Upcoming Performances at Main Event Venues
Sherer Piano and Strings Competition Winners' Concert — Thu, Jan 01st
Winners of the 2026 Sherer Piano and Strings Competition will present their winning works on the Sauder Concert Hall stage. Luke Norell will accompany on piano.
Sherer Piano and Strings Competition Judges Concert — Thu, Jan 01st
The 2026 Sherer Piano & Strings Competition will present a concert by competition judges in Rieth Recital Hall. The recital is free and open to the public.
66th Annual Goshen College Concerto-Aria Concert — Thu, Jan 01st
Student winners of the annual Goshen College Concerto-Aria Competition will perform their works with the GC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jimin Seo.
GC Choirs: Winter Choral Concert — Thu, Jan 01st
The Goshen College Choirs will present their annual Winter Choral Concert in Sauder Concert Hall. Performing are the Goshen College Chamber Choir and Voices of the Earth, conducted by H. Roz Woll, and Vox Profundi, conducted by Jeshua Franklin.
Eric Yake Kenagy Lecture: Isaac Scott, artist — Thu, Jan 01st
Rieth Recital Series: The Edvard Grieg Society of the Great Lakes - Austin Huntington, cello & Jeni Houser, soprano — Thu, Jan 01st
Austin Huntington was appointed principal cellist of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in 2015 at age 20, making him one of the youngest principal players in a major American orchestra. He has also served as guest principal with the San Francisco, Toronto, Utah, and Florida symphonies, and the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. He is currently principal cellist at the Mainly Mozart Festival and Colorado Music Festival.
A winner of the Stulberg and Irving M. Klein international competitions and a top prizewinner in the Schadt Competition, Austin has appeared as soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony, The Florida Orchestra, Marin Symphony, Colburn Orchestra, and others.
Equally active as a chamber musician, he has collaborated across genres with artists including Itzhak Perlman, Augustin Hadelich, Edgar Meyer, The Eagles, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Augustana. He has served on faculty at Indiana University and the University of Indianapolis, and as Chair of the Board for the Indianapolis Suzuki Academy.
Austin holds degrees from the Colburn School and Indiana University, and studied with Ronald Leonard, Eric Kim, and other renowned teachers.
Soprano Jeni Houser has been praised by Opera News for her “commanding and duplicitous, yet also vulnerable” performances and a voice with “a bright future above the staff.” In the 2024–25 season, she returned to the Metropolitan Opera for Die Zauberflöte and its English-language The Magic Flute, reprising her signature role as the Queen of the Night. She also appears as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with Charlottesville Opera, makes her debut with the Utah Symphony, and returns to the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
Houser has performed the Queen of the Night with the Met, LA Opera, Dallas Opera, and across the U.S. She recently sang Cunegonde in Candide with Madison Opera and Carmina Burana with the Phoenix Symphony and Grand Teton Music Festival.
Internationally, she debuted at the Wiener Staatsoper in Staud’s Die Weiden and returned for Die Zauberflöte and Orest. Other roles include Lucia, Zerbinetta, Olympia, and Susanna. A graduate of Lawrence University and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, she is an alumna of Glimmerglass, Virginia Opera, and Opera Saratoga.
Rieth Recital Hall: Norell Piano Duo - André Watts Tribute — Thu, Jan 01st
The Norell Piano Duo began performing together in 2009 at LCC International University in Klaipeda, Lithuania, and has continued to present repertoire for one and two pianos across North America. Recent engagements have included performing at the Music Archive of Sarasota, Florida, the Ruthmere Fall Concert Series, and Ohio University. At Goshen College, Luke and Mary Rose have been included on the Rieth Chamber Series and also performed Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite in Sauder Concert Hall for the Afternoon Sabbatical Series. They have competed in the Liszt 200 Chicago Competition for piano duos, performed at Northwestern University, and at Indiana University with the American Liszt Society.
The Norells performed at Edvard Grieg’s home Troldhaugen in Bergen, Norway, as part of the workshop “Edvard Grieg and the Human Voice”, and have collaborated on multiple occasions with celebrated Norwegian bass-baritone Njål Sparbo in Goshen. As founding board members of the newly-formed nonprofit organization, the Edvard Grieg Society of the Great Lakes, the Norells organized its inaugural conference at Goshen College: “SalzBergen: Exploring the Intersection between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Edvard Grieg.” The conference included guest artists from Norway and across the USA, and will be followed by an upcoming symposium in Indianapolis in 2019.
