Joan Griffing Archives - EMU News

Music professor Joan Griffing leaves her indelible mark on EMU and area youth programs

Lauren Jefferson — Thu, 03 May 2018 17:52:58 +0000

Joan Griffing became department chair of the ��ݮ�� music department not long after she joined the faculty. Twenty-two years later, she has left an indelible mark on the campus, the local and regional arts community, and many, many students.

In August, she’ll begin as Tim and Gail Buchanan Endowed Chair of the Fine Arts Division at Friends University — “an incredible opportunity,” she says, to do similar collaborative work in the far larger and more varied arts community of Wichita, Kansas.

Professor Joan Griffing listens to tributes from colleagues and fellow community music enthusiasts during a reception in Lehman Auditorium.

At a reception this week in her honor, Professor James Richardson praised Griffing’s mentorship, her abilities as an “exceptional musician,” and “her compassion for the whole person, whether that be a colleague or a student.”

“She brings to everything she does a concern for the soul and the whole student,” he said. “When I think of Joan, I will always think of what I have heard her say many times, and I’m sure many of you have heard her say it as well: ‘At the end of the day, it’s all about the student.”

Professor Emeritus Kenneth J. Nafziger, longtime colleague in the EMU music department, commented that he had “seen many musicians come to EMU with significant gaps in their learning and grow as accomplished performers under her careful guidance, experience both solo and ensemble work and play in a variety of settings, all of which are exactly what music is supposed to do.”

Nafziger and Griffing have also spent many years working together with the . The conductor thanked the concertmaster for expanding his own understanding of strings instruments and string players to the benefit of all. “She has been able to translate my musical wishes into sounds I had hoped for and I am most thankful.”

Also in attendance were Bach Festival President Michael Allain and board member Ming Ivory, both of whom shared anecdotes and wished Griffing well on her new endeavors.

The reception was attended by several former students, four of whom now work for EMU (two as violin instructors), but also representatives of community arts organization that Griffing has supported and promoted, including the .

Making music more accessible to area youth

When asked to identify her own accomplishments, Griffing lists two more programs for youth.

Professor Joan Griffing, here playing the violin in 2011, has been concertmaster of the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival for many years. (EMU file photo)

“B�ǳٳ� Sharon Miller and I started to play violin in public schools programs,” she said. “That was something that was missing here that she and I wanted to start, and I’d have to say that’s something I am proud of.”

The Harrisonburg City Schools Strings program, a program of EMU’s Preparatory Music program directed by Miller, began 11 years ago and is now offered at all six elementary schools and both middle schools.

Griffing also helped start the , a partnership of Harrisonburg City Schools with the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. to provide equal access to arts for students in K-8th grade.

“That’s been fun to work with dancers and visual artists, to get to know artists of different stripes and think about ways we can bring them together,” she said.

An advocate for music at EMU

At EMU, Griffing championed the interdisciplinary major, an inventive redesign of the music curriculum to broaden accessibility and encourage students to combine a music major with a second major in a different field.

Hearkening back to her own roots, the outreach string quartet class remains a favorite offering, as “a way for students to learn to take their music out to marginalized communities,” she said, such as the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind and Gemeinschaft Home for ex-offenders.

Reluctant to single out one or two of her many students over the years for individual accolades, Griffing says she’s most proud of her performance majors. “To a one, they have each accomplished more than they thought they could achieve in their four years,” she said. “All of them won our semi-annual concerto/aria competition. To eventually play a concerto with the orchestra takes guts and preparation and hard work, and to get to the performance level they do is really quite an achievement.”

Two members of a string quartet practice under the tutelage of Professor Joan Griffing in 2017. (Photo by Andrew Strack)

Of her administrative work, which included fundraising, planning, mentoring, scheduling and more, Griffing says that choice of involvement enabled her “to help more than just my violin students.”

“I enjoy helping my colleagues do their jobs,” she said. “To me, that’s servant leadership: supporting my colleagues so they enjoy coming to work every day. Ultimately that helps the students, too.”

(To this, she adds that she is also doesn’t mind getting into “the nitty-gritty, which arts people sometimes don’t much care for, understandably so, because they’d rather do their arts.”)

A widely-traveled professional

All this while, Griffing has led an active professional career, performing as first violinist with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Eastern Music Festival, and concertmaster with the AIMS Festival Orchestra in Austria and Italy, as well as with the Coronado, Grand Teton, Norfolk and Spoleto festivals. She’s performed in Taiwan, Brazil and Australia, and spent a sabbatical at the University of Otago, New Zealand, studying the role of music in peace and conflict issues.

Joan Griffing (right) with members of Musica Harmonia. (Courtesy photo)

As founding member of the chamber music group Musica Harmonia, she regularly tours to promote peace and cultural understanding through musical collaboration. The group has recorded two CDs.

Griffing says she intends to keep many connections alive from her new home in Kansas. She and her husband, clarinetist Leslie Nicholas, will return to Harrisonburg every June to play with the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival.

And she’s looking forward to making new connections, too.

“I have always had a strong interest in the bigger picture of all the arts, how they connect and the possibilities of collaboration. The arts can and do change people’s lives for the better,” she said. “By overseeing all the arts at Friends and embedding them across campus, I’ll be able to have a broader impact than I am able to have here. That’s very exciting to me. Without the many years of experience at EMU, this new opportunity would not be possible.”

Composer Gwyneth Walker will attend March 22 premiere of work dedicated to EMU orchestra

Christopher Clymer Kurtz — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 15:20:52 +0000

The natural beauty of the Shenandoah Valley will take musical shape in this spring’s premiere of a new four-movement suite composed for and dedicated to the ��ݮ�� Chamber Orchestra.

