Story by Cheyenne Derksen Schroeder, Staff Write, McPherson Sentinel
Category: Campus Events
Mac College goes ‘Barefoot’ – McPherson Sentinel
Exhibition at McPherson College Explores Landscapes, Nature in Contemporary Artwork
A new exhibition at McPherson College called “Finding Balance” explores the role of the natural world in artwork of all sizes, media, and topics. The show is up now through March 11.
The work of Leland Powers, associate professor of interior design at Fort Hays State University, marks the starting point for the exhibition’s concept. MC invited him to show his work in the college’s Friendship Hall and to also select other artists to join him in the show.
That initial concept evolved into a collaborative show among Powers and two of his colleagues in higher education – Joel Dugan, assistant professor of painting at Fort Hays; and Matthew Ballou, assistant teaching professor of painting and drawing at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo.
Wayne Conyers, professor of art at McPherson College, said most of the art is on the theme of landscapes, nature, and the outdoors.
“The works in this exhibition explore the spaces that we inhabit, and the experiences that forge our understanding for what is the human condition,” he said. “As we look forward and consider what the future holds, the landscape exhibits memories of the balance we have endured to survive.”
The result of Powers’s work in organizing the show is 46 works, which he delivered to McPherson College. These range in size from smaller than a postcard through taller than a man, and works employ media that include ink, graphic, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, lithograph and much more.
While the exhibit has a theme of the natural world, the techniques and approach vary widely – everything from abstract grids of color to the downright surreal… such as a pink rabbit standing upright on the surface of a lake.
Powers said he sees the foundation of his work as a sense of “place” – even when the natural world isn’t immediately apparent.
“I am a native of the Great Plains and have always been moved by the influence of its large sky and low horizon,” he said. “The linear definition and worked surfaces in my images celebrate the subtle nuances and fleeting visual memories of that world.”
In addition to the featured artists, works are also included from Jacob Crook of Syracuse, N.Y.; Michael Knutson of Garden City, Kan; Eric Norby of Minneapolis, Minn.; Gordon Sherman of Hays, Kan.; and Jared Tadlock of Evergreen, Colo.
Spring Performance in Lingenfelter Artist Series at McPherson College Features Internationally Recognized Opera Singer Simon Estes
The upcoming performer for McPherson College’s Fern Lingenfelter Artist Series has performed for Presidents and Popes, and paved the way for performing artists of color.
But bass-baritone opera singer Simon Estes takes no credit for himself. His deep Christian faith draws him to give God the recognition.
“I believe that God has given everyone a talent or a gift,” he said, “And that he’s given it to serve him first, and then to serve each other. I’m not a star. The stars are in heaven and God put them there. I’m just a human being who’s been blessed.”
Estes, who has been a major figure in the world of opera for the past half century, will be the second-ever performer in the Lingenfelter Series at 4 p.m., Sunday, March 12 at the McPherson Church of the Brethren adjacent to the MC campus.
He is excited about performing at MC and considers it a deep honor, he said, largely because his wife, Ovida, grew up in the Church of the Brethren (McPherson College’s foundational Christian denomination). In addition, three of his sisters-in-law attended McPherson College, with two graduating from MC.
Estes graduated from the University of Iowa, where he worked hard to make his way through – cleaning windows, sleeping on floors, and struggling to buy meals. Considering that just two generations before him slaveholders forced his grandfather into servitude, Estes considered his own situation a great opportunity.
“I just thought, if I’m blessed someday, I want to help young people in colleges as well as children,” he said. “I’ve been tremendously blessed by the Lord. I just believe we are put on this earth to love one another and help one another.”
Making his operatic debut in 1965 with the Deutsche Opera in “Aida,” Estes has since gone on to add more than 100 operatic roles to his repertoire.
Among his performances have been many historic and landmark roles – particularly ones that broke down walls of racism. As an African-American opera singer, he paved the way for people of color who went into the performing arts. Many of them seek Estes out after performances to share how his example was motivating.
“They have certainly thanked me, and I have been humbled by that,” he said. “I have been grateful that I was able to be used and they were inspired by that and didn’t give up.”
