Mennonite Church USA, and nearly 21 percent of students come from the Anabaptist-Mennonite Christian faith tradition. More than 30 other Christian denominations and world religions comprise the campus community.
“One population that was exciting to watch this past recruitment cycle was students seeking an aviation degree,” said Rachel Swartzendruber Miller, vice president of enrollment. “Our new aviation student number more than doubled from eight to 18 since last fall, which echoes the reality of job demand within the aviation market. We will continue to watch trends across all industries and try to respond appropriately with our programs of study.”
Of total student enrollment, 184 are new students. Following Hesston College trends for the last several years, fall to fall retention of students who were new in 2017 remains high at almost 73 percent, as compared to a national average of about 61 percent according to The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Students living in campus housing make up 70 percent of the population.
“We continue to closely monitor retention, both overall and of sub-populations, as one of our tools to gauge student satisfaction with the Hesston Experience,” said Brent Yoder, vice president of Academics. “Once again, we are pleased to see better than 80 percent retention of nursing students, international students and others, but we are also thinking strategically about what we can do to ensure a positive experience and high retention for all students.”
Cashore Marionettes to portray life and art in new ways in HBPA season-opening performance
General
Music
Theater
A celebration of life – with all of its intricacies and emotions – will be the focus of the opening performance of the 2018-19 Hesston-Bethel Performing Arts Series as it kicks off with Cashore Marionettes: “Life in Motion” at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 23, at Hesston Mennonite Church on the Hesston College campus.
In “Life in Motion,” puppeteer Joseph Cashore presents his collection of marionette masterworks as they depict life’s moments set to music by composers such as Beethoven, Vivaldi, Strauss and Copland. Unique and unmatched in the typical medium of theater productions of today, Cashore Marionettes presents characters of depth, integrity and humanity in a celebration of the complexities and richness of life.
Cashore first became acquainted with marionettes as a young boy of 10 or 11 when he saw a pirate marionette in a gift shop on the New Jersey shore. A short time later, he created his first marionette from clothespins, wood, string and a tin can. As he played with this puppet and observed the quality of its movement, he was startled by the sudden but momentary sensation that the puppet was alive.
After earning a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Ind.) and studying portrait and figure painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Philadelphia), Cashore made his second marionette. He soon discovered that in order to have the fluid motion he sought, he would have to create his own control designs. For the next nineteen years, Cashore experimented with the construction of the marionettes and devised totally new control mechanisms.
In the late 1980s, Cashore was inspired to create a puppet that would convincingly “play” the violin solo from Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending.” In working through the technical elements of creating a marionette of which he could gain subtle control of the body, he discovered the possibility for “greater depth of expression with the marionettes.” That puppet, Maestro Janos Zelinka, became the impetus for his present productions.
Cashore has been performing full-time across North America, Europe and Asia since 1990. He has received several awards for his artistic accomplishments, and has also received a Henson Foundation Grant, which helps promote puppetry to adult audiences. Cashore also has received a UNIMA Citation of Excellence, the highest honor an American puppeteer can receive, which is “awarded to shows that touch their audiences deeply; that totally engage, enchant and enthrall.”
Reserved seating and general admission tickets for Cashore Marionettes, as well as season tickets for the full five-concert series, are available online or by calling 620-327-8105. Single tickets are for sale at the Hesston College Bookstore in Erb Hall or Bethel College’s Thresher Shop in Schultz Student Center during regular business hours. Reserved seating is $27 for adults and senior citizens, and general admission seating ranges from $18 to $23. Discounts are available for students and senior citizens.
Area elementary students will be treated to a Cashore Marionettes show earlier in the day on Oct. 23 at Hesston Mennonite Church.
Started in 1982 as Hesston Performing Arts, the series expanded in 1998 when Hesston College joined forces with Bethel College for The Hesston-Bethel Performing Arts series. The series presents five performances by world-renowned or regionally acclaimed artists each year. HBPA is funded in part by the city of North Newton, Excel Industries and Hustler Turf Equipment (Hesston), the North Newton Community Foundation and the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Area businesses and patrons provide additional funding for the HBPA series.