The orchestra’s performance of composer ’s “Music of the Land: Portraits of Rural America” will be conducted by EMU music director and professor Joan Griffing during the spring orchestra concert at 7:30 p.m. on March 22, 2018, in Lehman Auditorium, with Walker in attendance.

Walker composed the suite last year after visiting Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. The New England Quaker’s earlier work “About Leaves,” inspired by the poems of Robert Frost, had been heartily received by the EMU community, she said, and she wondered if “something based on Shenandoah-area poetry might not be even more relevant.”

Griffing responded enthusiastically to the idea – Walker’s music is accessible to and loved by listeners and performers alike – and EMU writing professor suggested that Walker use as inspiration the poetry of Robert Morgan, a North Carolinian who writes about rural America.

“So, I followed through,” Walker said.

The performance will include four of Morgan’s poems – “Clogging,” “From the Distance,” “Singing to the Corn,” and “Time Passing” – as read by Roman Miller, a farmer and professor emeritus of biology.

“The poetry speaks of the music heard in everyday, rural life,” Walker writes: “A community clogging dance; the church bells ringing out over the fields in the evening; a farmer ‘singing’ to encourage his crop to grow; and an old family clock, filling the silence with the tempo of time passing. This is the music of the land.”

Griffing said she was “honored” by Walker’s “especially meaningful” dedication of the work to the EMU orchestra. Performing a new work composed for and dedicated to them is an “exciting opportunity” for students, who will receive feedback from the professional composer at the dress rehearsal.

As part of her visit to EMU, Walker will also speak to students in the senior seminar “Peacebuilding in the Arts: Our Stories, Our Selves.”

“She makes a living as a composer,” Griffing said of Walker. “There are not that many people who are able to do that, and so that’s something very unique that she will share about with our students.”

Versatile violin performance graduate Jacinda Stahly gains experience in teaching, arts administration

Christopher Clymer Kurtz — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 21:32:10 +0000

Jacinda Stahly is a newly graduated , and among her options for what’s next is pursuing a master’s degree in performance.

Yet she prefers behind-the-scenes work over “being out front,” she said.

That may sound paradoxical, but at ��ݮ�� the Alabama-raised teacher’s daughter was able to tailor that performance degree to fit her own goals and personality.

“It’s the beauty of studying in an intimately sized program,” said music department chair and professor . “Jacinda assembled a custom-built university experience that speaks directly to her own passions and professional goals.”

Two communities

Stahly said she was particularly connected to two communities at EMU. One was the student newspaper The Weather Vane, where she worked as a copy editor for two years and then as a co-editor for another. She found herself at home there in more behind-the-scenes editing roles.

In her other community, the music department, she was able to blend that preference with many aspects of her love for music, and as she says it, she “put her foot in lots of doors.”

“Jacinda has taken advantage of every opportunity open to her,” said Griffing. “She is a success story for our department.”

Recent graduate Jacinda Stahly poses with her violin. “A success story for our department,” says Professor Joan Griffing.

Stahly has been both an arts administrator and violin section intern for three summers with the internationally-renowned , and is continuing with administration as the program assistant for EMU’s . There she also teaches lessons to a small group as well as to five individual students, and is an assistant teacher of violin classes with 20-40 students at each of three elementary schools.

But Stahly is, in fact, a performer, too. In addition to playing with the Bach Festival’s professional orchestra for three summers, she is a member of the Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra, and she was part of an EMU outreach chamber quartet which performed in unique venues such as a preschool and a residential program for ex-offenders. Those haven’t been such a leap for her personality, she said: “Performers don’t have to talk – or at least they can decide ahead of time what to say and do.”

And this fall she gave her senior recital. For it, true to form, Stahly did plenty of behind-the-scenes planning ahead, picking a piece from each classical musical period, with ensemble settings ranging from solo violin to violin, viola and piano, to violin with organ, to a violin quartet. (Although her organizational sensitivities tried to dictate otherwise, she refrained from performing the works in chronological order, instead mixing them up so the variety of musical styles and settings would make the recital’s trajectory “more varied, and less likely to get boring.”)

A blend fit

Jacinda Stahly teaches a violin class in EMU’s Preparatory Music Program.

It’s perhaps in small-group and individual teaching that Stahly is finding the perfect blend of performance and behind-the-scenes work.

As a first-year student, she took a Suzuki pedagogy class taught by Professor , the administrative director of the Shenandoah Valley Preparatory Music Program. Before coming to EMU, the Suzuki method of violin instruction was peripheral to Stahly’s experience; in retrospect, she thinks she would have benefited from its emphasis on ear training and listening.

In Miller’s class, and in subsequent settings of teaching young students one-on-one, Stahly found she enjoyed being a musical coach. A performance major made sense, she said, because while a music education degree would have set her on track to teach in large classrooms with many students playing a variety of instruments, focusing on violin would prepare her to teach violin specifically. (Another option for what’s next? Maybe a master’s degree in Suzuki pedagogy.)

“To be a good teacher, you need to be a good performer,” she said. “You must know your craft, to set higher standards for yourself and your students.”

Belief and doubt

Stahly’s personal growth during her four years at EMU was cultivated both within the close-knit music department and more broadly.

The department’s intimate size meant personal connection with others in the program, as a stop by a professor’s office with a recital prep question might become an hour-long conversation. Friendships developed across grade levels and cultivated a “greater feeling not just of mentorship,” she said, “but of encouragement and help.”