In a prominent groundbreaking role, Estes appeared in the title role of Richard Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman” for six successive years at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany. That marked the first time a black male artist appeared in any role in the more than 140-year history of the festival, which was founded by Wagner himself.
Estes has performed with 115 orchestras and 84 opera houses worldwide. Among his audiences have been United States Presidents George H.W. Bush, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon and Barack Obama.
He’s the only vocalist to sing at both the 25th and 50th anniversaries of the United Nations. He helped to celebrate the opening of the Munich Olympic Games in 1972 and the centennial of the Statue of Liberty. He sang for the inauguration of the first black governor in the United States in 1990, performed for Nelson Mandela, and performed at the Conference of The Anatomy of Hate – which is funded by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee and The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.
In addition, he’s been Grammy Nominated for Best Classical Album of the Year, inaugurated the role of Porgy in “Porgy & Bess” for the Metropolitan Opera, and worked with the likes of Leonard Bernstein, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, Harry Belafonte, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, John Denver, Audrey Hepburn, Whitney Houston, Barry Manilow, Gregory Peck and Wynton Marsalis.
As a part of his social mission, Estes has held concerts to support the United Nations Mosquito Netting Project, which supplies and maintaining treated mosquito nets to save children’s lives from malaria in Africa. His performance for the Lingenfelter Series will also support the netting project in lieu of an honorarium.
“I think God laid in on my heart,” Estes said of his support for the netting project.
To learn more about Estes, visit www.simonestesfoundation.org.
The Fern Lingenfelter Artist Series was established in 2016 thanks to a generous commitment to McPherson College, in honor of MC alumna and piano teacher Fern Lingenfelter. Her son, Steve Clark – chairman of Clark Investment Group in Wichita, Kan. – generously established the supporting fund at MC.
This cultural series consists of two annual music performance events, with a special emphasis on piano. Lingenfelter taught piano in McPherson for years – both to traditional college students on the MC campus and younger students at a studio downtown. Lingenfelter passed away in 1962, but her son, Steve Clark, said he has seen a long and lasting influence from her lifetime of work. Establishing the fund is his way to say, “Thank you,” and to support the music and the instrument she loved.
Wheat State League Honor Band Brings More Than 120 Students to McPherson College
More than 120 top high school band musicians from around the area came to the McPherson College campus on Monday, Jan. 30, to learn under the direction of MC’s own Kyle Hopkins.
Hopkins, associate professor of music and director of bands, had the honor of being the clinician and conductor of the 2017 Wheat State League Honor Band.
Students from the high schools of Canton-Galva, Centre, Goessel, Herington, Little River, Peabody, Solomon, and Wakefield were all nominated by their school’s director to become part of the band.
The students rehearsed (for the first time together) during the afternoon, then presented a full concert that evening with the selections: “Sparks” by Brian Balmages, “A Hymn for Band” by Hugh Stuart, “Prairie Dances” by David R. Holsinger, and “Zia, Zia!” by Claude T. Smith.
The program also featured professor Hopkins on horn as a part of the professional “Heartland Brass Quintet,” which also includes Isaac Hopkins and Kyle Unruh on trumpet, Rob Tierney on Trombone, and Adam Keller on tuba.
“It was great for the honor band students to hear a professional level group,” Hopkins said, “And was a real inspiration for them to continue their music.”
‘For Colored Girls’ at McPherson College Gives Attention to Frequently Unheard American Voices
With a title like “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf,” the upcoming play at McPherson College will clearly be anything but “easy.”
Jd. Bowman, associate professor of theatre, said challenging audiences was one of his most important reasons for selecting the landmark play by Tony Award-winning playwright Ntozake Shange.
“My hope is that members of our campus community and our audience discover the beauty of this piece,” he said.
The 1975 play will be showing at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 2-4 in the college’s Mingenback Theatre. Reservations are required by contacting the theatre box office at 620-242-0444 or at [email protected].
Bowman said that the play consists of a series of inter-connected storytelling poems told by women who are identified only by the color of the rainbow they are dressed in.
It provides a glimpse into what it meant to be an African-American in the United States in the 1970s, but has grown to reflect many voices in America that are silent or unspoken.
Even though most of the local audience is Caucasian, Bowman said that just makes this play’s message even more important.
