Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
ANGOLA – The Trine University Department of Music will present its first concert of the 2025-2026 academic year, featuring the Trine University Choir and Chamber Orchestra, beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday.
The performance, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Ryan Concert Hall at the T. Furth Center for Performing Arts.
The Trine University Choir, directed by Geoffrey North, Ph.D., will present a wide range of musical selections, including the winner of the 2022 Cantus Composition Prize and 2024 Top 10 best-selling concert choral work for J. W. Pepper, "Time," by Jennifer Lucy Cook.
In addition, the choir will perform an uplifting work fusing the rhythms of African, American and Latin cultures with Swahili and Spanish texts in "Sililiza (Hear Me)." Other pieces include music from Ragtime, a traditional Native American Lyric, and an original gospel composition by Stuart Chapman Hill.
Haunting performance
The Trine University Chamber Orchestra's Halloween "Haunt-cert" will feature music from favorite film and TV shows such as Scooby-Doo, Ghostbusters, Harry Potter and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
The orchestra also will perform Sergei Rachmaninoff's ominous "Piano Prelude in C-sharp Minor" arranged for Chamber Orchestra by Trine University's Music Director, Brad Jopek, DMA.
"I hope [the concert] provides our students and ensembles an opportunity to explore music outside of the traditional classical music repertoire and its influence on pop culture," Jopek said of the concert. "It also includes bringing a little insight on how a Hollywood or Nashville studio orchestra rehearses and records music for films and TV series."
Those who would like to financially support Trine's music programs of the T. Furth Center for Performing Arts can visit https://advancement.trine.edu/register/giving, select "Other Fund" and designate their gift in the comments section to either the Music Program or the T. Furth Center for Performing Arts.
Local members of the Trine University Choir and Chamber Orchestra are Alto: Avalon Schnelker, an English major from Cromwell; and trombone: Reid Deneve, an exercise science major from Claypool.
