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.

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.”

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.

The first performance of the Fern Lingenfelter Artist Series at McPherson College began not with the sound of piano music, but with the clink of more and more chairs being set out for the audience.

It was music to the ears of McPherson College – as it meant a full house and standing room only on Sunday – but that was nothing compared to the music that was to come.

Dr. Stephen Beus, professional pianist and professor of piano at Brigham Young University, was the first guest performer for the series, which honors the memory of Fern Lingenfelter – an MC graduate and piano instructor.

He began the performance with a simple bow, then let his playing speak for itself as he launched into a classic work by Felix Mendelssohn – the “Sonata in E Major, Op. 6.”

An expressive and dynamic performer, Dr. Beus would smile faintly and raise his eyebrows as his arms bounced during more whimsical sections, then lean in and “attack” the keys during louder, more intense stretches. Throughout the four selections during the recital, he was a master performer who displayed both technical perfection and a clear enjoyment of his work.

His achievements include first prize in the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, first prize in the Vendome Prize International Competition (Lisbon), and receiving the Max I. Allen Fellowship of the American Pianists Association – all of which he accomplished in one four-month period. His concerts have received high praise from critics, including the “Salt Lake Tribune,” which applauded his performance, saying, “Mesmerizing… explosive… intelligent… he belongs on the world stage.”

He first sat down to a piano at age 2, began lessons at age 5, and made his concert debut at age 9. Since then, he has earned degrees from Whitman College, The Julliard School, and Stony Brook University and has recorded on Endeavor Classics, Harmonia Mundi, and Centaur Records.

After the first selection, Dr. Beus introduced a work of “pop” classical piano by Franz Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, which includes rollicking sections that are so much a part of popular culture that even those with little exposure to classical music would spot them.

“Franz Liszt is one of my favorite composers,” Dr. Beus said. “He was treated as something of a rock star. There are a number of stories about Franz Liszt, but this is a family evening so I won’t share all of them.”

One of the family friendly tales was that women would mob a table where he had dined to drip the last few dregs from his wine glass into a tiny vial – which they would wear around their neck as a treasure.

Beus played an arrangement of the piece by Russian pianist Vladimir Horowitz, who decided that “there weren’t enough notes, so he added some of his own.”

After intermission was a minimalist, modern piece – “Für Alina” by Arvo Pärt. Written for a young woman departing for college, it’s a quiet meditation.

“It’s very short and there’s never more than two notes played at a time and never the same note,” Beus said. “It represents two people’s lives going on simultaneously that never meet. Think of two people living in an apartment who have never met, but live only a few feet from each other. There are these people who live their lives all around us and for some reason we never meet a few of them.”

The performance concluded with “Sonata in E-flat Minor, Op. 26” by Samuel Barber – a darker and more brooding piece than the others on the program. Barber served in World War II, and the piece was likely inspired by that time.

“Many people believe the anger and violence in this piece reflects his experience in the war,” Dr. Beus said.

Following a standing ovation, he treated the audience to one last selection – a quiet, sublime piece by Kabalevsky called “A Short Story.” Dr. Beus said he first learned the piece at the age of nine.

Coming to McPherson College was wonderful, he said.

“People are so friendly,” he said. “And it was a great turnout.”

The Fern Lingenfelter Artist Series was established this year 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. She developed her skills studying with Jessie Brown at McPherson College – where she earned a certificate in piano in 1924 – and with Swedish pianist Oscar Thorsén at Bethany College. Lingenfelter earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 1925 and later a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1938 from McPherson College.

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.

In addition to the concert on Sunday, Dr. Beus also held two masterclasses on Monday – one for high school students and the other for college students. Dr. Jan and Blaine Hageman attended on Sunday, and their son, Hadley, got to perform in the masterclass on Monday.

After the crescendo of the last piece of the program, Jan had only a few words to convey her feelings.

“Speechless,” she said. “It makes me want to take lessons again.”