Her cross-cultural trip to central Europe was her first time out of the United States, and gave her new perspective. She was surprised, particularly in Austria, by the informed interest in and deep concern about the 2016 elections in the United States – and the reluctance of many Austrians to talk about their own similar political polarization.

In Europe she also developed a new sense of independence. Until that trip, Harrisonburg had been the biggest city that Stahly had ever lived in. In Prague, London and Vienna, the world felt “much more open,” she said, adding that she particularly enjoyed the opportunity to live and travel independently within these cities.

At EMU her faith journey, too, continued, building on the foundation formed by her “supportive and loving” community at home.

“I’ve done a lot of growing and changing in different ways,” she said. “I’m much more okay with not having answers to all of my faith questions, maybe even to a point of not wanting to have all the answers.”

It’s perhaps yet another seeming contradiction that Stahly melds into a unity of tension:

“It’s good to have doubts,” she said. “It’s good to have beliefs too, and to believe them strongly, but also to not be quite sure they’re all right.”

Lessons and Carols service offers light and hope in the dark of December

Christopher Clymer Kurtz — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 20:09:17 +0000

Two weeks before Christmas, as daylight continues to fade into the darkest days of winter, a Lessons and Carols service at ��ݮ�� will illuminate candles as symbols of coming light and hope — and premier a new musical composition.

The service, a collaboration between and the , will begin at 7 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 11, in Lehman Auditorium, and is free and open to the public. A freewill offering will benefit the Campus Ministries Compassion Fund.

In the classic approach to lessons and carols, scripture passages will feature the image of light and trace themes of need and longing, stories surrounding the birth of Jesus, and the celebration of “God with us!”

Interspersed music will include the University Choir’s performance of a new commissioned work by American composer Gwyneth Walker titled “Let Us Break Bread Together.”

Walker, a Quaker based in Vermont, has received various awards for her compositions, which include over 300 commissioned works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, chorus, and solo voice. Her work has been prominently featured by EMU music professor Joan Griffing’s chamber group Musica Harmonia.

Musica Harmonia to perform at EMU and in the Forbes Center Masterpiece Season

Christopher Clymer Kurtz — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 11:50:29 +0000

Musica Harmonia, a chamber group including ��ݮ�� (EMU) music professor , is slated to perform at EMU and as part of the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts 2017-2018 Masterpiece Season at James Madison University this fall.

The EMU concert is Saturday, Sept. 30, at 7:30 p.m. in Martin Chapel and is free and open to the public. Donations are invited to support EMU’s music scholarship fund.

Joan Griffing performs at the final evening concert of the 25th season of the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival last summer.

The chamber group also performs Sunday, Oct. 1, at 2 p.m. at JMU’s Forbes Center. Ticket information is available .

At the concerts, Musica Harmonia will perform “Midnight Child,” a spiritual for string trio by Charles Washington; a piano quartet in D minor, op 8 for piano, violin, viola and cello by Noskowski; and the three-section “When the Spirit Sings” by Quaker composer Gwyneth Walker, who composed the string trio piece specifically for Musica Harmonia and will be in attendance.

Pianist Naoko Takao will join the trio for the Noskowski quartet in the performances.

Griffing is a founding member of Musica Harmonia, which to promote peace and cultural understanding through musical collaboration. Its other founding members are cellist Beth Vanderborgh and violist Diane Phoenix-Neal.

The group, which has performed in Brazil, Australia, Puerto Rico and across the United States, has a bigger mission than simply performing music, said Griffing.

“Music is an international language. It brings people from diverse cultures together. That’s what we’re interested in, using music as an instrument for peacebuilding,” she said.

In January, the group released its first album When the Spirit Sings. Among other works, it features “The Peacemakers,” with music composed by Walker for poems by EMU professor that she based on the book Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War by EMU graduate and Nobel Peace Laureate .

In addition to performance, Griffing’s interest in music as an instrument for peacebuilding has called her to international studies. In fall 2012, she spent five months in New Zealand, collaborating with artists at the University of Otago in Dunedin and studying the role of music in peace and conflict issues.

Singing to Ken J. Nafziger: faculty and former students gather for a retirement send-off

Lauren Jefferson — Wed, 24 May 2017 19:17:32 +0000

“We can’t have a reception honoring Ken without music,” said Professor at a May event marking the retirement of her music department colleague Ken J. Nafziger.

Nafziger stepped to the front of the crowded room and, as he has for countless times over the last 40 years, asked his ��ݮ�� (EMU) colleagues to sing. This time, it was “Amazing Grace,” the first two stanzas together and then the first stanza in rounds.

As the last notes diminished, he said, “In those very simple words, there is a biography of sorts.”

Then he asked for the second stanza “slow and in harmony,” and gestured for the final line to be drawn out: And grace will lead me home.

Ken J. Nafziger directs during a spring concert. (Photo by Joaquin Sosa)

“When Ken makes music,” said colleague later, “he carves out a space for everyone: for our selves but also to transcend ourselves.”

The reception culminated Nafizger’s final academic year at EMU, which included two other events, both featuring alumni musicians: a Chamber Singers reunion during Homecoming and Family Weekend and a spring concert with alumni guests titled “A Few of My Favorite Things.”

Contributing music and so much more

Nafziger arrived at EMU in 1977, after undergraduate studies at Goshen College and graduate studies at the University of Oregon, where he completed his DMA in 1970. He was a post-doctoral conducting student at Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Germany and then taught at the University of Minnesota.

Besides teaching duties and leadership of vocal ensembles, Nafziger contributed to the form and shape of such EMU curricular distinctives as the Honors Program, senior seminar and the cross-cultural program.

