Mennonite World Conference is celebrating a momentous milestone next year—the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism—and it’s chosen the EMU Chamber Singers, along with from around the world, to commemorate the historic occasion. Each ensemble represents a different continent and culture within the MWC, and will perform throughout the day on May 29, 2025, at the held in Zurich, Switzerland.

“We are incredibly honored to be the group selected from North America,” said Benjamin Bergey, assistant professor of music at EMU and director of the Chamber Singers. “We’re excited about how unique an opportunity this is for our students to engage with choirs from all over the world.”

The Chamber Singers will be joined by ensembles from Indonesia, Kenya, Paraguay and Switzerland. Each group will have two performances, with one inside a church and another in the city square. They will then perform together at a worship service in the iconic Grossmünster cathedral.

Rashard Allen, who booked the ensembles, said each one is committed to the work of reconciliation in line with the event’s theme, “The Courage to Love.” “They have a global ecumenical outlook in terms of how they understand their role in being an Anabaptist choir/ensemble,” he said in .

The quincentennial celebration will cap off a tour of Europe for the Chamber Singers, who will perform in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland before traveling to Zurich. 

Sing for their support

A of the Voices Together hymnal at Martin Chapel this weekend will raise funds for the Chamber Singers trip. Join members of the Chamber Singers, music faculty and others in the community as they sing through the 750 hymns in Voices Together over the course of three days: on Friday evening, all day Saturday, and Sunday afternoon. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Support the choir by donating at the event and by giving online

The Chamber Singers is an auditioned touring chamber choir founded in 1979. The mixed-voice choir is made up of about 20 EMU students of different ages and majors, who tour in the U.S. each spring break and abroad every other May. For more information about the Chamber Singers choir, visit or find it on and .

Author and cultural historian Mary Helen Washington focuses on this decade of marginalized African American history – filled with Cold War intrigue and repressive government spying, yet an important precursor to the 1960s Civil Rights movement.

Washington visits ��ݮ���� Oct. 16 and Oct. 17 to discuss her new book, (Columbia University Press). The Thursday evening lecture is 7 p.m. in the seminary’s Martin Chapel. Washington will also offer “Reflections on the Journey” Friday at 10 a.m. chapel in Lehman Auditorium.

Washington’s research included extensive investigation of FBI files, first-person interviews, and archival material. The book features six relatively obscure authors and artists from the Black Popular Front, selected to show a range of political influence: novelists Lloyd L. Brown, Frank London Brown and Julian Mayfield; graphic artist Charles White; playwright Alice Childress; and poet and novelist Gwendolyn Brooks.

Since earning her doctorate at the University of Detroit in 1976, Washington has taught at Mills College, University of Massachusetts-Boston, UCLA, Harvard Divinity School, Wellesley College, and St. John College of Cleveland. She now teaches African American literature, film and culture at the College Park campus of the University of Maryland. A past president of the American Studies Association, she has been awarded five honorary doctorates and several prestigious fellowships.

The Other Blacklist is her first book. She is editor of Black-Eyed Susans: Classic Stories by Black Women Writers; Midnight Birds: Stories of Contemporary Black Women Writers; Invented Lives: Narratives of Black Women; and Memory of Kin: Stories of Family by Black Writers.

, associate professor of at EMU, will perform on piano, giving a recital that will encompass the romantic sounds of Rachmaninoff and Medtner to the modern sounds of Stravinsky and Prokofiev.

“These pieces have a lot of humor and capture a special mood,” said Mackey.

Mackey will perform Nicolai Medtner’s “Fairy Tales,” Igor Stravinsky’s Etude No. 4, Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 2, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue Op. 87, No. 7, and a group of Preludes from Op. 23 and Op. 32 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

“There is a unique contrast with each piece, almost whimsical and mischievous in nature,” Mackey said.

In addition to teaching at EMU, Mackey directs the during the and tours as a soloist with the .

Admission

Admission to the concert is free; donations are welcomed for the EMU music student scholarship fund. For more information contact , office manager, at 540-432-4225 or mathewsl@emu.edu.

Learn more about music at EMU:

• undergraduate music studies
• music faculty
• student music ensembles

Willis will hold a lecture and workshop from 2 – 4 p.m., Saturday with masterclass, high school and college students. Following the workshop, attendees will have the opportunity to play the fortepiano, a precursor to the modern grand piano. Admission is free for all students, EMU faculty and staff and Harrisonburg Music Teacher’s Association members. All others are $15.

