Spring In­stru­men­tal Con­certs This Week

MISHAWAKA—On Thurs­day, April 11, the Wind En­sem­ble and Jazz En­sem­ble pre­sented their spring per­for­mance. Both en­sem­bles were un­der the di­rec­tion of Wade Ar­men­trout, and the Wind En­sem­ble was also led by stu­dent con­duc­tors Alaina Williams and Ja­son Poff. The per­for­mance took place in the Ever­est-Rohrer Au­di­to­rium; it be­gan at 7:30 with the Wind En­sem­ble; the Jazz En­sem­ble con­cluded the evening.

Kelli Grosse, the ad­min­is­tra­tive as­sis­tant of the mu­sic de­part­ment, aided with the or­ga­ni­za­tion of the con­certs. Grosse's re­spon­si­bil­i­ties in­cluded mak­ing sure the di­rec­tors and the en­sem­bles had the mu­sic they needed for the con­cert, mak­ing sure set-up hap­pened for each re­hearsal, and cre­at­ing the pro­grams.

"My role is more from the lo­gis­tics per­spec­tive," said Grosse. "I do a lot of the pre-con­cert work."

Grosse said that the con­certs pro­vide good mo­ti­va­tion for the stu­dents to keep up on their prac­tice.

"Most of our en­sem­bles only re­hearse once a week, so [the con­certs] def­i­nitely pro­vide that drive to make sure that we're pre­pared," said Grosse. "That way, when we are to­gether, we can fo­cus on the per­for­mance of the piece."

On Fri­day, April 12, the Per­cus­sion En­sem­ble and Cham­ber Or­ches­tra will per­form in the Ever­est-Rohrer Au­di­to­rium un­der the di­rec­tion of Dr. Reg Klopfen­stein. The con­cert will be­gin at 7:30 and is ex­pected to last about an hour and a half.

McKenna Liebenow, a fresh­man per­cus­sion per­for­mance ma­jor, par­tic­i­pated in Thurs­day's con­cert and will per­form in Fri­day's as well. She's been play­ing per­cus­sion for nine years.

One of Liebenow's fa­vorite things about per­form­ing is be­ing able to bring joy to peo­ple, a fact that jumped out to her dur­ing her re­cent in­volve­ment in the Drowsy Chap­er­one.

"That was a re­ally eye-open­ing week­end for me, to see the joy that we could bring to peo­ple, even if we weren't stand­ing on the stage preach­ing the Gospel," said Liebenow. "God was still us­ing our gifts to reach out to peo­ple, so I would love to ex­pe­ri­ence that again dur­ing the con­certs."

Ja­son Poff, a se­nior mu­sic ed­u­ca­tion ma­jor, also plays per­cus­sion and is in­volved in both the Thurs­day and Fri­day con­certs; he also had the op­por­tu­nity to stu­dent con­duct a piece called "Sand­pa­per Bal­let" in Thurs­day's con­cert.

"It's a lot of fun," said Poff. "I got to pick out the piece, and it's kind of a comedic piece that has per­cus­sion­ists that are just up from play­ing sand­pa­per blocks that are sup­posed to mimic the soft-shoe danc­ing of bal­let dancers."

As a se­nior, these will be Pof­f's fi­nal con­certs as a Bethel stu­dent.

"I just want to do my best, know­ing that this is go­ing to be my last set of con­certs, and just honor God in what I'm do­ing," said Poff.

Tick­ets for the con­cert cost $7 for adults and $5 for stu­dents and se­niors. To pur­chase tick­ets, visit tick­ets.bethel­col­lege.edu, or call (574) 807-7080.