Ten years after ‘Points of View’
On April 3, 2009, southern Manitoba-based folk group the Other Brothers released Points of View. Recorded in the studio at Mennonite Church Manitoba, the album earned critical acclaim—CBC dubbed them “the Simon and Garfunkel of the Prairies”—and a small but loyal following. Made up at the time of Chris Neufeld and Donovan Giesbrecht, the group’s…
Impacting the universe with the sounds we make
With her powerful, resonant voice, Ysaÿe Barnwell, composer, vocalist, speaker and former member of the African-American female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, began to sing “Amazing Grace,” stretching out the length of each phrase. Members of the audience started to hum along. Soon she invited everyone to sing in full voice. The…
Bringing diverse voices together
Mennonites are stereotyped as people who love singing and forming committees. Anneli Loepp Thiessen fulfills both of these stereotypes. The 23-year-old is one of 12 people from Canada and the United States who make up the Voices Together committee charged with making a new Mennonite hymnal planned for release in 2020. Voices Together is a…
Voices Together visual art chosen
Visual art for the Voices Together hymnal has been chosen by the Mennonite Worship and Song Committee. The 12 visual art pieces selected will appear in the forthcoming hymnal—including the pew, worship leader, digital app and projection editions. These pieces will be placed throughout Voices Together, inviting worshippers to encounter God creatively in ways that engage…
CMU alumni compose songs sung by current students
Two young composers who are alumni of Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) in Winnipeg recently had their compositions performed by a choir from their alma mater. Jesse Krause Mark Holmes à Court Jesse Krause and Mark Holmes à Court contributed a total of three choral pieces for a pop-up concert at Winnipeg’s Portage Place Shopping Centre…
Is there such a thing as a Mennonite song?
How many of the songs in our Hymnal: A Worship Book (HWB), and the two supplements Sing the Journey and Sing the Story do you think are Mennonite? What does that even mean? If it means songs that are embraced by Mennonites in worship, well, the answer might be all of them. If it means songs with what…
They put a spell on you
Don’t expect to hear anything by Bach, Brahms or Beethoven if you attend a performance by Winnipeg’s Incantatem. The a cappella choir’s repertoire has a unique focus: music from movies, TV shows and video games. The choir is an offshoot of Geekdom House, a program founded by two Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) alumni that aims…
Westgate student, alumni win music scholarships
One Westgate Mennonite Collegiate student and two alumni are recipients of scholarships awarded by the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg. Cellist Juliana Moroz, who is in Grade 12 at the Winnipeg school, won a scholarship valued at $2,500. Soprano Christina Thanisch-Smith, who graduated from the school in 2015, received the Madeleine Gauvin Scholarship, worth $2,000;…
Peacebuilding monster
Anna Bigland-Pritchard never anticipated becoming a monster, but today she wouldn’t be anything else. The 26-year-old Winnipegger is a member of children’s musical act Seanster and the Monsters. The group, which describes itself as “stuck somewhere between They Might Be Giants and Fred Penner,” released its sophomore album, Stripes with Platypus, earlier this month. In…
Experiencing Christmas by lamplight
Old-fashioned oil lamps graced each windowsill in the tiny sanctuary, their steady flames bathing the room in warm light as people filed into the pews. The people came to experience “Christmas by lamplight.” The Mennonite Heritage Museum and Interpretive Centre in Rosthern hosted the event in the church that stands next to the museum on…
