Homecoming and Family Weekend Archives - EMU News

Save the date for Homecoming and Family Weekend 2024

Ryan Cornell — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 13:28:00 +0000

Alumni, parents, students and community members are invited to celebrate ��ݮ��’s Homecoming and Family Weekend Oct. 11-13, 2024. This year’s events include a Royal City Celebration, a theater production of “Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical,” a new track & field complex dedication, as well as program and affinity gatherings, alumni and athletic awards, athletic events, TenTalks, and more!

“This year’s festivities will feature a ‘lion’s share’ of new and exciting events, including the Royal City Celebration, which invites all class reunions, affinity groups, department and club gatherings to meet at Thomas Plaza and the Front Lawn for food, fellowship and fun!” said Deanna Reed, Harrisonburg mayor and EMU director of alumni engagement & community connections. “In addition to the gathering, which promises to be the largest at Homecoming, all are invited to follow the ‘yellow brick road’ to campus for musical theater showings, athletic events, and the return of the ever-popular TenTalks presentations. This year there’s no place like HOMEcoming!”

The homecoming website is your complete source for events, updates, and registration.

EMU’s alumni award winners are:
Dr. Lee Roy Berry Jr. ’66; Kendra Conrad Bailey ’03, MA ’05; and Seth Crissman ’09. MDiv ’15.

EMU Athletics will recognize four Hall of Honor awardees:
longtime employee and coach Roland Landes; standout jumper and sprinter Michael Allen ’13; volleyball, basketball and softball player Gina Campbell Troyer ’93; and basketball star Bianca Ygarza ’14.

Look for the ⓕ Facebook icon that denotes a livestreamed event. Go to the to view these events; recordings will also be available after the event. You do not need a Facebook account to view the livestream.

Athletics events will be streamed through the website.

Here are a few highlights of the weekend. See the full schedule for more details.

Friday

– Jubilee Alumni, those who have graduated 50 years ago or more, will gather for a program and luncheon that includes the induction of the class of 1974. * ⓕ

– Art Gallery Opening, from 4-5 p.m. in the Margaret Martin Gehman Gallery, features artworks from EMU alumni artists Rebecca Souder Gish ’09, Rhoda Miller ’03, and Jon Styer ’07.

– Musical Theater Production of “Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical.” EMU students and community members play multiple roles in this epic rock musical version of Rick Riordan’s beloved young-adult novels about an underachieving kid who discovers he is a demigod. Tickets for the show, held in the Studio Theater at 7 p.m., are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors, $10 for children 18 and younger, and $6 for college students.

Saturday

– Recognizing Hall of Honor and alumni award winners, the Opening Celebration Breakfast features a welcome by President Susan Schultz Huxman.

– A Hall of Honor Ceremony at the MainStage Theater from 10-11 a.m. will celebrate this year’s inductees.

– New to this year’s lineup of events, the Royal City Celebration invites all class reunions, affinity groups, department and club gatherings to follow the yellow brick road for food, fellowship, and fun! Meal tickets to the gathering, held from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on Thomas Plaza and the Front Lawn, are $20 for adults and $9 for children ages 5 to 11. *

– See Royals athletics in action on the brand new Turf Field with Field Hockey vs. Sweet Briar at noon, Women’s Soccer vs. Guilford at 3 p.m., and Men’s Soccer vs. Lynchburg at 6 p.m. The Women’s Volleyball team takes on Lynchburg in Yoder Arena at 2 p.m.

– Prepare to be impacted, influenced and inspired at the annual EMU TenTalks. Modeled on TED Talks presentations, this event in Suter Science Center 106 from 2-3 p.m. features alumna and novelist Ashley Mellinger ’24; Adesola Johnson, senior biology major; and Dr. Mark Metzler Sawin, EMU professor of history, speaking for 10 minutes each with a Q&A at the end. * ⓕ

– Turn out for the new track & field complex dedication at 3:30 p.m.

– “Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical.” Another chance to catch this exhilarating spectacle starting at 7 p.m. in the Studio Theater.