General
Theater
Hesston College Theatre is gearing up to present a classic comedy in a new and modern way with five performances of “The Misanthrope” Oct. 3 to 7.
Showtime is at 7 p.m. on Oct. 3 to 6, and 2 p.m. on Oct. 7. The performance will be in the Keim Center Black Box Theatre on the Hesston College campus. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students, and can be purchased in advance at the Hesston College Bookstore or by calling 620-327-8105. Any remaining tickets will be sold at the door prior to show time. The show is rated PG.
“The Misanthrope” is a comedy written by the French playwright Moliere in 1666 during the French restoration as a response to the hypocrisy of monarchs of the day. Featuring a “misanthrope” lead, or a person who dislikes all of humanity and avoids human society, larger than life characters illustrate human tendencies that are still common four centuries later.
Led by director Rachel Jantzi, Hesston College’s take on this classic is from the translation by Robert Cohen “with a bit of an update,” Jantzi explained.
The original French and Cohen’s translation are written in iambic pentameter and rhyme that was the popular style of the 17th century. Hesston’s version will keep the verse and translated language. It’s the setting that is the biggest change.
Moliere’s play was set in 17th century Paris in the courts of royalty. Jantzi chose to set Hesston College’s production in 21st century fictional Paris High School, home of the Monarchs.
“When I read through the play, I kept picturing it as an after school special or like the movie Mean Girls, with over the top classic high school characters,” said Jantzi. “So I thought, “Why not modernize it and bring these characters to the high school hallways?’”
To play into the set adaptation and further enforce the modern feel, Jantzi’s interpretation incorporates popular music by artists like Sia, Milky Chance, Walk the Moon and The Strumbellas. Overall, Hesston’s modernized version is rooted in teenage drama but also carries the powerful moral messages expressed in the original.
“The play comments on the crazy games that are played by these characters who are in various degrees of love and hate with one another,” said Jantzi.
Jantzi hopes the audience will mostly sit back and enjoy a fun show while maybe also taking with them some important qualities and traits to consider.
“We haven’t done a ridiculous comedy in a while, so we’re really having fun with this, and I think others will, too.”
Soccer field to bear coach’s name
General
The Hesston College soccer field underwent some upgrades during the summer with leveling and resurfacing and a new scoreboard installed earlier this week, and its transformation will soon be complete when it gains the name Sieber Field.
The pending name honors coach Gerry Sieber, who coached Lark student-athletes in a several sports for 30 years – 23 years of which were as men’s soccer coach. Sieber retired in December 2017.
The naming ceremony will take place on the soccer field about 5:45 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 29, between the women’s and men’s soccer games. A time to visit with and recognize Coach Sieber will be held immediately following the naming ceremony, during the men’s soccer game at the newly bestowed Sieber Field. The ceremony is also part of the college’s Homecoming Weekend activities, which will celebrate 60 years of intercollegiate Lark athletics.
“We are grateful to Gerry for his many years of dedication to Hesston College and our student-athletes,” said President Joseph A. Manickam in an email to faculty and staff. “His commitment to the school, our students and the Hesston Experience deserves recognition in this lasting way.”
Sieber, who is a 1964 Hesston College graduate, returned to his alma mater as a coach in 1968. Over the next 23 years he coached basketball, track and field and, primarily, soccer, where he tallied 247 wins, ten region titles, led 22 players who earned National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) All-American honors, and earned Coach of the Year eight times. During those years, Sieber also taught wellness classes and served as athletic director.
In 2010, after almost 20 years away from Hesston College, Sieber returned to develop a men’s and women’s cross country team, which he also coached for seven years prior to retirement. In 2015, Sieber was inducted into the NJCAA Soccer Hall of Fame for his successes leading the Lark program.
Aside from the many performance-related accolades his teams earned, Sieber was also known for taking genuine interest in his student-athletes apart from their athletic development and focusing on the development of the whole person. When he moved on from Hesston College nine months ago, his efforts to build genuine community and camaraderie were recognized and celebrated as much as his successful teams.