One of the most satisfying aspects of my job with The Van Wert County Foundation and as Director of the Niswonger Performing Arts Center is to support young students in the area of music.\u00a0 I was once one of them and I know what encouragement can do for a young musician.\u00a0 Although when I was a student, we didn\u2019t have nearly as much activity in the arts as we now do.<\/p>\n
This Sunday, The Van Wert County Foundation will sponsor the eighth annual Van Wert County Young Artists Recital.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to believe we have been doing this for eight years running.\u00a0 The original thought is still the driving force behind what we do today.\u00a0 That is to encourage young student musicians by allowing them to showcase their talents for other musicians, teachers, family and community members of Van Wert County.\u00a0 It is a unique opportunity for students who have invested time and work in perfecting a piece of music either as a soloist or as a member of an ensemble, to perform for an appreciative and encouraging audience.\u00a0 They have all performed for an adjudicator for critical comments. \u00a0Now is their opportunity to take those comments and perform for an audience and just make music.<\/p>\n
It means so much for students to feel the appreciation of a friendly audience.\u00a0 It also is a wonderful and sometimes daunting experience.\u00a0 Standing in front of an audience, which includes peers is quite a beneficial experience.\u00a0 This experience will pay dividends as they grow up and take their place in the real world.<\/p>\n
The Young Artists Recital will be held this Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. at First United Methodist Church.\u00a0 It is free and open to the public.\u00a0 I hope many people from our community can attend as well as parents, family, educators and students.\u00a0This year\u2019s recital may be a little shorter than in the past because of the weather, which has wreaked havoc on school schedules, but there will be some very talented students ready to perform.\u00a0And these are the best in Van Wert County!<\/p>\n
I hope you all enjoyed the American Spiritual Ensemble this last Saturday.\u00a0 Although most have never heard of this group before, I promised they would be fantastic.\u00a0 In my opinion and many others, it may have been one of the finest concerts we have ever hosted at the NPAC.\u00a0 I was also pleased they were able to offer a master class to benefit the Lincolnview High School Choir.<\/p>\n
The Community Concert Series is in full swing now as we return on March 18 with Five by Design\u2019s show: Club Swing.\u00a0Trust me, you\u2019re going to love this one too!\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have a Community Concert ticket, just call the box office and get a single priced ticket.\u00a0 You won\u2019t be sorry!<\/p>\n
Just 12 seats remain for our next NPAC concert: Cirque Shangai: Bai Xi.\u00a0 Your kids and grand kids will love it and you will be amazed.\u00a0 Another sleeper just might be the New York Gilbert & Sullivan\u2019s production of The Pirates of Penzance<\/em> on March 25 at the NPAC.\u00a0 There will be a full, live pit orchestra and the acting, singing, staging and laughter will take you away.\u00a0 Who knows, one of our Van Wert County Young Artists could someday be performing professionally back on our stage!<\/p>\n FIN\u00c9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the most satisfying aspects of my job with The Van Wert County Foundation and as Director of the Niswonger Performing Arts Center is to support young students in the area of music.\u00a0 I was once one of them and I know what encouragement can do for a young musician.\u00a0 Although when I 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-3540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 14:04:12","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\/3540","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=3540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}