Linda Burkholder, assistant to the cross-cultural program, pointed out Nafziger’s role as “one of the founding fathers,” leading to “EMU’s profound commitment to liberal arts cross-cultural education and for that, we have hundreds of alumni who are deeply grateful.”

Ken J. Nafziger directs a Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival rehearsal. (Undated photo from EMU Archives)

Nafziger’s legacy stretches far beyond campus, noted Griffing, who praised his “recognition of the role of the arts in the larger world.”

“He and I share the opinion that the role of arts has never been more important as a response, illumination and offering of a way forward to our fractured world. Artists are able to exact societal change through their creative expression, artistic creation and empathetic connection with others. Ken cares deeply about connecting his music with the issues of the day. This makes his work more than just notes and touches people in deeply meaningful way.”

Bach Festival celebrates 25 years this summer

Twenty-five years ago, Nafziger founded the , an annual event hosted by EMU that draws musicians and listeners from around the country. The silver anniversary event, previewed , is June 11-18.

Many musicians return year after year. In a 2014 Crossroads magazine article, musician Sandra Gerster shared sentiments that have commonly expressed since about working with Nafziger. She has joined the festival from her home in Baltimore, Maryland, since 1983.

“I come back every year because the trust, respect and integrity that Ken Nafziger brings to the festival is unsurpassed,” she says.”He cultivates a safe environment where we are encouraged to take artistic risks, to try to perform something in a new way, where the musical process is valued and where the performances are truly expressions of emotion, not plastic displays of static perfectionism. I return because my colleagues have become my family, and I am constantly inspired, awestruck, heartened and buoyed by them.”

Honored for area arts involvement

For his varied endeavors, including leadership of the independent chamber ensemble Winchester Musica Vivica, Nafziger was awarded the 2015 . The honor recognizes “outstanding accomplishments and sustained contributions in the arts, improving the cultural vitality of the Shenandoah Valley.” The award was given by the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts, the Valley Arts Council, and the College of Visual and Performing Arts at James Madison University.

Professor Ken J. Nafziger accepts flowers and a standing ovation at the conclusion of the spring Chamber Singers concert. (Photo by Joaquin Sosa)

In church music, Nafziger’s influence has been both national and international in scope. He was the music editor of Hymnal: A Worship Book, popularly known as the “blue hymnal,” published in 1992, used in Mennonite churches across the United States, and assistant editor to two auxiliary Mennonite hymnals, Sing the Story and Sing the Journey.

Nafziger’s unique way of creating community through music was noted by several speakers at the reception, including colleague .

Richardson recalled being asked, while a high school student in the Eastern Mennonite High School choir, to drop down an octave and hit an “ungodly note meant for an Russian basso profundo but I remember being able to hit that note and his thumbs up, which made my day. Some of you know that thumbs up.”

Read on for more memories of Professor Ken J. Nafziger, shared by former students and colleagues, and share your own in the comment box at the end of this article.

Chamber Singers alumni reunite

Braydon Hoover, a former Chamber Singer, offered this introduction before the Chamber Singers alumni sang “Dona Nobis Pacem” by Johann Sebastian Bach at the October 2016 Homecoming and Family Weekend worship service. [Listen to the .]

As many of you may already know, Ken J. Nafziger is retiring at the end of this academic year after more than 40 years and innumerable lives transformed here at EMU. Yesterday, over 50 Chamber Singers from each of those decades reminisced about our experiences singing under his direction. The responses ranged from the humorous to the sacred and more than a little of both. One person recounted a program error that stated, without any punctuation that the next song would be “Under the shadow of the almighty conductor Ken Nafziger.” Another told of a moment of transcendence, weeping as the music we made together washed over him.

And by the end we had all graduated in the same year.

That time of sharing could have gone on the rest of the day, but we couldn’t very well all be together in one place and not sing. The next song we’ll be singing is Dona Nobis Pacem by Johann Sebastian Bach and while it wasn’t sung every year, it has particular themes and threads that link Chambers Singers from 1977 to 2017.

Just as Bach transformed the world with his music, so to has Ken in this space, in this time, in this community. Ken and Helen, Dona Nobis Pacem translates to Grant Us Peace and from all of your Chamber Singers past and present we wish you both peace in this next chapter of your lives.

Ken J. Nafziger conducts final Chamber Singers concert featuring alumni guests

David Doremus — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 21:06:34 +0000

The ��ݮ�� (EMU) , a select student choir, will present “Communities of Song,” its spring concert, at 7 p.m. on Sunday, April 23, in Lehman Auditorium. The program will be available via livestream at

The concert will be the choir’s last under the baton of Dr. , who retires this spring after 39 years as a member of EMU’s music faculty.

For it, Nafziger has purposely sought out musicians in Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley who can augment the more traditional selection of material offered in previous years.

Kenneth J. Nafziger after leading a Chamber Singers reunion choir during a Homecoming and Family Weekend.

The result is a highly eclectic program that employs the talents of a wide variety of performers with connections to EMU’s , and to the Chamber Singers – past and present.

“I wanted to do something special for this concert – something unique,” said Nafziger. “It became an opportunity to include all kinds of people.”

Among them are several EMU graduates, as well as current and former colleagues of Nafziger’s ranging from , founder of the Charlottesville-based baroque ensemble Three Notch’d Road and newly named executive director of the , to Trent Wagler ᾽02, who fronts Steel Wheels, the nationally celebrated roots band.