At 7:30 p.m., Saturday, the EMU faculty artists series will present Willis an in evening concert in Martin Chapel. Willis will play a five-octave fortepiano in the Viennese tradition.  Made in Philadelphia in 1986 by Vincent Dulin, it is a replica of a fortepiano made in Vienna circa 1790 by Anton Walter.

On a similar Walter fortepiano, Mozart premiered his greatest concertos in Vienna between 1784 and 1786. This will provide a unique opportunity to hear the music of Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn on an early piano and to learn why this type of instrument was suited to the music.

Admission is free. Donations are encouraged to support the EMU music scholarship fund.

Noted for his mastery of early keyboard instruments, Willis has performed across the United States and abroad on pianos of every period. His recording of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata appears on Claves label. It is part of the first Beethoven sonata cycle on period instruments. Other recordings by Willis of Schubert Lieder and Rossini are available on Vox, Newport Classics and Albany records.

Willis is director of the University of North Carolina Greensboro focus on piano literature and received a DMA from Cornell University. He has performed with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, the Mozart Society of Philadelphia and the Apollo Ensemble.

For more information on the workshop or concert call 540-432-4226.

Renown poet and author, G.C. Waldrep, will read from his works following the dinner at 5:30 p.m. in Martin Chapel of the seminary building at EMU. Several of the author’s books will be available for purchase. A book signing and short question and answer session with the author will follow the dinner.

Writers Read, a program sponsored by the EMU language and literature department, is a special dinner event featuring authors who read from and comment on their work.

A full schedule of Writers Read authors is listed below.

G. C. Waldrep, poet from Bucknell University – September 22, 2011

G. C. Waldrep Professor is an assistant professor of English at Bucknell University. He is the author of four full-length collections of poems: Goldbeater’s Skin (2003); Disclamor (2007); Archicembalo (2009), winner of the Dorset Prize; and, in collaboration with John Gallaher, Your Father on the Train of Ghosts.

His work has appeared in many journals, including Poetry, Ploughshares, Harper’s, The Nation, Kenyon Review, Boston Review, New England Review, Colorado Review, New American Writing, and Tin House, as well as in Best American Poetry 2010. Waldrep has earned accolades from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the North Carolina Arts Council and the Campbell Corner Foundation. He is a 2007 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in Literature.

Waldrep authored Southern Workers and the Search for Community, a historical monograph on the lives of Southern textile workers during the early twentieth century. Waldrep teaches creative writing and directs the Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets while serving as editor-at-large for the Kenyon Review.

Sehba Sarwar, multidisciplinary artist and director of Voice Breaking Boundaries – October 13, 2011

Sehba Sarwar is a writer, multidisplinary artist, and activist, currently based in Houston, Texas, where she serves as founding director of Voices Breaking Boundaries (VBB), and is an active voice at KPFT Pacifica Radio 90.1 FM.

Sarwar has continued to teach writing and multidisciplinary arts workshops at all levels, in both Pakistan and in the United States. Sarwar has moved between the city of her birth Karachi, Pakistan, to her adopted city, Houston, Texas where she has recreated a community similar to the one in which she was raised. Her writings have appeared in anthologies, newspapers, and magazines in India, Pakistan, and the U.S., and her work (writings, installations and videos) explores displacement and women’s issues between South Asia and the U.S.

Sarwar is the author of the novel Black Wings, and her short stories have appeared in Muneeza Shamsie’s 2008 anthology of Pakistani women writers And The World Changed and in Neither Night Nor Day. Her essays have appeared in publications including The News on Sunday, The New York Times’ Sunday Magazine and Callaloo.

Diane Gilliam, poet from Akron, Ohio – January 26, 2012

Diane Gillam is the author of several poetry collections, most recently, Kettle Bottom, which earned her numerous honors, including a spot on the American Booksellers Association Book Sense 2005 Top Ten Poetry Books list, the 2008 Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing, and inclusion in The Pushcart Prize XXX anthology.

In her review of Kettle Bottom, Catherine MacDonald gives the book high praise, “Set in 1920–21, a period of violent unrest known as the West Virginia Mine Wars, the poems in Kettle Bottom combine compelling narratives with the charged, heightened language of lyric poetry. It is an unforgettable combination, one that characterizes the very best contemporary verse.”