Their collaboration as teachers and adjudicators recently included appearing as guest artists for the Ohio Music Teachers Association Summit County Duet Festival, judging for the Kelowna Kiwanis Music Festival in British Columbia, and teaching as faculty at the University of Northwestern Piano Institute in St. Paul, MN. Luke and Mary Rose have worked with the Ravinia outreach program Reach*Teach*Play in bringing classical music to children in inner-city Chicago schools, performing selections from Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals and Gustav Holst’s The Planets. They both teach on the faculty of the Goshen College Community School of the Arts.
Rieth Recital Series: Ensemble CONCEPT/21 — Thu, Jan 01st
New Voices in Michiana: An Evening of New Music by Indiana Composers
Come support our local and regional composers from Indiana through exciting performances by Ensemble CONCEPT/21. Maestra Casey Robards, EC/21’s Artistic and Music Director, will lead the ensemble to present six works by emerging Indiana composers Biddyclair Moore, Victor Williams, Xinyuan Deng, Michale James Fair, Bill Klemm, and the exciting new work by Jessica T. Carter, Birds of Freedom!
Rieth Recital Series: The Sherer Trio — Thu, Jan 01st
The Sherer Trio brings together three of Goshen College’s instrumental faculty. A native of Ukraine, violinist Solomia Soroka is professor of music and teaches applied violin, music theory and chamber music. Cellist and Adjunct Professor Dato Machivariani is a native of the Republic of Georgia and teaches applied cello at Goshen College and Valparaiso Unversity. Pianist and Professor of Music Matthew Hill is chair of the music department, teaches applied piano, music history, piano pedagogy and chamber music courses.
Solomia Soroka, DMA, is professor of music at Goshen College, where she teaches violin, chamber music, and music theory courses. Born in Lviv, Ukraine, she earned her master’s degree and completed her postgraduate studies in the Kiev (Kyiv) Conservatory, and later served on its staff in the department of chamber music. She also has a DMA degree from Eastman School of Music. She studied with Hersh Heifetz, Bohodar Kotorovych, Lyudmyla Zvirko and Charles Castleman. Soroka made her solo debut at ten, playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra. She has appeared at concerts and festivals in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Taiwan and Ukraine. Since her American debut in 1997, she has performed throughout the United States as well.
During the summer, Soroka is on the faculty of Music Fest in Perugia, Italy. She also has taught at the Castleman Quartet Program, Pilsen Summer Academy, and Schlern Music Festival. Ms. Soroka is active giving masterclasses in her native Ukraine, USA, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Israel, Czech Republic, and Italy.
Dato Machavariani was born in 1962 in the Republic of Georgia. His official musical training started at the age of eight in a special music school for gifted children in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. He continued his studies at the Tbilisi State Conservatory under the tutelage of Eldar Isakadze and Tamara Gabarashvili (both pupils of Mstislav Rostropovich) and earned his master’s degree with highest distinction. In 1992, by invitation of Indiana University South Bend, Machavariani came to the United States and earned his master’s degree and artist diploma. As a soloist, Machavariani has played many times with the Georgian National Symphony, Georgian Radio and TV Orchestra, IUSB Philharmonic, and Elkhart Symphony Orchestra. He was a member of the Georgian Chamber Orchestra under Liana Isakadze, touring in Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, West Germany, and Austria. He was principal cello in the Elkhart Symphony Orchestra and Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra in St. Joseph, Mich. Currently, he is an assistant principal in the South Bend Symphony Orchestra and Columbia (Mo.) Festival Chamber Orchestra. He is an adjunct faculty member at Goshen College, IUSB, and Valparaiso University.
Matthew Hill, DMA, pianist and Goshen College professor of music, is chair of the music department and teaches piano, chamber music, music history, and as a result of the strong influence from his wife and daughter, also teaches a general education course in Opera and Musical Theatre. He has studied with such renowned musicians as Howard Karp and Claude Frank, whose respective pedagogical genealogies include Rosina Lhévinne and Arthur Schnabel. He has had a variety of teaching and performing experiences both nationally and Internationally. Dr. Hill participated at the Schlern International Music Festival held in the Dolomites of northern Italy through invitation as a teacher, performer, and master class clinician. In China, he taught a series of master classes at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, and presented a solo recital. Matthew received his doctorate in piano performance at University of Wisconsin- Madison. His students have gone on to further graduate study at many different graduate schools, including Kansas City Conservatory of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Nebraska- Lincoln, University of Oklahoma, Westminster Choir College, and the University of South Florida.
CSA Student Recital — Thu, Jan 01st
Student members of the Community School of the Arts will perform in Rieth Recital Hall, presenting works they have worked on in lessons. This recital is free and the public is warmly invited.