Chamber Singers releases spring break tour schedule

Come out and watch the choir perform at a venue near you!

The EMU Chamber Singers is taking the show on the road.

The auditioned touring chamber choir has released the schedule for its spring break series of performances, held from March 1-6, 2025. During the tour, its 23 members will perform at churches around Lancaster, Philadelphia, and Souderton, Pennsylvania, as well as at a retirement community near Lancaster, four high schools, and a music venue in Orange, Virginia. 

The theme of this year’s tour is “Hope and Unity” and features “beautiful singing on the topics of bringing hope and working for unity for our children, healing the earth, and working toward peace,” said Professor Benjamin Bergey, director of the Chamber Singers. “Music has the power to lift us up, allow us to cry or laugh, and bring us together.”

Some of the songs in the program that reflect this theme include the lovely and simple spiritual “Child of God,” the inspirational “Sing My Child,” and “Prayer of the Children.” Bergey said the latter song was written in the war-torn former country of Yugoslavia as a cry for Jesus’ help in a place of desperation.

The tour schedule includes a performance at Nations Worship Center, an Indonesian Mennonite congregation in Philadelphia led by Pastor Beny Krisbianto, MDiv ’15, a member of the EMU Board of Trustees. The Chamber Singers will also join together with area groups, singing alongside the Dock Mennonite Academy choir at Souderton Mennonite Church and the Lancaster Mennonite High School choir at Landis Homes. The tour will cap off with a return to The Music Room on Main in Orange, Virginia. The choir performed at the hardware store-turned-music venue last year and is “back by popular demand,” Bergey said.

The annual spring break tour is often a highlight of the choral students’ college experience and helps them hone their craft through the intensity of the tour, Bergey said. It also serves as a valuable recruiting tool, spreading the love of EMU and maintaining connections with the churches and communities that continue to send students to the university.

Schedule

All performances are free of charge, with a freewill offering collected to support the choir’s travel expenses.

Saturday, March 1, 7 p.m.
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church – Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Sunday, March 2, 10 a.m. 
Nations Worship Center – Philadelphia

Sunday, March 2, 7 p.m.
Salford Mennonite Church – Harleysville, Pennsylvania

Monday, March 3, 7 p.m.
Souderton Mennonite Church – Souderton, Pennsylvania
with Dock Mennonite Academy choir

Tuesday, March 4, 6 p.m.
Landis Homes – Lancaster, Pennsylvania
with Lancaster Mennonite High School choir

Thursday, March 6, 7 p.m.
The Music Room on Main – Orange, Virginia

Members

The choir includes:

SOPRANO
Erin Batten, Bridgewater, Virginia
Reah Clymer, Meridian, Mississippi
Elie Hoover, New Carlisle, Ohio
Hannah Landes Beck, Linville, Virginia
Hollyn Miller, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Riley Quezada, Mount Jackson, Virginia

ALTO
Ciela Acosta, Salem, Oregon
Iris Anderson, Corvallis, Oregon
Lauren Kauffman, Goshen, Indiana
Sophia Kauffman, Goshen, Indiana
Naomi Kratzer, Goshen, Indiana
Emma Nord, Greenville, Illinois

TENOR
Theo Andreas, Bluffton, Ohio
Adam Hoover, New Carlisle, Ohio
Jacob Nissley, Canton, Ohio
Canyon Penner, Goshen, Indiana
Cassidy Williams, Green Lane, Pennsylvania

BASS
Jadon Harley, Bel Air, Maryland
Jesse Kanagy, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lawson Kauffman, Goshen, Indiana
Mac Rhodes-Lehman, Dayton, Virginia
Eli Stoll, Harrisonburg, Virginia
Joshua Stucky, Princeton, New Jersey

Now in its 46th year, the EMU Chamber Singers is a mixed-voice choir made up of 23 EMU students of different ages and majors. For more information about the Chamber Singers, visit the choir’s website or find the group on Instagram and Spotify. Consider donating toward the choir’s travel and operating expenses here.

---