“That is all the more reason why this piece should be produced here – because we need to hear voices and stories that are different than our own,” he said. “When we look into a social mirror, we do best if that reflection is not what we expect.”
However, Bowman expects people in minority and majority populations alike to find connection to the play.
“One of my favorite poems starts with, ‘Somebody almost walked off with all of my stuff,’” Bowman said. “In the poem, a woman is realizing that gave so much of herself to a relationship that she almost let them run away with her identity. I can relate to that story and many more in this piece.”
Tickets to all shows cost $5 for adults and $3.50 for children ages high school and younger as well as seniors.
Cast for the show is: Whitney Murray, junior, Kansas City, Kan.; Nora Grosbach, junior, Evergreen, Colo.; Aysia Pryor, sophomore, Wichita, Kan.; Miaya Sample, freshman, Baytown, Texas; and guest alumna artists – Tracey Hughes ’91, Kansas City, Mo.; Colleen Gustafson ’06, McPherson, Kan.; and Kenyatta Harden ’13, McPherson, Kan.
Crew for the show includes: Elizabeth Thornton, freshman, Karval, Colo. (stage manager); Erin Fralick, junior, New Palestine, Ind. (lights); and Nancy Dorrell, freshman, Newton, Kan. (sound).
McPherson College Holds Second Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition
Sometimes it’s recognition from a stranger that means the most.
That’s the idea behind the second annual McPherson College Juried Student Art Exhibition, on display now through Feb. 5 in Friendship Hall on the campus of McPherson College. It will conclude with a reception for the student artists on that date from 2 to 3:30 p.m., and the public is invited and encouraged to attend.
Wayne Conyers, professor of art, said that before last year, the works in the student exhibition were selected by the faculty. Now, however, the college brings in an outside juror to name the student award winners. Conyers said it created a more realistic experience of trying to get into real-world show.
“When they do this, it’s like a professional exhibition,” he said. “They’ve got to apply. They’ve got to prepare.”
This year the exhibition includes 78 works by students in media as diverse as ceramics, graphic design, paint, and even fabrics.
The juror this year is Ron Michael, director of the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery in Lindsborg, Kan. He named the best of show winners as well as 14 “Merit Award” recipients from among the works on display.
“We’ve realized that part of assessment of what we’re doing is having outsiders come in and evaluate,” Conyers said.
The “Best of Show: Studio winner” was Italia Venegas, freshman, Shawnee Mission, Kan.; and the “Best of Show: Graphic Design” recipient was Jaden Hilgers, sophomore, Wichita, Kan.
The other MC students accepted for the exhibition are: Chloe Cloud, sophomore, Wichita, Kan.; Alley Domar, senior, McPherson, Kan.; Monica Ewy, senior, McPherson, Kan.; Micah Gilbert, freshman, Elkhart, Ind.; Nora Grosbach, junior, Evergreen, Colo.; Joshua Hall, senior, Tonganoxie, Kan.; Jennifer Jacobitz, sophomore, Muskegon, Mich.; Lisa Koehn, senior, Galva, Kan.; Lillian Oeding, freshman, Wichita, Kan.; Ian Rhoten, sophomore, Wichita, Kan.; Miguel Luna Sanchez, senior, Salinas, Calif.; Logan Schrag, junior, McPherson, Kan.; Amber Shuey, freshman, Wichita, Kan.; Sarah Tajchman, freshman, Marion, Kan.; Brenda Tejero, senior, Aurora, Colo.; Channing Wall, senior, McPherson, Kan.; Madison Whaley, junior, McPherson, Kan.; and Carol Zerger of McPherson, Kan.
McPherson College Band Concert Offers Selections on Theme of ‘The Ascension’
The McPherson College band program went from just eight members four years ago to 57 members this semester. With that astounding increase, the theme for this Sunday’s band concert of “The Ascension” seems particularly appropriate.
Kyle Hopkins, associate professor of music and director of bands, said he was impressed not only with the increased numbers of students, but also with the increasing abilities of the students.
“We’re at a point in our band that we can do some really demanding works,” he said. “I really see our quality has gone up this year, as well as our quantity.”
