The Bethel College Concert Choir will both sing about and explore American identity on their spring break tour this year.
The choir leaves for the tour on March 8. They will preview their tour program on March 3 at 4 p.m. in Memorial Hall at Bethel College. Dr. Henry S. Waters, director of choral music and associate professor of music at Bethel, directs.
The concert can be viewed via livestream at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggUFeT-XG7s
With a theme of “Music Exploring American Identity,” headlined with a quote from poet Langston Hughes, the program includes two songs with text by Hughes, Black spirituals by Moses Hogan and Thomas A. Dorsey, pieces in language other than English (Spanish, Mandarin, Hawaiian, isiXhosa), an arrangement of “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz, and more.
In addition to the full Concert Choir, the smaller a cappella groups will each sing one or two numbers – the mixed Chamber Choir along with Open Road (low voices) and Woven (high voices).
The tour, which begins March 8 with an evening concert in Oklahoma City and ends March 14, will take the choir to Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Venues are Presbyterian and Methodist churches and an Episcopal cathedral in Oklahoma City, Allen, Texas, Jackson and Tupelo, Miss., and Tulsa, Okla. Smaller Mennonite churches will be partnering in several places: Joy Mennonite Church in Oklahoma City, Open Door Mennonite Church in Jackson, and Pilgrimage Mennonite Fellowship in Tulsa.
The Tupelo venue is First United Methodist, Dr. Waters’ home church.
In addition to singing, choir members will have the chance to explore various aspects of American identity through history and culture, as presented in places like the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City, the National Civil Rights Museum and Lorraine Motel in Memphis, and the Elvis Presley Birthplace in Tupelo, among others.
They will attend a Sphinx Virtuosi (chamber orchestra made up of Black and Latinx musicians) performance in Dallas and a Vintage Wildflowers (all-female trio that performs across several genres) concert in Tulsa.
You can See the choir’s complete itinerary at https://www.bethelks.edu/fine-arts/choral-ensembles/concert-choir/
The March 3 concert and all concerts are free and open to the public, with freewill offerings taken to help defray tour expenses and support vocal music and performance at Bethel College.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel ranks at #23 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of “Best Regional Colleges Midwest” for 2023-24. Bethel was the first Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see http://www.bethelks.edu
