Messiah College News Archive

 Ya-Ting Chang and Peter Sirotin have accepted new roles as the co-leaders of Market Square Concerts, a series that brings the nation’s best chamber musicians to Harrisburg. Chang and Sirotin founded the Mendelssohn Piano Trio, an ensemble-in-residence at Messiah College and both teach at various venues in the region. Their tenure at Market Square Concerts begins July 1.

Read a March 17 article from the Harrisburg Patriot-News, “Market Square Concerts take on new directors.” http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/03/new_directors_prepare_to_take.html

Sonya Berg `05 is one of 16 young artists receiving an award and funding from the Dallas Museum of Art.  Berg, known for using images of swimming pools and waterfalls as metaphors for containment, control of landscape, and void, will use the funds to continue her current series of paintings and drawings by researching local empty and non-empty swimming pools. (http://www.dallasartnews.com/2010/06/dallas-museum-of-art-presents-its-2010-awards-to-artists/)

Berg received the Arch and Anne Giles Kimbrough Fund Award which recognizes “exceptional talent and potential in young visual artists who show commitment to continuing their artistic endeavors.”

Distinguished Professor Art Ted Prescott won first place in the sculpture category for his piece, “Small Worlds,” at the “Art of the State” annual juried show sponsored by the Greater Harrisburg Arts Council and held at the State Museum each year.

“Small Worlds” is comprised of three different spheres, each one made up of particular stages of growth that take place from pruning apple trees. The smallest sphere is about 13 inches in diameter; the largest one, where the growth has been unchecked by pruning, is about 5.5 to 6 feet in diameter.

The exhibit runs until September 12.

Adrienne Knight and Joshua Luther were nominated for the Irene Ryan Award for their roles in the department of theatre’s recent production of “Doubt, A Parable.”  Knight and Luther will compete at the regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in January.  In addition, Valerie Rae Smith and Tymberley Whitesel were awarded Certificates of Merit for Directing and Scenic Design.

Starting this summer, Messiah College will begin offering courses for its third graduate program – a M.A. in art education. Enrolled students can choose from two, 36-credit tracks – art education and studio art. The program is designed for art educators in grades K-12. Coursework is primarily online with some onsite studio classes.

For more information, visit the graduate programs website.

The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival recently honored the work of several students and an alumnus from Messiah College’s Theatre Department. Jim Knipple, from the Class of 2000, will receive the festival’s Certificate of Merit for his direction of “Fertile Ground,” in recognition of the play’s exceptional elements of production. “Fertile Ground: Stories from Messiah’s First 100 Years,” is an original blackbox production written by alumna Deborah Harbin DeGeorge ’03, to commemorate the College’s Centennial year. The play was performed on campus to sold-out audiences on Oct. 8-16.

Current students Sarah Burgess, Kimberley Lambertson, Ashley James, and Gabriella Saramago are also nominated through the festival for the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship. The main focus of this nomination and subsequent competition is to celebrate the nation’s finest student actors and the craft that enables them to create compelling and truthful characterizations. These students will compete at the regional level in January 2010. Lambertson and Saramago were nominated for their roles in “The Spitfire Grill” under the direction of Edward Cohn and Elaine Henderson. Burgess and James were nominated for their roles in “Fertile Ground.”

The Mendelssohn Piano Trio, an ensemble-in-residence at Messiah College, recently signed a five-year contract with Centaur Records to record a complete cycle of piano trios by Haydn. A significant and prestigious recording project, the Mendelssohn Trio will become only the second trio in the U.S. to have recorded such a work in its entirety.

Messiah’s Harrisburg Institute, in partnership with the Messiah College Department of Visual Arts’ Student Art League, will be on ongoing participant in the City of Harrisburg’s “First Friday Gallery Walk,” when from 6-9 p.m. on the first Friday of every month, local city galleries open their doors for free public art showings in various downtown locations. The Harrisburg Institute, located at 28 Dewberry St., opened its first exhibit on Sept. 4. New monthly exhibits of Messiah student and alumni art will run through the end of the academic year. The Harrisburg Institute’s inaugural exhibit features the work of Messiah College student artists Ammon Perry, Dana Scannapieco, Kelly Sefter, and Eli Smith.

“How My Light Is Spent,” a one-act play written by Danielle Sahm `09, was one of four winners chosen in a Drury University playwriting competition.

Sahm’s play was selected from among nearly 300 entries.

Theatre major Josh Luther `11 will play the role of Peter Van Daan in Open Stage Harrisburg’s production of “Diary of Anne Frank.”

The play will be performed for area high school students and will have a public showing on March 14 at 8 p.m.