The program will include both the McPherson College Jazz Band and the McPherson College Concert Band at 4 p.m. Nov. 20 in Brown Auditorium. The public is invited and encouraged to attend the free event.
The jazz band will perform such popular standards as “In the Mood” by Joe Garland and “Blue Skies” by Irving Berlin, featuring jazz vocalist and MC Band member Jennie Jacobitz, sophomore, Muskegon, Mich.
The concert band, meanwhile, will perform several selections by Robert W. Smith – “Currents,” “In a Gentle Rain,” and “The Ascension.” The last is a musical interpretation of part of “The Divine Comedy” by Dante, and gives the program its name.
Smith is a living, modern composer with more than 600 works in print – many of which have achieved worldwide acclaim and have been performed on every continent but Africa and Antarctica.
Hopkins said the band is now at a point where it can recruit top high school musicians. This year that includes a number of students who were selected for their state’s district and state honor bands, the highest achievement a high school instrumentalist can achieve.
In particular, Hopkins praised Kento Aizawa, freshman, McPherson, Kan., who will be the solo clarinetist on “Concertino” by Carl Maria von Weber. Aizawa not only made it into state band all three years that high school students are eligible, he also landed first chair clarinet every year he went.
Hopkins likened it to a high school athlete winning at an individual state competition every year of their high school career.
“We have others who are right up there with him,” Hopkins said, “but he represents the cream of the crop.”
Aizawa said he was considering other colleges, but it was after having Hopkins as his clinician and conductor in the Kansas Music Educators Association District Honor Band that he started to change his mind and ultimately decided on McPherson College.
“He made a really great impression on me. I felt connected to his passion for music,” Aizawa said. “It’s great to be in a band that’s thriving and getting even better as the year goes on, so I’m excited to see where it goes.”
Jazz Festival at McPherson College Showcases Outstanding Student Musicians
When a high-caliber jazz musician asked Paxton Leaf to come on stage to improvise with him, one thought flashed through his mind.
“Don’t screw up,” Leaf thought.
The senior at McPherson High School didn’t need to worry. At the third annual McPherson College Jazz Festival on Nov. 3, the young trumpet player held his own playing with Doug Talley – a professional saxophonist from Kansas City who leads the Doug Talley Quartet.
“Honestly, being able to play with someone as talented as Doug Talley, that was a once in a lifetime experience,” Leaf said. “I love what the McPherson College Jazz Festival has come to be. It’s an experience that sticks with you.”
The quartet kicked off the annual festival the evening before on Nov. 2 with a special concert at the McPherson Opera House. Then on Thursday, more than 400 student jazz musicians came to the MC campus for the festival. The students ranged in age from middle school to college and represented 20 bands from 18 different area schools.
In addition to their performances, the students also got to learn in one of two clinics – either in improvisation or rhythm section – from the professional musicians in the Doug Talley Quartet.
In the improv clinic, Talley taught students how to “steal” musical ideas from other players in a jam session, figure out the base chord of those ideas and improvise on them, and finally how to adapt those improvisations to different keys.
After calling on Leaf as a volunteer to help demonstrate the principles, Talley introduced a simple three-note phrase for Leaf to repeat. Then they took turns improvising on it across different keys. It was a simple musical idea, Talley said, but improvisation doesn’t need to be complicated.
“Those are only three notes,” he said. “Yeah, but you only start talking with one word.”
After Leaf demonstrated that he had some true chops, Talley and Leaf went into a more extended improvisation session. Then they took questions from the students in the audience, and one asked whether either of them had just wanted to give up on jazz. Both confessed to frustrations at times.
“There have definitely been times I wanted to throw my instrument across the room because it’s just not responding right,” Leaf said.
Talley said it’s a natural feeling.
“If you don’t have some highs and lows,” he said, “you’re just not human.”
At the same time, they encouraged the students to persevere and find the rewards at the end.
Talley said he was impressed both with Leaf and the festival as a whole.
“It’s providing opportunities for kids to play and try out their skills at a time of year when there aren’t a lot of other options,” Talley said.
Kyle Hopkins, band director and associate professor of music, started the festival in 2013, largely for that purpose – giving students valuable experience where none had existed in the area before. He enjoyed seeing how far the festival has come.
