Church needs to be like a choir
Happy New Year. In reflecting on the church for 2021, I’ve been impacted by my experience creating virtual choirs—those videos where choristers sing at home, into their phone, and the video and audio from that phone recording get put together into one cohesive choir. I have had a lot of interaction with choristers on how…
Watch: A haunting at Westgate?
The 2018-19 Westgate Mennonite Collegiate Concert Choir has something to help get you into a playful Halloween spirit. Last June, the choir filmed a video for its rendition of “Hall of Snarky Ghosts,” a song written and arranged by Westgate alumnus Dan Wiebe. The school uploaded the video to YouTube last month. Filmed and edited by…
Conductor. Father. Farmer. Christian.
Abner Martin was born at his parents’ farm in Waterloo Township, Ont., the seventh surviving child of Annanias and Susannah (Steckle) Martin. His family, until the time of Abner’s birth, were members of the Old Order Mennonites that met at Martin’s Meeting House. Later, they attended St. Jacobs Mennonite Church, and Abner had opportunities to…
‘A relationship between colleagues’
Choir conductors Ben Pauls and his son Matthew share enthusiasm, talent and a passion for choral music. This fall, they had the unexpected opportunity to share the stage at a fundraising concert for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. The concert—the first they shared together as conductors—featured a joint performance of the Faith and Life Male Choir…
‘Participation, not performance’
Like most musicians and artists, Brandon Leis uses his gifts in many places and in many ways to make a living. Most recently, he was appointed as the new music director of the Menno Singers, a Waterloo Region choir founded in 1955 by Abner Martin. Besides that, since 2003 he has been the music director…
‘An ample opportunity to try something new’
One could say that, in a musical sense, 1955 was the best of times and the worst of times when compared to today. From a Swiss-South German Mennonite perspective, we were heirs to a rich tradition of unaccompanied four-part congregational singing that had its origins in the Singing School movement of the 19th century, when…
