Bethel’s annual choral showcase, “Bethel Sings,” has a seasonal theme this year.
The event, which includes performances by the Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, Chapel Choir and the small a cappella groups Open Road and Woven, is Nov. 3 at 4 p.m. at Bethel College Mennonite Church.
The date puts the concert immediately after the days traditionally celebrated as el Día de los Muertos, or All Saints/All Souls, Nov. 1 and 2, when people remember loved ones who have died.
The concert theme is “Sing You Home.” Dr. Henry S. Waters, director of choral music and associate professor of music, says that as he planned the theme and program for this year, he moved from his original idea of “Home” to remembering “those finding their heavenly – or forever – home, and the hope to see them again.”
He took the theme title from pieces by Mark Murphy and Maureen Ennis, and Joseph M. Martin.
That kind of grief is a universal human experience, he said, and sometimes when we have no words, music can express those deep and complex feelings.
The program of “Bethel Sings: Sing You Home” includes a number of arrangements of traditional spirituals and hymn tunes such as “Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal” (arranged by Alice Parker) and “Give Me Jesus” (arranged by Reginal Wright).
There are also pieces by Jake Runestad, Shawn Kirchner, Susan LaBarr, Nicki Mehta and Daniel E. Gawthrop, in addition to Martin, and Murphy and Ennis.
The program includes two selections from Craig Hella Johnson’s oratorio Considering Matthew Shepard.
“Bethel Sings” is free and open to the public, with a freewill offering taken to support choral music at Bethel College.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel was the only Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu
