Tabor College Music

HILLSBORO, Kan. — The Tabor College Oratorio Chorus and Community Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Brad Vogel, Professor of Choral Music, will present Handel’s Messiah at 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6., at the Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Church, 300 Prairie Point, in Hillsboro.

Solos will be sung by Tabor seniors Justin Moore, Emily Olson and Kayla Vix; juniors Darren Enns and Aaron Stepanek; and sophomore David Vogel.  Lisa Loewen Kroeker, a 2003 graduate of Tabor, also will perform as a soloist.

First performed in Dublin, Ireland, on April 13, 1742, Messiah is Handel’s most famous composition and is among the most popular works in Western choral literature. Although the work was conceived and first performed for Easter, it has become traditional to perform the oratorio during Advent, the preparatory period of the Christmas season.

“Much of the Hillsboro community sees Messiah as the beginning of the Christmas season,” said Vogel. “The college is happy to bring this music to the community.”

Dr. Sheila Litke, Associate Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy, will play the harpsichord, and Stephen Vincent, Adjunct Instructor of Organ, will have the privilege of playing Messiah’s familiar melodies on the church’s newly-restored pipe organ.

The vintage Kimball organ, restored by master organ builder Burton Tidwell of Marion, Kan., was donated to the church by Calvary United Methodist Church in Wichita, Kan. The organ will be heard for the first time in public at this performance of Messiah.

“Burton Tidwell is an extremely busy man, building and restoring large pipe organs from California to Texas to Kentucky to Florida and the Bronx,” Vogel said. “Pipes for this organ have come not only from the Wichita organ but from rebuilding projects in the Bronx and beyond. Some of the pipes are about a hundred years old.”

An offering will be taken following the performance of Messiah to assist with costs of the production. For more information, call the Tabor College Music Department at (620) 947-3121.