Others include:

, concert pianist and coordinator of keyboard studies at EMU;
Katie Derstine ’05, EMU staff member and co-founder of local a cappella ensembles Good Company and Shekinah;
, violinist and chair of EMU’s Music Department;
Anne Gross, formerly of EMU’s music faculty, and now assistant professor of voice at Elizabethtown College;
Les Helmuth, executive director of the VMRC Foundation, and a 1978 product of the undergraduate program in Vocal Performance at EMU;
, noted baritone and assistant professor of voice at EMU;
Jeanette Zyko, who instructs in oboe at James Madison University’s School of Music and serves as the school’s director of undergraduate admissions.

“Going through old programs while clearing out my office,” reflected Nafziger, “so many memories came flooding back to me – the people, the repertoire, the communities for whom and with whom we sang.”

Hence, the appellation “Communities of Song,” testifying to Nafziger’s belief that “it takes a village, a community, for music to exist.”

The concert begins with a processional piece borrowed from an African-American church in Washington, D.C. It will be followed by a Bach cantata, with strings and oboes.

Bridging the middle portion of the evening is a section titled “Hope,” which takes its inspiration from the words of the late Martin Luther King Jr., who in a speech the night before his death observed that, “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” It consists of spirituals and popular songs in which can be found, according to Nafziger, “reasons for hope in dire circumstances.”

The concert’s concluding segment is titled “Great Prayers,” and features settings of prayers attributed to Jesus, St. Augustine of Hippo, and St. Francis of Assisi.

Admission to the concert is free. However, any donations received will go to support the EMU Music Department’s scholarship fund.

Nafziger – who has earned renown not only for his choral and orchestral conducting, but also for his central role in the founding of the – will continue as the festival’s artistic director and principal conductor for its forthcoming 25th anniversary season.

The festival runs June 11 through 18 at EMU and other venues in and around Harrisonburg.

Revitalized Royals jazz band grooves to new rhythm and tunes, from funk to Latin

Randi B. Hagi — Thu, 06 Apr 2017 18:33:11 +0000

The drummer taps out an energetic pace on the high hat. The piano comes in, low and funky, with an ascending chord pattern. Then the horns: trombones elaborating on the piano riff, followed by trumpets flinging out the jaunty melody.

, conductor, waves his hand to cut off the music, and gives instructions on how to improve their timing and intonation. They play the intro again, and again, tightening the sound each time. Curry suggests the drummer try a swing rhythm. Then, the saxophonists return from their private lesson, the drums begin again, and Lehman auditorium erupts with the groovy jazz-fusion tune of “Birdland.”

Dave Wert performs a solo with the 1989 jazz band.

��ݮ��’s big jazz band is in rehearsal.

“It’s one of those songs that you can – this may sound weird, but you can start to feel the music when you play it. That’s how you know it’s a good song,” says Leah Lapp, a freshman biochemistry major and an alto saxophone player in the 15-member jazz band.

From small combos to big band

Junior started the band last December, after playing in small jazz combos at EMU and missing the big bands he experienced in high school. Joan Griffing, chair of the , connected him with Curry, who has given private trombone lessons and taught the brass methods course at EMU for several years. Griffing says she was pleased with Horsts’ initiative.

“We’ve had a terrific small jazz combo under the top-notch direction of Mark Whetzel for many years,” says Griffing. “Harrison’s request for a big band lined up well with Mark’s retirement and Bob Curry’s availability to direct. The new band is off to a great start!”

EMU’s first jazz ensemble was directed by Stephen Sachs from 1982-2004. When he departed, Mark Whetzel took over. The small jazz combo tradition continued for many years, until Horst came along.

“[Curry] really knows his stuff and is really pushing us to get better,” says Horst, who plays tenor saxophone in the jazz band. “And that means a lot to me, that I’m a part of a group that wants to succeed.”

Alto saxophonist Josh Ayers, a freshman computer science major, agrees: “I think we’ve got a really good direction going with Bob.”

Madalynn Payne, Andrew Troyer and Ian Bomberger during a rehearsal. (Photo by Andrew Strack)

Student-musicians ‘willing to take a risk’

Curry comes with 41 years of experience conducting middle and high school bands in Colorado, Utah, and Shenandoah County, Virginia. He retired from public school education in June, while still teaching a class at Bridgewater College, giving private lessons, playing in the local group ’ (which was started at EMU in 2000) and volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. Curry has played trombone since elementary school.

“One of the things I really enjoy about the students here is that they’re not hesitant to take a chance, and maybe embarrass themselves, by maybe doing something that doesn’t quite fit the first time,” says Curry. “They’re just saying, ‘okay, that didn’t work. I’ll use that as a learning experience, and next time I’ll do something different when I have the same kind of solo opportunity.’”

Says Ayers, “I definitely enjoy the freedom of jazz.” Curry starts each rehearsal with scales and improvisation exercises. Then, they practice a wide repertoire of swing, funk, rock, and Latin jazz of all tempos.

Joseph Harder on the drums. (Photo by Andrew Strack)

Many of the students bring instrumental experience but are new to jazz, like math education sophomore Madalynn Payne, who has played trumpet for seven years. Sophomore biology major Isaac McCauley played euphonium in high school, then taught himself trombone over the past three years before joining jazz band.

The band’s first performance was at the Honors Weekend banquet, after just four rehearsals. They have played two informal noon events and at inauguration this week. An April 20 concert will be 7:30 p.m., in Lehman Auditorium along with Just Jazzin’.

Want to share a story about your years in the jazz band, with Swing Sisters, Bubble Sister or jazz combos? Share in the space below or at our website, .

Keebaugh earns Raabe Prize honorable mention for a cappella composition

Lauren Jefferson — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 14:27:26 +0000

, assistant professor of music at ��ݮ��, is one of three winners in the 2017 .