Gillam has had her poems published in literary journals and magazines including Wind Magazine, Appalachian Journal, Shenandoah, Ploughshares, and The Spoon River Poetry Review.

Lee Peterson, poet from Penn State University, Altoona campus – February 23, 2012

Lee Peterson currently teaches creative writing courses full time at Pennsylvania State University, Altoona campus, where she held the position of 2004 “Emerging Writer-in-Residence.”

Peterson is author of Rooms and Fields: Dramatic Monologues from the War in Bosnia, winner of the 2003 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize. She gives readings and leads workshops nationally, including the 2007 Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Her poetry has been published in various journals, including North American Review, Runes: A Review of Poetry, Nimrod: International Journal of Prose and Poetry, and The Seattle Review.

Tickets and reservations

Reserve tickets or by calling the language & literature department at 540-432-4168.

• General Admission $15
• EMU students with meal plan $5
• All other students $7
• Season tickets $50 (for all four events)

will confer 451 degrees – 320 undergraduate (including 119 Adult Degree Completion Program graduates), 120 graduate, (5 graduate certificates and 6 study and pastoral ministry certificates on graduates of the STEP (Training for Effective Pastoral Ministry) program at EMU Lancaster (PA). Last year, EMU awarded 432 degrees.

Michael (Mike) Berenstain of Doylestown, Pa., will give the commencement address on the theme, “Simple Gifts: Thoughts from Childhood.” His son, Samuel Berenstain, is a member of the undergraduate class of 2011. He will receive a BA degree in environmental sustainability.

Berenstain attended art school in Philadelphia in the early 1970s, then worked as a designer in the children’s book department of a New York publisher before starting his career as an author and illustrator. His first children’s book was published in 1976, followed by some 30 more over the next 16 years, ranging in subject matter from wizards to dinosaurs.

Since the late 1980s Michael has done most of the illustrating for the family-owned business that was started in the 1960s by his parents, Stan and Jan Berenstain of Solebury Township, Pa., Stan died in 2005 at age 82. Jan, 86, still collaborates with Michael on creative input and drawings.

Stan and Jan Berenstain introduced the Bear family of Mama, Papa and Small Bear, in their first children’s book, “The Big Honey Hunt,” published in 1962. More than 140 Berenstain Bear books are currently in print with the publishers Random House, HarperCollins and Zonderkidz. About 260 million copies in the series have been sold.

Michael is the author and illustrator of the new Berenstain Bears “Living Lights” series, the first faith-based books. The series follows the Berenstain Bears as they learn morals like the golden rule and loving your neighbor.

During the ceremony, “graduates’ perspectives” will be given by undergraduates Megan Grove, Greencastle, Pa., and Mitchell Stutzman, Middlebury, Ind.; ADCP graduate Nona Allen, Elkton, Va., and graduate student Erica Yutzy, Harrisonburg.

The seniors have elected, assistant professor of religion and culture at EMU, to be speaker for the baccalaureate service to be held 7 p.m. Saturday, Apr. 30, in Lehman Auditorium.

Dr. Dula, an EMU alumnus, received a PhD in theology and ethics from Duke University in 2004. Before joining the EMU faculty in 2006 he was Iraq program coordinator with Mennonite Central Committee, Akron, Pa. He has taught at Lancaster (PA) Mennonite High School and at the Meserete Kristos College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he was a Fulbright scholar in 2001-02.

The salutation will be given by senior class co-presidents Janelle Freed, Collegeville, Pa., and Braydon Hoover, Elizabethtown, Pa.

EMU music students will give a short concert in immediately following the baccalaureate service. President and Mrs. Swartzendruber will host a reception for the graduates and their families in the , second floor corridor, immediately following that program.

In case of rain, commencement exercises will be held in the , which can accommodate 3,600 people. An announcement to that effect will be made by 9 a.m. that day on the , on the EMU activities line, 432-4362, and on area radio stations.

Selah Shenk, a music major from Newport News, Va., and Leah Risser, a liberal arts major from Greencastle, Pa., will perform solos and duets on the theme, “Live, Laugh, Love.” Their program will draw from a Spanish, classical and musical theater repertoire, with composers ranging from Schubert and W.A. Mozart to Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein.

