November 16th, 2022
The Bethel College Wind Ensemble will give a musical lead-in to the Thanksgiving holidays with a concert Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. in Krehbiel Auditorium in Luyken Fine Arts Center.
Joel Boettger, director of bands, conducts the ensemble in a program that includes works by all composers from the 20th century: Leonard Bernstein, Ralph Vaugh Williams, Michael Sweeney, Philip Sparke and Frank Ticheli.
On the program is “Slava!” by Bernstein, written in celebration and honor of Mstislav Rostropovich beginning his tenure as conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in 1977.
The English Folk Song Suite by Vaughn Williams is three movements (two marches and an intermezzo) based on folk songs.
The remaining three pieces are all by still-living, late-20th-century composers: “Kinesis” by Sweeney is titled with the Greek word for “motion”; “A Winter’s Tale” by Sparke paints a sound picture of a winter’s day in the woods; and “Mt. Vesuvius” by Ticheli recalls the volcano that destroyed Pompeii in A.D. 79.
Wind Ensemble personnel are: flutes, Angelika Donaldson, Highland, Ill., Eli Regier, Newton, Halle Krehbiel, Hesston, and faculty member Kristin Shaffer; oboe, Peter Buller, Inman; clarinets, Joshua Kennell, Newton, Emil Benavides, Stockton, Kan., Caleb Mondragon, Wichita, and Tristan England, Pretty Prairie; bass clarinet, Leah Fast, Moundridge; saxophones, Bryce Wilson, Sterling, Timothy Schrag, Goessel, and Rebecca Schlosser, Newton; trumpets, Phillip Balzer, Hurley, S.D., Jacob Schrag, Goessel, and April Powls, Garnett; horns, Julianna Schrag, Goessel, Elizabeth Alderfer, Goessel, Daniel Kaufman, Moundridge, and Angel Hernandez, Freeman, S.D.; trombones, Christopher Strecker, Goessel, Isaac Tice, Hutchinson, and Dylan Yoder, Wichita; tuba, Trae Gehring, Pretty Prairie; percussion, faculty member Brad Shores and Rachel Geyer, Oxford, Iowa; and piano, faculty member Christina Liu, D.M.A.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Known for academic excellence, Bethel ranks at #14 in the Washington Monthly list of “Best Bachelor’s Colleges,” and #24 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of “Best Regional Colleges Midwest,” both for 2022-23. Bethel is the only Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu