Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
WINONA LAKE - For at least the next three summers The Village at Winona and Grace College will host the best musicians, singers, dancers and actors in the world and their students.
Every weekend members of the New York Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the New York Ballet Orchestra and Orchestra de Paris will give free concerts either at the Hillside Amphitheatre or Rodeheaver Auditorium.
It's an opportunity for the community to hear, see and experience the best of the best in classical performing arts.
The MasterWorks summer program, June 23 through July 21, is managed by the Christian Performing Artists' Fellowship. It provides classes and instruction for talented young performing artists of high school and college age who come from across the country and around the world for instruction.
To Brent Wilcoxson, of The Village at Winona, sponsoring the MasterWorks Festival is still amazing.
The four-week program used to be housed at Houghton College in New York.
"Last September my brother gave me a printed interview about Patrick Kavanaugh (Christian Performing Artists' Fellowship executive director)," Wilcoxson said.
He followed up with a call to Grace College, which had the dormitory space the professionals and students required. Then he contacted Kavanaugh and others with the Christian organization and, after touring, they liked what they saw.
"Having the MasterWorks Festival here speaks to the quality of life available in Winona Lake," he said. "As we raise the cultural quality of life, it's good for everyone, for business, companies, the people who live here."
Developing a summer fine arts program has always been on the back burner at The Village at Winona, but further down the road than summer 2002.
"They were doing what we wanted to do, only bigger and better," Wilcoxson said.
Steve Grill, director of community education at Grace College, said the administration is wildly excited about the MasterWorks Festival.
"We're all spiffed up and ready to go," he said. "We could not be more excited, this is wonderful for our community."
Houghton College is in the rural western part of the state; the free performances drew few people. There weren't many more than 10,000 people in a 20-mile radius.
Here, the performers will be able to draw on a possible audience of half a million people.
"They're giving up a $10 million performing arts center for Rodeheaver," Wilcoxson said. "But they'll have a possible audience of half a million people within a 50-mile radius to play to. Not having an audience takes the sheen off of performing.
"We're really, really hopeful people will support them. if they can get crowds here, they'll have thought they died and went to heaven."
More than 400 students from around the world were accepted through applications and auditions into the four- week program. Not all of the students will be here at once - Grill estimates about 200 students a week. Many have signed up for a week or two of intense instruction.
The high school- and college-age kids spend the majority of their time in recitals, rehearsals, private lessons, and master classes, learning from a faculty comprising the country's finest professional orchestras, opera and theater companies, and theater, dance and music schools.
The goal of the MasterWorks Festival is to train the next generation of high-level Christian classical performing artists in two areas: excellence in their performance skills and excellence in their Christian "walk and witness."
The activities of the festival combine the serious expression of their chosen art form and study with the joy of a dedicated Christian environment. Although fully devoted to rehearsals, performances, private lessons and practicing, time priority is given by students and faculty to devotionals, Bible studies, prayer meetings and fellowship as an integral part of the MasterWorks Festival.
Featured artists include: concert violinist Mindori; Charles Rex, violinist, assistant concertmaster with the New York Philharmonic; Anne Martindale Williams, principal cellist, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; Brian Hysong, clarinetist, New York Ballet Orchestra; Rebecca Wright, American Ballet Theatre; The Ying String Quartet, Hugh Sung, director of accompaniment, Curtis Institute of Music; David Wakefield, assistant dean of the Julliard School and an American Brass Quintet horn player; Geralyn Coticone, piccolist, Boston Symphony; George Merrit, Broadway actor, "Jekyll and Hyde"; Jeanette Clift-George, Corrie in "The Hiding Place"; and Carol Stevenson, oboe, National Symphony.
Also, Phil Smith, principal trumpet New York Philharmonic; Christopher Wu, violin, Pittsburgh Symphony; Richard Harrell, director of the San Francisco Opera Center; Steve Rooks, Martha Graham Dance Co.; Julie Gregorian, bassoonist, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Ken Tolle, Hosanna Dance Ministries director; Jahja Ling, Cleveland Symphony Orchestra associate conductor; Douglas Yeo, bass trombonist, Boston Symphony Orchestra; Richard Rood, concertmaster, Mostly Mozart; Melanie Galloway, American Music Dramatic Academy; Lawrence Dutton, viola, Emerson String Quartet; and Stephen Clapp, violin, dean of the Julliard School.
