Announcing the Winner of the 2019 Instrumental Commencement Contest
The Maranatha Baptist University Music Department is pleased to announce violinist Justine Ostrander as the winner of the 2019 Instrumental Commencement Contest. A Violin Performance and Pedagogy major, Ostrander is in her senior year at Maranatha. Michael McCarthy, the contest’s adjudicator, praised her ability to retain the excitement of the piece while still executing superbly.…
Music Festival Thrives Through Record Low Temperatures
Frigid winds blasted across MBU’s campus two weekends ago, dragging with them some of the coldest temperatures Wisconsin has seen this winter. But that didn’t halt the tide of high-schoolers who pulled in to campus at noon on Friday, January 25, and poured into the warmth of the Dining Complex. The excitement was palpable as…
Alumni Spotlight – Sarah Stevens
The strains of a 12-year old’s piano practice drifted through an open window. They floated down the street and through the windows of the nearby houses. That is how Sarah Stevens’ piano teaching career began, though she didn’t know it at the time. Neighboring parents heard her practicing and began to ask if she would…
Announcing the 2019 Piano Commencement Contest Winner
The Maranatha Baptist University Music Department is pleased to announce Graceanne Starr as the first place winner of the 2019 Piano Commencement Contest. Starr is a Piano Pedagogy and Church Music major in her freshman year at Maranatha. The adjudicator commented on Starr’s performance, “Graceanne is a very powerful pianist with great understanding of style.…
Watch Christmas Choir Concert Performed for Watertown Concert Series
Maranatha Baptist University’s Chamber Singers and Madrigal Choir recently collaborated to sing a Christmas concert for the Watertown Concert Series. The choirs performed works from a variety of genres including sacred, secular, and Christmas, under the direction of Dr. David Ledgerwood and Dr. David Brown. While the choirs sang fun songs such as Robert Applebaum’s…
Christmas Band Chapel Delights Audience
As the first notes of the Peanuts theme song rang out into the gymnasium, through the doors and up the aisles pranced Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucie, and yes, even Snoopy. The children towards the front giggled and clapped, and even the faculty members in the back craned their necks to watch the hilarious antics of…
Guest Speakers Inspire University Musicians
Research shows that bringing in outside speakers with varied perspectives and experience to business and educational functions produces long-lasting benefits to the audience. The Maranatha music department recently brought in several speakers to give MBU’s music students a fresh look at the field they plan on working in through presenting them with proven strategies and…
Music and Missions: Music Grads Serve Around the World
Mark 16:15 commands believers, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Many Maranatha music graduates have answered that call, finding their musical training to be helpful in more areas of ministry than simply playing an instrument. Darcy Anderson is one such example. A 2017 English Education graduate with…
Servant Leadership in Action – 2018 Band Tour
Two fifteen-passenger vans roll up to a school and begin offloading a conglomeration of bins, drums, cases, stands, keyboards, and other percussion implements. In just a few minutes, the MBU coach bus pulls into the parking lot, letting off a stream of college students all in khaki and blue. The building is soon bustling with…