Benjamin (Ben) Bergey, a senior vocal performance and church music major from Perkasie, Pa., will provide piano accompaniment.

Risser, a soprano, is a member of the EMU Chamber Singers and has been extensively involved in theater productions. She is a member of the Marion (PA) Mennonite Church.

Shenk, a mezzo-soprano, has been involved in musical theater productions and intramural sports during her years at EMU. She is a member of the Warwick River Mennonite Church, Newport News.

Admission to the program is free.

Kniss, a baritone, will perform Italian arias by Mozart and Puccini, Brahms’ “Four Serious Songs” and Vaughan Williams’ “Songs of Travel,” a nine-piece song set.

Benjamin P. (Ben) Bergey, a senior vocal performance and church music major, will provide piano accompaniment.

Kniss is a member of the EMU Chamber Singers, a select student choir, and has appeared in numerous EMU Theater productions.

Admission to the recital is free.

The language and literature department at ��ݮ���� is sponsoring a presentation on race relations by award-winning author .

Dr. Jordan-Lake will speak 7 p.m. Thursday, Mar. 17, in Martin Chapel of the seminary building at EMU, drawing from her award-winning book, “Blue Hole Back Home: A Novel.”

Jordan-Lake is a professor at Belmont University, Nashville, Tenn. Her book won the 2009 national Christy Award for first novel and was selected as the 2009 Common Book for Baylor University, Waco, Tex. Inspired by actual events from her own teenage years, Jordan-Lake explores the tensions and eventual violence that erupt in a small, all-white Appalachian town when a Sri Lankan family moves in.

Ultimately, “Blue Hole Back Home” is a story not only of the devastating effects of racial hatred and cowardice, but more centrally, a celebration of courage, confrontation and healing. The book is increasingly being chosen as classroom and summer reading at various public and private high school, middle schools, colleges and universities.

After earning a bachelors degree from Furman University and a masters from a theological seminary, Jordan-Lake earned a masters and a PhD in English Literature from Tufts University, specializing in the role of race and religion in 19th century American fiction.

Her other writings include “Grit and Grace: Portraits of a Woman’s Life,” “Whitewashing Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Nineteenth-Century Women Novelists Respond to Stowe” and “Why Jesus Makes Me Nervous: Ten Alarming Words of Faith.”

Admission to the presentation is free.  For more information, contact Dr. Vi Dutcher, language and literature
department, at 540-432-4316.

Bergey, a vocal performance and church music major, will perform Baroque and modern music from the “B’s” – J.S. Bach’s aria “Frohe Hirte” from his Christmas Oratorio and his chamber cantata (BWV 157), “Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn” with six other musicians; as well as Samuel Barber’s “Despite and Still” cycle; and Benjamin Britten’s Irish Folksong arrangements.

Phillip Martin, a sophomore environmental science and music performance major from Mount Joy, Pa., will provide piano accompaniment. Other musicians assisting Bergey are Jenny Hochstetler, Matthew  Hunsberger, Janelle Dean, April Miller, Kaitlin Heatwole and Briana Eshleman.

Bergey sings tenor with the EMU Chamber Singers and is co-president with Michael Spory of the Student Government Association (SGA). He is a member of Blooming Glen (PA) Mennonite Church and a 2007 graduate of Christopher Dock Mennonite High School, Lansdale, Pa.

Admission to the program is free. Donations will be accepted toward a European tour that Bergey, Phillip Martin and Steve Kniss are planning to different Mennonite Churches in Germany, Netherlands and the Alsace region in May.



Leonard Dow will seek to combine his reflections on pastoral ministry in an urban and multicultural context while addressing the program theme, “Called by God.”

Schedule of events

He will speak in chapel services and classes, meet with student groups and individuals, minister with the men’s basketball team and facilitate dialogue in a coffeehouse event.

Dow, a 1987 EMU alumnus, is pastor of Oxford Circle Mennonite Church, a multi-ethnic community in Philadelphia, a bishop of the Lancaster Conference Philadelphia District, board chair of Oxford Circle Christian Development Association and board member of Singing City, a non-profit music industry. He previously was involved in banking.

Dow was the all-time scoring leader for the EMU Royals men’s basketball team as a student with 2,192 points and 1,102 career rebounds. He was named to the EMU athletic hall of honor and was the first EMU athlete to have his jersey retired in 1987.

