Music
DORDT COLLEGE
Music Department DORDT COLLEGE
At Dordt College there are many opportunities to participate in music. Each year, nearly 300 students take lessons, attend music classes, and play or sing in ensembles. Music-making thrives in the ensembles—Concert Choir, Concert Band, Chorale, Women’s Chorus, Campus-Community Band, Kantorei, Chamber Orchestra, and Jazz Band. And students within these ensembles often form small ensembles of their own. Excellence in musical skills and understanding is further developed in private lessons and in the wide range of music classes. Dordt’s music program offers the best of two worlds. The department is large enough to offer courses and lessons taught by specialists to students with professional goals, yet small enough to offer many opportunities for non-majors who wish to participate simply because they love music. Our dedicated faculty, including full-time and adjunct professors, are all outstanding musicians who both teach and perform.
A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE
manual tracker action Casavant pipe organ.
Music is an important and enjoyable part of our response to God and his creation, a vibrant part of the Christian life. At Dordt College, we encourage you to develop your musical interests and gifts; they are marvelous means to praise our Creator, to reflect his glory, and to enjoy his wonderful world. As his creatures and the grateful recipients of his gifts, we seek to richly enjoy the delights of music. As stewards of his world, we seek excellence as a means of service. You are invited to join this vibrant Christian musical community! For further information about music at Dordt, visit our website, www.dordt.edu/music.
The Music Building houses spacious rooms for band, orchestra, and choir rehearsal; classrooms, faculty offices, and studios; 17 practice rooms; Schlicker and Casavant pipe organs; many Yahama and Kawai grand and studio pianos; and a Dekker harpsichord.
FACILITIES Praised by performers for its excellent acoustics, the B.J. Haan Auditorium is used for concerts, student recitals, rehearsals, and organ lessons. The auditorium houses Steinway and Kawai nine-foot concert grand pianos and an impressive 57-rank, 37-stop three-
The new Digital Music Studio enables students to use the latest in digital technology for composing and arranging. Located on the lower level of the library, the Listening Lab has thousands of recordings, including recordings of Dordt College performances, for use by the entire student body.
INSTRUMENTAL ENSEMBLES The Concert Band is a select group of 50 instrumentalists that performs wind and percussion masterworks and premieres new compositions and arrangements. The ensemble has gained a reputation for exciting performances that are expressive and beautiful, as well as technically sound. The band tours extensively throughout North America and has toured in Europe. The Campus-Community Band includes 50 to 60 wind and percussion players and performs a wide variety of literature for band. Most of the students are non-majors or freshman music majors; they are joined by nearly two dozen adult band members from the surrounding area. The Chamber Orchestra is a select group of 20 to 30 string players that performs works for string orchestra. Its members are regularly joined by some of Dordt’s best student wind players for performances of chamber orchestra music. String players at Dordt College divide their rehearsal time between the Chamber Orchestra and the
Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestra. The Chamber Orchestra tours throughout the United States and Canada; an orchestra consisting of current and former members of the Chamber Orchestra recently toured the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria. The Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestra (NISO) is comprised of 80 of the finest musicians from Dordt College and from communities in northwest Iowa and southeast South Dakota. More than 25 students from the Dordt College music department are members of the orchestra; many members of the Dordt College music faculty perform as teaching principals in the orchestra. NISO presents three concerts per season in addition to an annual concert for children, which is presented to 1,000 area 5th and 6th grade students each November. The Jazz Band performs in a variety of college and community concerts. This dynamic ensemble includes members of the Concert Band, Campus-Community Band, and Chamber Orchestra. Guest artists such as virtuoso jazz trumpeter Rex Richardson and saxophonist Chris Vadala add extra excitement and learning opportunities for Jazz Band members.
