Musical celebration planned in Van Wert

VW independent staff/submitted information

A musical program featuring concert organist, Matthew Wachtman and nearly 30 other outstanding musicians will present a program honoring America 250. It will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday, June 14, First United Methodist Church on W. Central Ave. in Van Wert.

The program, which will be free and open to the public, will feature organist Matthew Wachtman from Defiance. He is currently Director of Music and Worship at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Archbold and is on the faculty of the Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Performing Arts as Lecturer in Organ. Wachtman earned his Master of Music in Organ Performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where he also served as graduate assistant of the organ department. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in Keyboard Performance (organ) at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music. Wachtman is an active organ recitalist throughout the midwest and is a published author and composer in the Bach Journal and MorningStar Music.

The program will feature solo organ pieces on the recently renovated Noehren Pipe Organ at First UM Church. Wachtman will be joined on the first half by tenor Jake Wilder, pianist Annette Hoverman, and a brass quintet with members of the Lima Symphony Orchestra.

The second half will feature musicians from throughout the region in a Celebration of America 250. Wachtman will be joined by a 16-voice choir, seven-piece wind ensemble, percussion, and piano 4-hands. The second half will feature some of the most beloved American patriotic music ever written.

Sponsors are the Paul & Annette Hoverman Music Fund of The Van Wert County Foundation, Gary Taylor in honor of his father, Don Taylor, an anonymous donor, and in cooperation with Visit Van Wert and First United Methodist Church of Van Wert.