“The groups have been playing fantastically and the clinics have been phenomenal,” Hopkins said. “It’s bigger. We’re bringing in big-name artists and getting the community and alumni more involved.”
Student groups performing at the festival this year were: Lakewood Middle School (Salina, Kan. – two groups); Sterling Middle School; Sterling High School, Central High School Concert Jazz (Salina); Central High School Symphony Jazz (Salina); Newton High School; Hesston High School; McPherson Middle School; McPherson High School; McPherson College; Goddard High School; Wichita South High School; Chapman Middle School; Chapman High School; Nickerson High School; Abilene High School; Larned High School; and Fort Riley Middle School.
Father, Daughter to Speak on Church’s Role at End of Life for Religious Heritage Lecture at MC
Death is a universal life experience.
Yet, Christian churches often go out of their way to avoid addressing it, clearly and frankly.
At McPherson College’s Religious Heritage Lecture on Nov. 6, Dr. Dale Goldsmith and Dr. Joy Goldsmith will critically examine this tendency.
“Death has become a topic that has been ignored,” Dale Goldsmith said. “One of our main concerns is that in ignoring it, we’re not being very helpful. The church has basically outsourced the end of life to various establishments – including that of health care.”
Dale and Joy will present “Speaking of Dying” beginning at 4 p.m. in the McPherson Church of the Brethren at 200 N. Carrie St. – just off the McPherson College campus.
They will handle the lecture – based on their book “Speaking of Dying: Recovering the Church’s Voice in the Face of Death” – as a “tag-team” between father and daughter. The book was inspired by events surrounding the death of the Rev. Janet Forts Goldsmith, who died of cancer.
Janet was Dale’s daughter, Joy’s sister, and the student of co-author Dr. Fred Craddock at Candler Theological Seminary. The book, published in 2012, critically looks at the challenges of talking about dying within the Christian church.
Dale is a New Testament scholar, whose career includes 27 years as professor of philosophy and religion at McPherson College – eight of those as dean of the faculty. He is the author of “New Testament Ethics,” “Growing in Wisdom: Called to the Adventure of College,” and “Look – I Am With You: Daily Devotions for the College Year.”
For the lecture, Dale will focus on the narrative history of how Christianity viewed dying in the past, as well as how that view has changed in modern times to something more complicated and incoherent.
“Everybody’s dying,” he said. “As a Christian, you confront dying at your baptism, which is a baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ. And it initiates a new life in which dying is fully and meaningfully integrated.”
Joy is an associate professor of communication at the University of Memphis, examining in particular how communication can benefit patients, families, and heath care providers when dealing with chronic and terminal illnesses. She has co-authored on five books and is an editor of the “Oxford Textbook of Communication in Palliative Care.”
In the lecture, she will cover issues of communication and society as it relates to dying – including the techniques people use to avoid the topic.
“We’re masterful at it,” she said. “If stuff makes us uncomfortable and we don’t want to talk or think about it, we don’t.”
Joy said she hopes the lecture encourages people to “hold up a mirror” to their own communication habits in responding to dying and how they might improve those habits in the future. After all, people will deal with death for the rest of their life.
“Research tells us that the psychosocial part of us is what establishes our desire to live, the quality of life, and even the length of life,” she said. “Death is an inevitability. It’s a part of life.”
Every person must confront dying, Dale Goldsmith said, and faith communities could offer a narrative about it that helps people to discover meaning in the dying process.
“There are some problems with the secular story… that medicine will cure you,” he said. “That works until you die, and then the story fails. All of life should be meaningful and have significance – including dying.”
Dale said he hopes that those who come to the lecture gain a greater appreciation for the power of Christianity’s story about dying – both for those who need to hear it and for overall welfare and effectiveness of the church itself.
“I hope they have one of those ‘lightbulb moments’ that, yeah, we are avoiding this event that’s going to happen to everyone,” he said. “Perhaps we do have something in our tradition that we can take out, dust off, and put to good use.”
The public is invited and encouraged to attend this free lecture. The Religious Heritage Lecture was established at McPherson College through the generosity of three former faculty members. This endowed lecture series was founded to provide opportunity for presentation, analysis, and discussion of important issues within the Christian traditions represented by the faculty, staff, and students at McPherson College.
