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Cultural Events and Community Service

EMU brings a variety of cultural events to the Shenandoah Valley that are appreciated by residents of all ages. In the past academic year (2004-05) over 3,277 tickets were sold to non-students for events including concerts, dinner lectures, Writers Read events with nationally-known authors, and major student plays. Area residents also enjoy local sports events, with over 2078 basketball game tickets sold to community members who weren’t EMU students or employees.³⁰

The music department offers recitals by guest performers, EMU students and faculty. Musical groups include the Jazz Ensemble, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Singers, and the University Chorale. Music department faculty are active in their field and frequently perform locally and nationally. Examples include involvement in local church music, concertmaster in community orchestras, recipient of the Virginia Governor’s School awards, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the African Children’s Choir. The faculty emphasizes collaboration and frequently perform side-by-side with their students; a recent production of Handel’s Messiah provides an excellent example of this kind of collaboration.

Music graduates contribute to the community via occupations such as teaching or performance. One example of an EMU music graduate who has become a performer is Dan Gardner who was honored with the Today Show “Today’s Superstar” award.

The Preparatory Music Program provides opportunities for 332 children from as far away as West Virginia to hone their musical talents. It offers instruction in strings, flute, guitar and piano for community students, and is the only program of its kind within a one hour radius of EMU. The Preparatory Music Program also offers Youth Orchestra, Junior Strings, and Musikgarten. The g rant-funded Outreach Project enables the Preparatory Music Program to offer after-school violin lessons to 32 lower-income students in the local elementary school system.

The Shenandoah Valley Children’s choirs are auditioned community choirs that include nearly 200 children in five choirs. They have received national recognition with performances at the White House, Carnegie Hall in New York , and at the national Christmas tree lighting ceremony in the capitol. Considered one of the top children’s choirs in the country, they have been invited to perform in places as far away as Italy and Hawaii.

The Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival is a week-long summer music festival that takes place on the EMU campus. The festival offers the more than 3,000 audience members a chance to experience first-rate interpretations by invited professional musicians. Performers come from around the country for one week to rehearse and perform. The Festival choir includes community vocalists, both amateur and professional. A volunteer board consists of thirteen members, representing various demographic segments of our community. The Skyline Edition recently described the Bach Festival as “the best live music” in the Shenandoah Valley .³¹

The theater department frequently offers plays, which are open to the community. Theater students at EMU also participate regularly in the Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival and have won regional and national honors.

Some of the many other programs, activities and events include:

• Art Gallery Exhibits – The work of guest artists, faculty and students are featured in two galleries.
• Planetarium, Museum – 74 groups from the local community visited the museum or planetarium during the 2004-2005 academic year. Visitors to the museum or planetarium totaled 4,220. ³²
• Young Authors - event for local children designed to encourage interest and skills in reading and writing.
• Saturday Adoption Program - EMU students “adopt” disadvantaged children, spending time with them two Saturdays each month during the academic year.
• Shenandoah Valley Soccer League provides a place for organized soccer within the community.
• Summer Sports camps offered by EMU coaches include the Kicks Soccer Camp, the Runnin’ Royals Boys Basketball Camp, and the Lady Royals Girls Basketball Camp.
• Other events sponsored by Athletics, such as track & field events take place each semester.
• The Seminary offers conferences and seminars for pastors and lay workers.

Founded in 1955, WEMC is Virginia 's first public radio station and is a public service of Eastern Mennonite University . WEMC's goal is to extend EMU's mission beyond the campus walls and into our local community, providing knowledge and perspectives geared towards our ideals: nonviolence, witness, service, and peacebuilding.³³ The radio station provides everything from a Friday night jukebox, a live jazz event, news from the BBC World News Service as well as local news, and music with an international flavor.

Fine arts programs have been supported by grants from several local agencies. From 2002 through 2005 the Arts Council of the Valley has granted over $10,000 to three EMU programs on the basis of their artistic excellence and emphasis on community service: music programs for children, the Bach Festival, and a photography/interview project. The Virginia Commission for the Arts also awarded over $10,140 to the Preparatory Music Program and the 10 th anniversary of the Bach Festival.

Teatro Chirmol is another example of community building through the arts The Arts Council of the Valley and the Virginia Commission for the Arts awarded a total of $8,000 for the 2005-06 year to Teatro Chirmol, a bilingual drama workshop for Latino youth from local high schools.

The theater workshop provides opportunities for participants to engage each other and the community in a dialogue about what it means to grow up Latino. L ocal university and elementary school classes invite Teatro Chirmol members to talk about subjects that range from acting to displacement. In this aspect, Teatro Chirmol not only benefits students from the Latino community, but the non-Latinos in the community as well. Local businesses and Latino organizations provide flyers and free advertisement. The Spring 2004 performance of Bajo un Mismo Techo/Under the Same Roof drew an audience of over 400. The anticipated audience for 2005-06 includes over 1000 community members (over all performances), 2500 public school children, and 500 college students. ³⁴

Providing a place for university and community people to talk about science and religion has also been the aim of EMU science and theology professionals. The spring 2005 Suter Science Seminars featured lectures by experts from universities across Virginia on subjects such as genetic research, anthropology, microbiology, and the integration of science and religion. More recently, the Shenandoah Anabaptist Science Society (SASS) was formed in order to provide a forum for the discussion of issues related to the intersection of science and faith. The society is open to members of the community, including local high schools and colleges. The group meets for monthly lectures, weekly book studies, hosts two major outside speakers per semester, and plans to create and maintain an interactive website. SASS has received a $15,000 grant from the Templeton Foundation/ Local Societies Initiative, an organization created to promote dialogue about the interplay between science and religion.³⁵

In addition to attending EMU-sponsored programs, community members also take advantage of EMU’s facilities and catering services for family reunions, conferences, seminars, sports camps, and meetings sponsored by businesses, arts groups and community organizations. Each year EMU provides facilities free or at a reduced rate to community organizations for a variety of events including Young Authors and Advanced Placement testing for local high school students.

EMU faculty, staff and administrators serve in a wide variety of professional, educational and charitable educational organizations at the local, state and national levels.³⁶ EMU employees have also been active in helping to organize and serve local organizations such as the Free Health Clinic, and New Bridges – a program for migrants.

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