Seventy-eight entrants competed for the prize, offered every two years by The Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. Among other guidelines, “preference is given to those entries which grow out of but are not necessarily restricted to, the worshiping assembly of the baptized who gather around Word and Sacrament.”

Keebaugh won honorable mention for his a cappella composition “,” a meditative tableau on the text of Isaiah 53.

Honorable mention was also given to Thomas Keesecker of Bel Air, Maryland.

Erik Meyer won the $2,000 prize, which is split between the composer and a musical or ecclesiastical organization of the composer’s choice. Meyer, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is music director at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, where he oversees a large choral and instrumental program.

Keebaugh counts this award among the top three of his career, including being a semi-finalist for the American Prize in 2013 and a finalist in the international in 2015.

Since the announcement, five people have inquired about performing the work. Among them was a representative from , a Los Angeles group which specializes in performing quality new choral works.

“It’s an honor to receive an honorable mention in this contest, which received so many entries,” Keebaugh said. “It was very competitive and I received some beautiful feedback, which I certainly appreciated.”

The selection committee, headed by Dr. Zebulon Highben of Muskingum University, called the work “dense … setting a theologically rich text with tone clusters and long unaccompanied lines in a style that evokes the holy minimalism of Tavener and Pärt. Though it is more difficult than the other two selections, and requires a vocal stamina that would put it beyond the reach of many choirs, it stands clearly in the ‘high art’ stream of the Lutheran musical tradition and is worthy of inclusion as an honorable mention.”

“Ryan is becoming recognized as one of a few leading young American composers,” said Professor , chair of the EMU . “His music has a mystical quality that appeals to both performers and audience members alike. We are fortunate to have him on faculty. He is having a positive influence on the next generation of composers who are being ‘grown’ in our backyard.”

“The Suffering Servant” premiered in August 2012, performed by the Bridgewater College Alumni Choir, and has subsequently been performed and recorded by the University of South Florida Chamber Singers and the Western Michigan University Chorale.

Concert, open studio and theater production featured at expanded Gala Night arts extravaganza

Lauren Jefferson with Randi B. Hagi — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 11:36:12 +0000

Arts lovers can enjoy a variety of talents on Saturday, Nov. 12, as ��ݮ�� (EMU) hosts the annual gala concert at 7 p.m., followed by an open studio event in the Margaret Gehman Art Gallery, and finally a theater performance of “Far Away” in the MainStage Theater at 9 p.m.

Professor and Ashley Sauder Miller will host an open studio in the gallery between the concert and the theater performance. Visitors are welcome to stop by, watch the artists at work and ask questions. Gusler works in mixed media. Miller, a 2003 graduate and director of the Spitzer Art Center in Harrisonburg, is managing EMU Centennnial’s . This summer, she won Best in Show and $7,500 for her mixed media piece “Faded Memory” at the Boardwalk Art Show in Virginia Beach.

Gala Concert: 7 p.m., Lehman Auditorium

The ’s annual Gala celebrating the winter holiday season showcases the breadth of musical talent on campus.

The Wind Ensemble, under the direction of , will be performing Shenandoah by American composer, Frank Ticheli (b. 1958).

The Chamber Orchestra, directed by , will perform Ralph Vaughan Williams’ (1872-1958) English Folk Song Suite.

The second half of the program will be a combined performance of Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass, commissioned in 2007 by the Majorstua and Nova Chamber Choirs. The work will feature members of the Women’s and Men’s choir, directed by ; the Emulate Chamber Ensemble, directed by ; the Chamber Singers, directed by ; and the Chamber Orchestra .

Suggested donations are $10 per person and will benefit the music scholarship fund.

“Far Away”: 9 p.m., MainStage Theater

Written by absurdist playwright Caryl Churchill and directed by Professor , Far Away centers around a young hat maker who faces her own complicity in a fictional world full of war and violent imprisonment. The play is appropriate for those middle-school-aged and older.

By depicting “a culture where violence has become gradually acceptable,” the play gives the audience a lens to examine their roles and responsibility in the violence of our actual world, says Winters Vogel. She adds: “We need to talk about the little things that lead to the big things,” referencing the Syrian War, Black Lives Matter movement, and election-centered extremism as examples.

A response session embedded in the end of the play will allow such discussion to happen within the theater atmosphere.

The visual focal point for the set design is “The Horde,” a 1927 painting by Max Ernst that evokes World War I’s devastation of Europe. For the set, , professor in the Visual and Communication Arts Department, has sculpted a giant burlap figure based on the painting – a symbol of the desperation and disconnectedness that is created by and fuels violence.

Other performances are Nov. 11 and Nov. 17-19.

Musical Mends: musicians perform amid countries’ repairing relations

Aleda Johnson/Daily News-Record — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 20:14:29 +0000

Valley musicians in Musica Harmonica are headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in October to further encourage the intersectionality of music in the Americas. The group, composed of a violist from James Madison University, a violinist from ��ݮ��, a cellist from Wyoming and a clarinetist, is performing at the Decolonizing Music Conference at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music.

The conference is a meeting place for music professionals and organizations from the Americas, where they focus on musical artists making a cultural and social impact in their communities.

Musica Harmonia’s half-hour performance revolves around three spiritual pieces that continue the group’s mission of promoting peace and cultural awareness through musical collaboration. Two of the pieces are based on poetry [written by Professor ] inspired by EMU alumna and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Leymah Gbowee’s memoir about her organizing women to stand up to a dictator in Liberia.

The third piece, “The Human One,” composed by EMU professor , is a representation of God coming to Earth to live among man within the human experience.

