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.

The premiere performance of “Sun, Moon and Stars,” a cantata for mixed choir, baritone solo, and orchestra written especially for the 100th Anniversary of Tabor College by composer and pianist Dr. Larry Warkentin of Fresno, Calif., was the highlight the Tabor College Centennial Spring Concert, held Sunday, May 10.

Warkentin, Professor Emeritus at Fresno Pacific University, is a distinguished alumnus of Tabor College, who has composed numerous works which have been performed by the Fresno Philharmonic, The Tulare (Calif.) Symphony, the Festival Quartet of Canada, and many choirs in North America and Europe.

The premiere of “Sun, Moon and Stars” encompassed seven sections and was performed by the Tabor College Oratorio Chorus and the Tabor College Community Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Bradley Vogel, Professor of Choral Music. The piece included a baritone solo sung by Justin Moore, a junior from Hillsboro, Kan., and concluded with the combined choir, orchestra, and audience singing Great is Thy Faithfulness.

Warkentin, who was born in 1940 in Reedley, Calif., arrived at Tabor in 1958, where the young pianist was chosen to accompany the Tabor Choir under the direction of musical giants Herbert Richert and Paul Wohlgemuth.

“The musical idea for the composition comes from my experience as accompanist for the Tabor Male Octet during the years that Richert was music director,” Warkentin said.

In addition to the new cantata, the Centennial Concert included a performance by the Tabor College Symphonic Band, conducted by Dr. Richard Cantwell, Professor of Instrumental Music and Chair of the Music Department. The Tabor College Concert Choir, conducted by Dr.Vogel, also performed.

Dr. Shiela Litke, Associate Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy, performed Piano Concerto in E Major, Op. 59 by Moritz Moszkowski, accompanied by the Community Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Cantwell.

For more photos of the Centennial Spring Concert, Visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/taborcollege/sets/72157617910586617/