Kevin Vaughn’s organ recital scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 18, has been postponed until Thursday, Feb. 20, due to the winter weather forecast.
Well known in the northern Indiana area, organist Kevin J. Vaughn comes to south-central Kansas for a recital at Bethel College.
He will play Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. in the Administration Building chapel.
Bethel’s Organ Recital Series is free and open to the public, supported by a generous memorial gift from the family of Kathy Voran.
Vaughn is director of music and organist at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in South Bend, Ind.
He also accompanies the South Bend Chamber Singers, directed by Nancy Menk, and tours nationally as a concert artist.
Vaughn was the first person to earn a D.M.A. in organ performance from the University of Notre Dame. His teachers have included Phyllis Warner and Craig Cramer.
He has a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Cedarville (Ohio) University and a master’s degree in organ performance from Notre Dame.
In addition to his work as an organist and accompanist, Vaughn regularly teaches organ literature to master’s and doctoral students in the graduate program in sacred music at Notre Dame.
He previously served as instructional faculty at Goshen (Ind.) College in organ and harpsichord, and at Notre Dame in organ and piano.
He appears regularly as a solo organ recitalist – recent engagements include concerts at churches and universities in Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Berlin (Germany) and Toronto.
He also performs with baritone Stephen Lancaster in collaborative programs of sacred music for voice and organ. Vaughn and Lancaster have appeared locally in the past as part of the Hesston-Bethel Performing Arts Series. Their first recording, Sacred Song, was released on the Albany label in 2018.
Vaughn’s Bethel program tentatively includes three different pieces by J.S. Bach, a sonata by Felix Mendelssohn, and works by contemporary composers Barbara Harbach, Anton Heiller and Rachel Laurin.
Will Wiebe-Friesen, a professor of chemistry at Bethel and the organist at Bethel College Mennonite Church, said, “Kevin is a skilled performer and accompanist, and he’s also a close friend and a fun person to know.
“There’s a little of something for everyone in his program,” Wiebe-Friesen continued, “from arrangements of hymn tunes and spirituals to a Bach prelude and fugue to contemporary works.
“Bethel’s Dobson organ was designed to really make baroque music shine, but I think it will be equally suited to some of the more contemporary music on Kevin’s program.”
He added, “Bethel College is fortunate to have such a fine instrument, thanks in part to [the late] Shirley King’s vision for the organ program at Bethel. Kevin and Shirley were themselves friends in the South Bend and Goshen area.”
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. 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 https://www.bethelks.edu
