An upcoming concert titled “Pilgrimage” and presented by two Eastern Mennonite University vocal ensembles will reflect the “whole journey toward that which is sacred,” said director and professor of music Ryan Keebaugh.
The concert by the University Choir and Emulate chamber ensemble is on Tuesday, April 10, at 7 p.m. in Martin Chapel, and is free and open to the public. Donations will support the music scholarship fund.
The program will feature works that date from as early as the 1500’s to this decade and are from across the globe.
The 37-member University Choir will be accompanied by organist John Fast on R. Vaughan Williams’ “O Clap Your Hands,” and pianist Rebekah Hade will accompany the choir on Craig Hella Johnson’s arrangement of Eliza Gilkyson’s “Requiem” and John Leavitt’s “Festival Sanctus.”
The choir will also sing “Gabí, Gabí,” a South African praise song.
Emulate will then sing nine works ranging from John Sheppard’s sixteenth century “The Lord’s Prayer” to Karl Jenkins’ 2011 “Healing Light.”
Keebaugh’s conducting has been described as “expressive, concise, insightful and sensitive,” and his choral ensembles have been invited to perform at international and national festivals, master classes, and historic locations including Emulate at the Washington National Cathedral.
His compositions have been called “innovative and hauntingly beautiful” by The Washington Post and praised as “gorgeous canvases of sacred minimalism,” and have received numerous awards and recognition including the Raabe Music Prize.
At EMU, Keebaugh is the music education specialist and coordinator of music theory. He conducts the choir at Grace United Methodist Church in Middletown, Virginia.
Hade is organist and pianist for the same church, and teaches music at Signal Knob Middle School in Strasburg, Virginia. Watch Hade play Chopin’s Étude Op. 25, No. 7.
Fast has been an active member of the EMU music faculty since 1975, and frequently accompanies various Shenandoah Valley choral ensembles, including the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir. Watch as Fast accompanies the Park View Mennonite Church choir as it sings “The heavens are telling” from Haydn’s “The Creation.”
Members of the University Choir are Shelby Alto, Folasade Arasanyin, Perry Blosser, Yoel Bobadilla, Elliot Bowen, Kaleb Branner, Chelsea Brubaker, Clara Bush, Victoria Campbell, Robert Chaplain, Mariah Denlinger, Dijuan Gilbert, Dylan Grove, Daniel Hackman, Rachel Holderman, Aaron Horst, Earnest Kiah, Hannah Marston, Hannah Menefee, Holly Mumaw, Elizabeth Nixon, Kiara Norman, Lorren Oesch, Joshua Overacker, Kathryn Pettit, Karina Pidroutchniak, Gabriel Raber, Anna Ressler, Sarah Ressler, Emma Roth, Caleb Schrock-Hurst, Kellie Serrell, James Stoltzfus, Andry Stutzman, Emily Travis, Andrew Troyer and Lucas Wenger.
Emulate includes Perry Blosser, Dijuan Gilbert, Lorren Oesch, Sarah Regan, Anna Ressler, Sarah Ressler, Emma Roth, Caleb Schrock-Hurst and Andry Stutzman.