Musica Harmonia commissioned the pieces and built a symbiotic relationship with the composers they worked with, according to , violinist and EMU chair.

“A lot of it is about trying to use music as a tool in peacebuilding, so that’s why we commissioned certain pieces,” Griffing said. “We really enjoy the collaborative nature of working with living composers, especially when it comes to addressing issues related to our time.”

At conferences like Decolonizing Music and with Cuba and the United States renewing ties, one can expect further mixing of musical genres. Griffing is sure that the improved relations will be a prominent emphaisis at the conference because it’s on people’s minds.

“Arts are a great way for people to connect with one another and to cross boundaries,” she said. “I’m sure that will be interesting to see, especially since travel is made more possible.”

This text was excerpted with permission from a Sept. 17 Daily News-Record article.

Professors Joan Griffing and Marti Eads celebrate Leymah Gbowee’s peace work with new musical work

admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 12:35:41 +0000

A review of the CD When the Spirit Sings: Chamber Music of Gwyneth Walker includes “The Peacemakers,” a commissioned work that involves two EMU professors, violinist Joan Griffing and poet Marti Eads.

Outreach chamber quartet brings together biology, religion, education majors and yes, one future professional musician, to give the gift of music in unusual venues

Lauren Jefferson — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 12:26:12 +0000

Isaac Dahl is a religious and intercultural studies major. Quinn Kathrineberg plans on a career as an English teacher. Maria Yoder wants to be a doctor. Among the members of this string quartet, only Jacinda Stahly is a .

That was a point that Richi Yowell, program director at , shared with a full room of ex-offenders one Sunday last spring.

After the final round of applause for the quartet’s short program of specially selected classical music, Yowell stepped to the front of the community meeting room and thanked the performers, all students at ��ݮ��.

He was impressed, he said, that only one of the musicians planned on a career in music, yet they clearly spent hours of time practicing their art.

“If you find something you love to do, it can be a part of your life forever and it can bring you a lot of happiness,” he said.

Jacinda Stahly, a music performance major, is interested in pursuing a career as a Suzuki violin instructor. Stahly selected music and created interactive lessons for the pre-school children in the audience, one of whom can be seen behind her reacting to the volume by raising his hand.

That music plays an important role in each of these students’ lives has been reaffirmed in new ways this last semester with an “Outreach Chamber Music” class taught by Professor .

In the course of the semester, the quartet planned and rehearsed interactive programs for four very different audiences, seeking to bring classical music to people who may not have the opportunity to experience live performances. In addition to Gemeinschaft Home, the group played at the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Staunton, and at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community and the Early Learning Center at Park View Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg.

“One purpose of the class is to move music away from traditional performance and to see it as a bridge to connect to people you might not ordinarily meet, to bring music into marginalized communities,” Griffing said.

Quartet provides musical challenge, freedom

The members of the quartet, all of whom are experienced performers, said the chance to move out of their comfort zones was both challenging and exhilarating.

The quartet format provides each performer with the power of individual expression. “In orchestra, the goal is to blend yourself with the rest of your section, to sound exactly like everyone else, but in the quartet, it’s the opposite,” said Yoder, as her fellow musicians nodded in agreement.

Professor Joan Griffing, with Isaac Dahl and Quinn Kathrineberg, guides a rehearsal.

Also in contrast to orchestra, said Stahly, the quartet has more control in choosing musical selections “that we thought were fun and meaningful, which helped us take ownership of our performance.”

Then, add the rigor of “more practice time, more instruction, and more performance,” said Kathrineberg.

And finally, take the added interesting dynamic of being listened to by those who have little experience with classical music and who might not simply “sit and clap politely,” as Yoder described a well-trained audience.

Audience interactions fulfilling

Yoder, who designed the program for Gemeinschaft Home, said she was particularly moved by that first performance. “Everyone was very attentive and in tune … They were the most vocal and let us know that they appreciated us. Usually audiences don’t call things out [to musicians] or tell us to play more.”

Stahly, a future Suzuki violin teacher, designed the program for the Early Learning Center, where she loved seeing the children interact with the music, even dancing for one of the pieces.

Watching as he played, Dahl reflected on his own formative experiences with guest musicians in his elementary school classroom. “I reminded me of when I was young and being mesmerized by their music. Hopefully they had that experience,” he said.

Kathrineberg noted that these performances built community with unique audiences in ways she hadn’t experienced before.

The outreach music class is taught on an irregular basis, but Griffing says she’d love to see it offered every semester. That three non-music majors are interested in the elective class speaks highly of the level of interest on campus.

Quinn Kathrineberg performs a world premiere composition by Professor Ryan Keebaugh at the May commencement ceremony at ��ݮ��.

“The majority of students at EMU are not going to be professional musicians—of course, if they want to be, we’ll prepare them for that – but most students will be involved in music here because it’s an important part of who they are,” Griffing said. “Our vision is that these students will grow musically and have challenging musical experiences and then go out in the world and have those experiences inform and enrich their lives and the lives of others they come in contact with.”

‘Years of practice worthwhile’

Taking music out of its normal settings and sharing it with diverse audiences, she said, is a step towards connecting these music lovers with impactful future music-making.

A few years ago, the music department hosted “Art Attacks,” a week of surprise musical performances on campus.

“We showed up in the marketing office or the development office or the physical plant and we played duets or sang Christmas carols and it was so much fun,” Griffing said. “People loved it.”

While impromptu performances might not be in this group’s future, they’re planning to play together in the future, though with one less member. Stahly leaves for her cross-cultural semester next semester.