CHORAL ENSEMBLES The Kantorei is an auditioned ensemble of 24 exceptional singers who maintain a busy performance schedule singing in concerts and civic and campus events. The ensemble focuses its attention on choral literature especially appropriate for a small ensemble; the repertoire ranges from Renaissance polyphony to vocal jazz. The Concert Choir is a select group of 52 upperclass singers who dedicate themselves to performing choral literature at the highest level of musicianship. The Concert Choir tours annually throughout the United States and Canada. The choir’s repertoire includes music from the Renaissance to today in a wide range of styles and genres. Recent performances have included works by composers such as Bach, Brahms, Beethoven,
Gibbons, and Schubert, as well as by some modern counterparts such as Pärt, Mäntyjärvi, Gjeilo, and Whitacre. At nearly 100 members, the Chorale is the largest of the choral ensembles on Dordt’s campus. It is the mixed choir for which incoming freshmen audition and is made up of singers from all class levels. In addition to exploring a varied repertoire, the Chorale gives attention to the development of vocal technique and ensemble skills. In addition to singing in a wide range of repertoire in regular concerts, the Chorale presents a Service of Lessons and Carols every other Christmas. The Women’s Chorus is composed of singers from all class levels. Its repertoire has included works such as Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols as well as anthems and spirituals. In addition to their individual concerts, the choirs occasionally combine to perform large choral masterworks. Collaborations have included Fauré’s Requiem and Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances, which was performed with the Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestra.
LESSONS A popular way to hone musical skills is through private lessons. Each semester, more than 150 students take private lessons in voice, on piano or organ, or on their own particular string, wind, or percussion instrument. At Dordt all private lessons are taught by faculty who are specialists on their instruments. More than 50 keyboard students take private lessons on piano and organ each semester; group lessons are available for beginners in piano. From 40 to 60 students per semester take voice lessons. In the instrumental area, 50 or more students take lessons in flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone, trumpet, horn, trombone, euphonium, tuba, percussion, violin, viola, cello, bass, guitar, and harp each semester. Students who take lessons perform for each other in informal and formal recitals. Their artist-teachers perform in concerts and recitals at Dordt and across the continent. In addition, prestigious guest artists and ensembles are showcased in master classes and recitals. Recent guests include the Euclid String Quartet; David Burgess,
guitar; Stoneback Sisters, trumpet trio; Ksenia Nosikova, piano; Opera Omaha; and the Boston Camerata.
CLASSES Classes in music, taken by music majors and minors and also non-majors, range from basic musicianship courses to music of non-western cultures. Majors are offered in music education, with training in conducting and other competencies necessary for music teachers; music management, with preparation for artist management through music and business courses; performance and pedagogy, with preparation not only for performing but also for teaching one’s instrument; and general music. Minors are offered in general music, music performance, and elementary music education.
SCHOLARSHIPS Dordt College Music Activities Scholarships Bloemendaal Organ Scholarship John & Frances Bonnema Memorial Music Scholarships Joe J. Dahm Memorial Music Scholarships Minnie J. Dahm Organ Education Scholarship Anne Heyns DeBeer Music Education Scholarship Mildred M. Dupon Memorial Scholarship Jack Grotenhuis Memorial Scholarship John & Reona Reinsma Organ Scholarship Ringerwole Piano Scholarship Ringerwole Organ Scholarship Stan and Nancy Speer Music Education Scholarship
FACULTY Karen A. DeMol, Ph.D., Northwestern University. Music theory, music literature, clarinet
ADJUNCT FACULTY Andrea Carlson horn John Casey, double bass
Benjamin Kornelis, D.M.A., Michigan State University. Director of choral ensembles, choral music education, music appreciation Bradley Miedema, M. Mus., Western Washington University. Director of instrumental ensembles, instrumental music education
Learn more about music at Dordt College at www. dordt.edu/arts/music.
Pamela R. De Haan, voice, vocal pedagogy, saxophone
Stephanie Kocher, flute Karren Melik-Stepanov, cello Lisa Miedema, violin Scott Olson, trumpet, Jazz Band Vance Shoemaker, low brass
Randy Ewing, Kantorei
Norma Snyder Jones, piano
Jennifer Frens, violin, viola
Kristi Stanichar, oboe
Matthew Geerlings, organ
Nancy Vermeer, string pedagogy
Beverly Gibson, clarinet
Debora Vogel, voice
Linda Gude, bassoon
Anna Vorhes, harp
Carol Hallberg, elementary music education
Mary Lou Wielenga, piano, organ
FOR MORE INFO Interested in more information about music at Dordt College? Fill out the form below, send it in, and we’ll be in touch! Or, fill out our recruit form online at www.dordt.edu/music. I am interested in further information about:
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