Sunday

– Worship with EMU Chamber Singers at 9:30 a.m. at Park View Mennonite Church.

– “Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical.” A third and final showing of the epic rock musical, capping Homecoming and Family Weekend 2024, starts at 7 p.m.

*Registration required

Soprano Madeline Bender ’93 to headline Homecoming concert

Ryan Cornell — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 13:00:00 +0000

There’s a saying about the weather in New Zealand that Madeline Bender ’93 delightfully recites.

“If you don’t like it, just wait five minutes and it will change,” quotes the acclaimed soprano, whose husband hails from Kiwiland.

It’s a tongue-in-cheek adage applied to any region that sees variable weather, but Bender says it can also be used to describe her upcoming musical extravaganza: “If you don’t like what’s happening, wait five minutes and it’ll be a completely different experience,” she says.

The operatic superstar is performing, directing and producing the Music Celebration Concert: An Evening with Madeline Bender on Friday. She promises everything from jazz and Great American Songbook standards to “very serious” French and German pieces, beloved opera arias and even some musical sketch comedy.

“It’s going to be a zany night of a lot of different kinds of things,” she says. “It’ll be like a tasting menu, except with music and theater.”

The ��ݮ�� Chamber Singers will feature at the event, as will the drama department, jazz ensemble and local actors and performers of all ages, resulting in what Bender calls “a cast of thousands.”

“I think people need to expect the unexpected,” she says. “There are so many people involved in this concert.”

“My favorite part of music-making is collaborating, and I would rather make it a party,” she adds. “The more, the merrier.”

The concert, held at Lehman Auditorium at 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct.13, helps kick off EMU Homecoming and Family Weekend 2023.

Tickets to the show are $10 in advance, $15 at the door and free for EMU students with ID or for children 12 and younger. They can be purchased .

Email alumni@emu.edu for instructions on how to access a free Facebook livestream of the event.

A complete list of events and activities is on the Homecoming and Family Weekend website.

Bender is an accomplished opera singer, arts entrepreneur and educator. She is the founder of Creative Stage, which teaches children across Manhattan programs in music, theater, dance and filmmaking. She is also the founder and director of Creative Stage Collective, a not-for-profit theater company that develops musical sketch comedy based on the imaginative ideas of children.

She has been praised by The New York Times for her “charimatic stage presence,” “voluptuous soprano” and “theatrical flair.”

Madeline Bender ’93 teaches children during her New York City directing days.

Finding her voice at EMU

Bender, who lives in New York City with her husband Paul Whelan, a baritone and bass-baritone singer, and their 14-year-old son, may have been destined to attend EMU.

Her parents, former educators Jon Scott ’62 and Nancy Shank Bender ’64, were EMU alums, as well as many of her friends and neighbors around Harrisonburg, and later, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

The choice to attend EMU may have been an easy one for her to make, but the decision to major in music was not quite as simple.

Bender arrived at EMU intent on graduating with a health professions degree. At the time, she says, a career in the performing arts felt like it wouldn’t help others.

But her involvement in the Chamber Singers under then-Professor Kenneth J. Nafziger — as well as nearly every other ensemble on campus — provided her a supportive environment that helped her realize she could also serve others with her voice.

Back in the early ’90s, EMU may not have had an opera program or a diction coach or “all the bells and whistles,” she says. But it taught her to be resourceful.

“I put on two opera programs, I learned to produce, I learned how to cast and direct a show, and now, that’s my job,” she says.

After graduating from EMU, Bender earned her master’s degree from the prestigious Manhattan School of Music.

And although she hasn’t performed professionally for about a decade, she says she’s thoroughly enjoyed practicing for Friday’s big event.

“The engine is back and running again.”

Madeline Bender ’93 performs during a Voices of Hope event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Come to Homecoming and Family Weekend at EMU

Thu, 13 Aug 2015 18:18:39 +0000

��ݮ�� class representatives from the reunion classes invite their friends to Homecoming and Family Weekend 2015! Find out more information and register at: . View the schedule of activities at: .

We hope to see you at EMU October 9-11, 2015!