Concert Choir is the premier touring vocal ensemble at Bethel College, representing the institution with campus performances, concerts in local churches and annual multi-state tours. Every four years, the choir travels internationally to Europe. The Concert Choir joins with all choirs for the performance of larger works during Masterworks. This choral ensemble is open by audition and it is anticipated that singers will make a minimum commitment of one academic year to the ensemble.
Choir History
The Bethel College Concert Choir has been the core of the music department since Walter Hohmann founded the ensemble in 1932 as the Bethel College A Cappella Choir. Though oratorio choruses, glee clubs and other music organizations had been active since the 1890s, Hohmann’s A Cappella Choir was distinct from its predecessors. The choir traveled out-of-state to perform and generally sang unaccompanied sacred repertoire from memory. The choir’s first extended concert tour was a six-week tour through the western United States and Canada in the summer of 1935.
Renamed the Mennonite Singers in the 1950s, the choir toured Europe for the first time in the summer of 1952 and again in 1955 and 1958, traveling by boat each time. During this decade, recordings of the Mennonite Singers were broadcast on a weekly radio program out of Wichita.
James Bixel succeeded Hohmann in 1958-59, Gordon Corwin in 1959-60, and Walter Jost in the fall of 1960. The choir continued as a mixed touring ensemble of 40-60 members, though Bixel changed the name from the Mennonite Singers to the Bethel College Choir. Marles Preheim joined the Bethel College music faculty in the fall of 1977 and alternated leadership of the College Choir with Jost nearly every year until Jost’s retirement in 1992. Preheim changed the name of the Bethel College Choir to the Bethel College Concert Choir in the early 1980s. William Eash succeeded Preheim as director in 1999. Under his leadership, the ensemble earned high accolades, including performances at Kansas Music Educators Association, Southwest American Choral Directors Association, and receiving an Emmy.
Today, the Bethel College Concert Choir is conducted by alumnus Dr. Russell Adrian. As it has for generations, the ensemble fosters a deep sense of connectedness among singers and audiences through excellent performances of choral music. Keeping with a tradition established in 1952, the ensemble will tour to Europe May 2026, performing concerts in Germany, France, Switzerland, and The Netherlands. A featured concert will celebrate 75 years of the Wuppertal Exchange Program at the culmination of the tour.