Dow will open the program theme in university chapel 10 a.m. Wed., Feb. 16 in Lehman Auditorium, speak in seminary chapel 11 a.m Thur., Feb. 17 in Martin Chapel and again 10 a.m. Fri., Feb. 18 in Lehman Auditorium.

He will lead a session on “what does it mean to be alive in your faith” 8 p.m. Thurs., Feb. 17 in the Common Grounds Coffeehouse in the University Commons. The EMU Gospel Choir will sing, and free refreshments will be served.

Additional events

Local singer-composer Jessica Crawford, a recent Eastern Mennonite Seminary student, will play at 9 p.m. Fri., Feb. 18 in Common Grounds Coffeehouse.

Interim Associate Campus Pastor Dawn Monger and Maria Zehr, undergraduate student, conclude the week by leading a “Called to Ministry” retreat 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, held at Park View Mennonite Church.

“I expect Leonard Dow to bring energetic and focused teaching on understanding how and to what God calls all of us as well as guidance for discerning our personal calling,” said EMU campus pastor Brian Martin Burkholder. “This is a theme that touches everyone – students, faculty, staff and community members.”

For more information, visit the or call campus ministries at 540-432-4115.

EMU is all keyed up – in an upbeat, celebrative way.

Martin Chapel at is the new home of a Model B Steinway concert grand piano, thanks to a gracious donor.

Geraldine Estep Sherwood of Fairfax, Va., gave the funds to purchase the high-quality piano, which will benefit both the seminary and EMU’s , since Mrs. Sherwood has strong interest in both.

EMU hosted an appreciation dinner for Mrs. Sherwood on Monday, Apr. 17, with representatives from the seminary and undergraduate music department. Following the meal, the donor attended a dedication ceremony for the new piano and a practice session for one of the groups who will benefit directly from the instrument, the .

‘Top-of-the line piano’

"This is a top-of-the-line piano, so it’s an exciting development for us," said , associate professor and music department chair. "We have one older Steinway that has been very heavily used, so we’re pleased to have a new piano of this caliber," Dr. Griffing said.

"For our piano majors to be able to play on an instrument of this quality is an incredible opportunity, something they would only experience at a conservatory. We are deeply grateful," Griffing added.

The Sherwood family has set up two scholarships – the Stern Endowment named for her grandparents and the Estep-Sherwood Endowment – to assist music majors at EMU.

One of those recipients, senior music education major Bethany M. Blouse of Dublin, Va., planned to publicly thank Mrs. Sherwood for the assistance she has received, but became ill and was unable to attend the dinner.

Gracious Support

Although Sherwood lives in northern Virginia, she remains a supportive member of the Otterbein United Methodist Church in Harrisonburg. Several students at Eastern Mennonite Seminary receive financial assistance from an endowment fund she established especially to help United Methodist students attend EMS.

Dan Seifert, director of youth ministries, and Michael Dettmer, coordinator for children’s ministries at Otterbein, expressed appreciation at the dinner for that support.

Dettmer, originally from Portsmouth, Va., came to EMS the fall of 2003 and had to borrow heavily to attend.

"It was a real adjustment at first," Dettmer told the group. "But Otterbein has been a real support, and EMS has provided a strong learning environment as preparation for future ministry. Her [Sherwood’s] benevolence has helped provide peace of mind and grace to concentrate on my studies," he said.

"I was pleased to give the piano out of my love of music and to support students in their preparation for careers in music or pastoral ministry," Sherwood said.

The wall behind the podium at the front of Eastern Mennonite Seminary’s Martin Chapel had been bare. Now, anyone seated in the audience is drawn to a striking palette of rich colors, swirling brush strokes and symbols.

A three-panel triptych, created by Esther K. Augsburger of Harrisonburg, was formally dedicated Jan. 22 during the closing worship service of the annual School for Leadership Training held at the seminary.

Seminary dean Ervin R. Stutzman gave a tribute to the artist prepared by EMU provost Beryl H. Brubaker, who was unable to be present, then surprised her by announcing that Eastern Mennonite University was naming Mrs. Augsburger “distinguished artist in residence.”

The honor seeks to recognize a person “who has made significant ongoing contributions to the enrichment of the university,” Dr. Stutzman said.