Bluffton University music education major Brittney Ries will present her senior recital at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 9, in Yoder Recital Hall. A reception will follow in the lobby.
Ries is a soprano and plays trumpet. She is from Freeman, S.D. Her program includes three pieces for solo trumpet, as well as a brass quintet number with other university students.
Her vocal pieces include French, German, Italian and English music and a duet with Samuel Stucky, Moon Township, Pa. Pianist Ana Yoder Coulter is the accompanist.
Dr. Peter Terry, associate professor of information technology and music, will present the colloquium, "Thoughts on Designing a Gender and Culturally Neutral Music Theory Text for Bluffton University” on April 15.
His presentation is free and open to the public beginning at 4 p.m. in Centennial Hall’s Stutzman Lecture Hall.
Bluffton University will host the annual Riley Creek Festival from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, April 16, in the Sommer Center.
Open to the public, the event is free except for lunch, which costs $9 for community members.
The festival will feature family-friendly inflatables, face painting, music, games and other activities, concluding with the traditional rubber duck race on Riley Creek. Rubber ducks will be sold for $1 each, with proceeds to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Duck race winners will receive prizes donated by local businesses.
Bluffton University will hold its annual C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest at 7 p.m. on April 5 in Yoder Recital Hall.
Students selected to participate will prepare an oration (no more than ten-minutes in length) that applies a peace church perspective to an issue of contemporary concern. The student who is awarded first prize will receive $175. The second and third prize speakers will receive $125 and $100, respectively.
An Illinois pastor will tell the story of a group of Mennonite young people who moved into her neighborhood and made a big difference during Bluffton University’s Spiritual Life Week Forum on Tuesday, April 12. The lecture begins at 11 a.m. in Bluffton’s Founders Hall. The presentation is free and open to the public.
Cyneatha Millsaps, lead pastor, Community Mennonite Church, Markham, Ill., will present “Living and Trusting in the Word of God.”
Millsaps also serves as a multicultural liaison for Illinois Mennonite Conference.
Tickets are available for the Artist Series performance by the Raise Choir at 7:30 p.m. on April 16 in Yoder Recital Hall.
Raise Choir was formed in 1986 in Columbus, Ohio. Members represent several different churches, choirs and denominations who come together to praise the Lord in song. Their repertoire includes spirituals, choral music, traditional and contemporary gospel music.
Bluffton University’s own gospel choir will perform alongside the Raise Choir for several of the selections.
