{"id":32032,"date":"2012-11-27T23:57:31","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T04:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=32032"},"modified":"2012-11-27T23:58:35","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T04:58:35","slug":"history-of-handels-messiah-in-van-wert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2012\/11\/27\/history-of-handels-messiah-in-van-wert\/","title":{"rendered":"Handel’s ‘Messiah’: A local tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before the Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio, before the Fountain Park Summer Music Series, before the Sanctuary Series, before the Civic Theatre, and even before the Community Concert Series, a Van Wert community Messiah<\/em> performance existed.<\/p>\n

According to history given to me by one of the long-time participants, the first community-wide Messiah<\/em> was held at Christmas time 1949.\u00a0Others, I believe, have told me of Messiah<\/em> performances existing pre-World War II time, but for the sake of argument, we will go with 1949.\u00a0This is when Herbert Jones, beginning his first year as choral music director at Van Wert High School, organized a rehearsal on the first Sunday of October. He invited other church choirs in the area to join his First United Methodist Choir to form a larger community chorus.\u00a0 A number of singers responded to Mr. Jones\u2019 request and the history says that the choirs of First Presbyterian and St. Mark\u2019s Lutheran were especially well represented.<\/p>\n

Each year the choir grew in number as others from the community and county joined in the production.\u00a0 Soloists in the first three to four years were from the outlying areas, other music educators and some college professors whom Mr. Jones had known through judging contests.<\/p>\n

Around the fourth year, Saltzgaber funds became available for hiring soloists and Mr. Jones began to collaborate with the dean of music at his alma mater, Bluffton College; now Bluffton University.\u00a0With the additional funds, the caliber of soloists grew in stature.\u00a0 The Van Wert performance was held on Sunday afternoon around the second Sunday of the month, and then the soloists traveled to Bluffton for an evening performance.\u00a0Bluffton has a rich heritage of Messiah<\/em> performances that continues today.<\/p>\n

This system worked well as Mr. Jones and Dr. John Paul Kennedy, dean of music at Bowling Green State University, who I know some of you remember, joined together in procuring soloists.\u00a0Professional singers were now coming from Chicago, Toronto, Canada, and New York City.\u00a0One soloist who appeared in Van Wert was a tenor of Robert Shaw\u2019s RCA Victor Chorale in New York City.<\/p>\n

With the opportunity to perform with such talented and esteemed soloists, the chorus grew to nearly 120 voices.\u00a0 All of this success came from the devotion of singers giving up their Sunday afternoons for two-hour rehearsals over two months.\u00a0 Accompanists initially were Lillian Brown, organist at First United Methodist, and Ruth Jones, choir member and wife of Mr. Jones.\u00a0 After Mrs. Brown\u2019s death, Mrs. Jones moved to organ and Helen Shaw, one of Mrs. Jones\u2019 students, took over at the piano.\u00a0Preceding each of these accompanists, ironically, would have been Mrs. Eliza Saltzgaber, who according to last will and testament documents, was a musician at First U.M. Church.\u00a0 It was now their music fund that was funding much of the performance.<\/p>\n

In 1992, Russ Maher, who followed Larry Schaufelberger upon his retirement at First United Methodist Church, resurrected a Van Wert community Messiah<\/em> performance.\u00a0 In 1993, I took over as choir director at First United Methodist, and with the help of The Van Wert County Foundation\u2019s Saltzgaber Music Fund, we have been presenting a Messiah<\/em> performance every other year since 1993.<\/p>\n

Soloists are still coming from all over the country, as evidenced by this year\u2019s soprano, who comes to us from New York City, a bass from Cincinnati and, in keeping the tradition of ties to Bluffton, an alto from Bluffton.\u00a0Instead of piano and organ accompaniment, we have been able to perform with a chamber orchestra, much like George Frideric Handel would have in 1741.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s performance will be held Sunday, December 9, at 7 p.m. at First United Methodist Church.\u00a0A dedicated and well-rehearsed chorus of approximately 70 singers will join soloists and a chamber orchestra to continue the rich tradition that has been passed down over generations by local singers and musicians in the Van Wert area.<\/p>\n

You are all invited to join us as we continue the heritage of those before us and honor the birth of Jesus as told by the scriptures, so aptly put to music by the esteemed and immortal composer, Mr. George Frideric Handel.<\/p>\n

FIN\u00c9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before the Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio, before the Fountain Park Summer Music Series, before the Sanctuary Series, before the Civic Theatre, and even before the Community Concert Series, a Van Wert community Messiah performance existed. According to history given to me by one of the long-time participants, the first community-wide Messiah was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 06:01:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}