And after their experience with the outreach music class, they”ll be looking for unique venues and different audiences next year. “This experience showed me how wonderful it would be if we musicians would spend more time playing for those who have few other opportunities to hear and interact with live music,” Stahly said.

“Seeing that your music makes someone else have a better day is the coolest experience,” said Yoder, “and it makes all those years of practice worthwhile.”

Innovative two-semester music theory and history class is a ‘big step in a new direction’ for EMU music majors

Walt Wiltschek — Sun, 20 Mar 2016 12:06:50 +0000

For more than two centuries, the Baroque era has dominated music instruction. Drawing on Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and others, the curriculum in many music theory courses typically features a heavy dose of part-writing in a particular style.

��ݮ�� assistant professor of music says beautiful music undoubtedly came out of that period. “But why are we using that one small period of history for the entire canon?” he asks. “The music students listen to now isn’t composed that way.”

chair began a discussion on changes to EMU’s curriculum by asking faculty to read the ’s��, “Transforming Music Study from its Foundations: A Manifesto for Progressive Change in the Undergraduate Preparation of Music Majors.”

It recommends more integrated, holistic and relevant methods in music higher education curricula. The faculty agreed with its premises and, using this document as their guide, went about making changes to the basic music major course structure.

Professor Ryan Keebaugh (right) works with Andrew Troyer on a transcription of Beethoven using Finale Notation software during an “Introduction to Music Technology” class.

“Times have changed, so we should be approaching music education differently. Medical students aren’t still taught the way they were 200 years ago,” Keebaugh says. “We really want to train music majors to be successful in the 21st century.”

EMU will take that different approach, beginning in 2016-2017. Students will begin with “Fundamentals of Music,” a three-credit “boot camp” course to review the basics and hone skills, and then take a new, integrated, two-course sequence called “The History and Techniques of Music” for a full year. The classes, six credits each in fall and spring, will meet five days a week, giving students significant contact time with professors and helping them learn the complex language of music theory in context.

Keebaugh says this innovative integration of history and theory has been implemented by only a handful of larger schools. EMU was already moving toward that integration, as music students were required to present both a history project and theory project as part of their senior assessment.

“No other institution around here does that, so we started asking how we can take this further,” Keebaugh says. “This is a big step in a new direction. We have to stop getting students to fit our mold and instead change our mold to meet our students’ needs.”

Keebaugh and fellow music professor will team-teach the new history and theory course. Keebaugh will emphasize theory and Richardson will focus on history, but they will work closely together and provide abundant experiential activities.

In covering medieval music, for example, Keebaugh envisions having students study the scores of early Gregorian chants in their original notation, sing the pieces, maybe learn a period dance and then try to compose in that style. Students would produce some medieval melodies before looking at how and why those melodies transitioned into the harmonies of the early Renaissance period. They would continue that process with each era. Newer styles, such as rock, blues, jazz and world music will also be included.

“They will see the development of history and theory together and how it moved and changed,” Keebaugh says. “We’ve talked with a few students, and they’re really excited because of that connection.”

The changes, for now, only affect the department’s foundational courses. Concentrations for majors include music education, performance and interdisciplinary studies. The music curriculum also includes courses available to all EMU students, regardless of major, such as “Conducting,” “World Music,” “Listening to Film,” “Introduction to Music Technology” and “Appreciating Music Making.”

Encore, EMU’s music alumni group, brings together faculty, students and alumni for fundraising recital

Walt Wiltschek — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 18:42:05 +0000

Encore, an dedicated to supporting the work of ��ݮ��’s , will host a recital Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in Martin Chapel, located in the Seminary building. Performers include faculty, students and alumni. The concert is dedicated to President Loren Swartzendruber, who is retiring June 30. The concert is free, but donations are encouraged. A light reception will follow.

“Because this is President Loren’s last year at EMU and he has been a great supporter of the music department, we wanted to honor him,” says Maria Zehr ‘11, an Encore board member who is organizing the event. Zehr says the Encore board worked hard to design a highly collaborative recital with a mix of both vocal and instrumental pieces.

Maria Zehr ’11, a member of Encore’s board, is helping to organize the Feb. 27 concert. (Photo by Andrew Strack)

Funds raised by the recital and other Encore events subsidize private music lessons for students and assist the department with special projects and supply needs beyond the normal budget. This past fall, for example, Encore paid for additional percussion mallets, needed for a performance of .

“As an alumna of EMU’s music department, I want to stay connected with what is happening in the department and on campus,” says Zehr, an elementary school teacher who double- majored in education and music. “The music department was an integral part of my time at EMU and shaped my college experience. It is where I found a place of connection and belonging. I was able to build relationships with the professors and music students that continue even now, years after my graduation.”

Zehr says she benefited from the support of Encore while a student, so she wants to pass on the support to current students. Music department chair is grateful for that ongoing support.

“The music faculty members are indebted to the loyalty and generous time and effort of our alumni who volunteer for Encore,” Griffing says. “They assist our department in a variety of ways. We are thrilled to be performing this benefit concert alongside current students and alumni.”

Griffing is among those on the recital program, leading a violin quartet of alumni and students. Others on the program include Sam Kauffman ’12, who will lead an alumni men’s quintet performing some of Kauffman’s original compositions; Jonathan Keener ’07, who will play a four-hands piano piece with Professor ; the Chamber Singers, under the direction of Professor ; and vocal ensemble Emulate, which will sing several pieces under the direction of Professor .

“This recital will be a celebration of quite a few years’ worth of music majors at EMU,” Waltner says. “We’re looking forward to reconnecting with former students and hearing them perform and performing with them. It will be an evening of a very wide variety of great music.”

To view a livestream of the event, click .