![\"christmas-at-the-niswonger-copy\"](\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Christmas-at-the-Niswonger-copy.png\")
I got to know Mark when he first visited the Niswonger in 2014 while performing with Ernie Haase & Signature Sound.\u00a0It seemed like a rather unusual combination of Southern Gospel and Broadway, but it sure worked!\u00a0 I was blown away musically, but also inspired by Mark after the concert.\u00a0You see, Mark\u2019s elderly father, along with a friend, drove up for the concert in Van Wert from West Virginia.\u00a0We all met at Bob Evans after the concert for some coffee and a piece of pie.\u00a0One thing lead to another and, before long, we were talking about how Mark\u2019s father still sings in a church choir and how pleased they are when Mark returns to sing with them.\u00a0It wasn\u2019t long before Mark\u2019s father told Mark he should sing at my church the next morning. I thought Mark would say he needed to rest before flying out, but to my pleasant surprise, Mark said, \u201cI would be delighted and honored.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, the next morning, I just told our pastor at First UM that I had a special surprise for everyone.\u00a0Mark is a truly Christian man and had a special song with accompaniment on a ZIP drive that went perfectly with our minister\u2019s message that morning.\u00a0 What a blessing!\u00a0 Not only did Mark share a solo with us, but I was short on tenors that morning and Mark volunteered to pitch in and sing tenor with our choir.\u00a0What an honor!<\/p>\n
I have met many professional performers over the years in this business, but I don\u2019t recall ever meeting someone so willing to share not only his musical message, but also give his life testimony.\u00a0 It\u2019s a little risky from a professional standpoint to do what he did that morning, but I gained so much respect and admiration for J. Mark McVey that morning that I booked him again.\u00a0Actually, Mark called me up while I was grocery shopping in the Marsh Supermarket.\u00a0We made plans right there in the grocery!<\/p>\n
The result of that shopping trip and conversation led to the show \u201cBroadway & Beyond\u201d with the Heartland Chamber Chorale and singers from Fort Wayne.\u00a0Robert Nance, producer and director of this musical ensemble in neighboring Fort Wayne, had been talking to me about singing at the Niswonger, too.\u00a0I thought this would be a perfect marriage of performers.<\/p>\n
You can be the judge on March 18 when you come to see \u201cBroadway & Beyond.\u201d\u00a0 Take a listen to Mark singing on our email blast we sent out or just google J. Mark McVey singing Mary Did You Know.\u00a0 I\u2019ll bet you will want to hear him live at the Niswonger.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t already have the Community Concert Series, just buy a single ticket to this one.\u00a0 You will be glad you did!<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t thank you enough for the enormous support so many of you have given to those of us involved in the Van Wert Area Performing Arts Foundation at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center.\u00a0 WE look forward to a spectacular second half of our season with concerts like \u201cBroadway and Beyond\u201d as well as others.\u00a0 And don\u2019t forget the biggest concert of all time: our Gala Concert featuring the Boston Pops with Bernadette Peters.\u00a0What a night that will be!\u00a0Ticket sales open up on January 4.<\/p>\n
Merry Christmas to all of you!\u00a0I hope the celebration of Jesus\u2019 birth brings joy.\u00a0I\u2019ll see you down the road with the Time Jumpers and Vince Gill on February 4.<\/p>\n
FIN\u00c9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I just finished listening to a video clip the Niswonger marketing team sent out, announcing that Wednesday (December 21) is the single release of tickets for \u201cBroadway & Beyond\u201d featuring J. Mark McVey.\u00a0 If you can take about four minutes of your time, I encourage you to click on that video clip and listen to […]<\/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-82795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 01:46:23","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\/82795","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=82795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}