It was the intention of the contributors that this endowment should annually bring speakers of note to the McPherson College campus to address contemporary issues from diverse Christian perspectives, with a particular emphasis on the Church of the Brethren. It was also intended that this series impact persons beyond the immediate McPherson College Community.
In June 1998, Dr. Waldo Newberg established the Nelson Memorial Chair of Christian Education to honor John Emil Nelson and Olive Octavia Nelson, in gratitude for their contributions to Dr. Newberg’s life. Earnings from this endowed fund support the Religious Heritage Lecture.
Weird, Wonderful Fun (And… Shh… Learning) Offered at McPherson College’s ‘Behavior Mania’
Don’t let on. While the Behavior Mania event at McPherson College is mostly about fun, there’s also a huge helping of learning being served up as well.
The 8th annual event was an opportunity on Oct. 27 for high school students from around the area to learn more about psychology, sociology and criminal justice, with engaging activities and presentations.
Each group of high school students travelled from one interactive encounter to another, with each room offering an interesting lesson related to the behavioral sciences. Through fun, the hope is to pique students’ interest in the subject.
In welcoming students to the event, Patrick Masar, senior admissions and financial aid counselor, told the students to prepare for some mind-bending experiences.
“Behavior Mania is one of our favorite things,” he said. “By the end of the day, we’re going to have your head spinning.”
The 60 students at the event arrived from seven area high schools – Chase, Centre (in Lost Springs), Bishop Carroll Catholic (Wichita), Elyria Christian (McPherson), Kingman, Norwich, and South Gray (Montezuma).
In one room, an activity called “The Pendulum Knows” had students experimenting with weighted pendulums on a chain – the sort that are popular among some groups for “fortune telling” purposes.
Dr. Bryan Midgley, associate professor of psychology, however, had a much more scientific and benign approcach. Rather than looking for “divination,” the students were just asked to think about “Finding Nemo” – defined by two stickers along one line – or “Superheroes” – indicated by stickers placed at either end of a line perpendicular to the first.
Holding the pendulum above the lines, students were instructed to try to keep the weight still and only think of one of the two subjects that they drew from a basket. Later, they were asked to try thinking of a circle or a line to see what would happen.
Zach Barney, a junior at Centre High School, ended up creating some of the strongest effects in one session, as the pendulum swung about half a foot side to side along the “Nemo” line and created a wide circle – without any conscious effort on his part.
“That’s really weird,” he said to himself.
Dr. Midgley explained that there were no spirits or telepathy at work. Instead, the best scientific explanation is that thinking about a shape or a direction creates imperceptible micro-movements in the hand that are amplified by the pendulum and chain.
“Psychology, I think, is most interesting when we take old ideas and look at them in a new perspective,” Dr. Midgley said.
Afterward, Barney talked about how interesting the experience was to him. He’s considering a possible minor in an area of the behavior sciences in college.
“So much goes on in the mind that we don’t know about,” he said, “And to actually learn about it is really cool.”
Other activities on the day included “We’re Having a Ball,” in which students had to work together and communicate to keep foam balls from falling through holes cut into large blue plastic tarps. Meanwhile Dr. Stephen Hoyer, a guest professor in behavioral sciences, presented “Big Head” – an exploration of optical illusions and the tricks the mind can play.
In the illusion that the activity is named after, students looked at hypnotic, rotating spiral. After a while, Dr. Hoyer had the students quickly look to his face – giving a momentary impression of his head expanding.
Other illusions he discussed were apparent movement where none actually exists (a phenomenon that allows cartoons to appear to move) and perceptual tricks based on expectations.
For example, he put an image on the projector screen of just a handful of white dots on a black background. It looks like nothing until those dots start to move and gives the clear sense of a person walking.
“In your head there are files of stuff you know about the world,” he said, “And your brain looks through those to see what it resembles.”
In another trick about expectations, Dr. Hoyer showed a picture of a tiger and explained that there was another hidden tiger in the picture. After a while, it becomes suddenly apparent that the words “Hidden Tiger” are formed by the tiger’s stripes.
“Once you see it, you can’t not see it,” he said. “Your brain is logical. It assumes that the stripes are random. No one writes on a tiger.”