Former and current students of Evelyn Thomas will give a recital in her honor on October 24 at 7:30 p.m. in Seeger Chapel as part of Alumni Weekend. Mrs. Thomas will retire from teaching voice and piano at Milligan at the end of this school year. Please join us in this celebration of a remarkable career by an extraordinary lady who has touched hundreds of lives.

Former Milligan College faculty member John Wakefield will direct an Alumni Choir at the Alumni Banquet on Saturday night of Alumni Weekend (Oct. 25) and in a worship service in lower Seeger the following morning. The Alumni Choir will rehearse at 3:00 that afternoon, in Seeger. All Choir alums are invited to come and sing, and catch up with other former Choir members.

The fall theatre production, Smoke on the Mountain, opens Oct. 24 in Walker Theatre in Derthick. This delightful musical play portrays a Saturday night gospel sing in a rural western North Carolina Baptist church in June of 1938. Directed by Richard Major, with music direction by John W. Campbell, a variety of old-time gospel and early bluegrass styles are performed by the cast, who both play and sing all numbers. Testimonies full of local color are given by several members of the Sanders Family. Come prepared to laugh. The play runs October 24-25, 29-31 and November 1. Call (423) 461-8771 for ticket information.

Don Jeanes ('68) succeeded Marshall Leggett ('51) as president of Milligan College on July 1, but the official installation will take place near the conclusion of the October meeting of the Board of Trustees. A presidential inauguration banquet is set for Thursday, Oct. 23, with the installation ceremony slated for Friday, Oct. 24, at 10:00 a.m. David Runner will be at the organ, and John Campbell will direct a chorus that combines the choir of First Christian Church of Johnson City, where Jeanes was senior minister, with Milligan's Concert Choir.

While you are on campus for Alumni Weekend, pick up your tickets for the 1997 edition of the Milligan College Christmas Dinners. This year the setting is a "live" radio broadcast on Christmas Eve, 1943, in New York, featuring Glenn Miller and his Christmas Combo. Miller will be portrayed by jazzman Rick Simerly, a nationally-respected musician and educator who played lead trombone for two years of touring with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. The Chamber Singers will perform the tight harmonies of the 1940s, and the evening will have a radio drama as well as a terrific menu. Dates for the Dinners are Dec. 4-7 and 12-13. Tickets go on sale to alumni Oct. 23, and on sale to the general public on Oct. 27. Call (423) 461-8917 to reserve your seats on or after Oct. 23.

The Concert Choir Fall Tour 1997 is approaching. Come hear the Choir if they are singing near you, and bring prospective students to hear the Choir, hear about Milligan, and meet real, live Milligan students. Please introduce those prospects to director John W. Campbell. He will enjoy meeting them and you. Here is the schedule. Contact the church at the number given for details of the time of the concert and directions.

The Spring Tour 1998 will be to South Carolina, Florida and Georgia, March 6-16, 1998.

Since its founding two years ago, the Milligan Keyboard Ensemble, under the direction of Tom Stampfli, has grown both numerically and in performance quality. Having graduated five of its original nine members, the ensemble is in a rebuilding mode this year, but it gained five new players with the fall semester.

The ensemble will return to the Indianapolis area for its upcoming fall tour, November 14-16. The itinerary is still incomplete, but they are confirmed for both worship services at Plainfield Christian Church on Sunday morning, November 16. We hope to see you at one of their performances.

November 10, 7:30 p.m.
Concert Choir
Fall Concert

December 14, 8:30 p.m.
Christmas Vespers

Here are the addresses for Milligan's homepage on the World-Wide Web, and the addresses of full-time music faculty. If you or someone you know would like more information about Milligan or the music area in particular, look us up!

Drop us a line!

On February 13, 1998, Milligan College will again host a Music Scholarship Competition. First prize is a $6,000 scholarship, renewable annually. Second prize is a $4,000 scholarship, and third prize is a $3,500 scholarship. These are also renewable annually. Other lesser scholarship amounts will also be awarded soon after that date. We are hoping for a good number of prospective music majors for fall 1998 to audition for the music program on that date. To be eligible for these awards, entrants must have an ACT score of at least 24, an SAT score of at least 1000, or a high school grade point average of at least 3.3, and they must have been accepted by the College. Participation in the competition will serve as an audition for music major status.

February 13 will also be a prospective student Open House, with emphasis being placed on the Music Area (among others) by the Admissions Office. Ensemble rehearsals and classes will be open to prospects. Encourage potential music majors in your family, church and community to come see what is happening in music at Milligan!

The Association of Christian College Music Educators met on Milligan's campus Sept. 18-20. Twenty-four music faculty from eleven colleges affiliated with the independent Churches of Christ and Christian Churches came for a time of fellowship and professional development. Corey Allen, director of and arranger for The Manhattan Transfer, was the featured guest clinician, leading sessions on theory pedagogy, improvisation, and-with the Chamber Singers-jazz vocals. He also gave a jazz keyboard recital, using a Kurzweil Mark XII with sequencer, and our Steinway concert grand piano. Composer Howard Helvey provided piano preludes for devotionals from his published works and led a choral reading session of his anthems for church choirs. Helvey is organist at Clovernook Christian Church in Cincinnati, and an adjunct theory instructor at Cincinnati Bible College. John W. Campbell of Milligan's faculty gave a presentation on hymn tunes from early American oblong tunebooks, especially Southern Harmony and Sacred Harp, that are found in current hymnals. Tom Stampfli, also from Milligan, led a session on "Keyboard Ensembles: What, Why and How." Milligan's ensembles opened the conference with a mixed program that included Milligan Singers, the Handbell Ensemble, the Instrumental Ensemble, and the Concert Choir. Numerous conferees and Milligan students expressed their appreciation for the quality of the presentations, the musical challenges, and the times of fellowship.

Seven new Young Chang pianos are in use in Seeger and the Practice House. Six-foot and 5'6" baby grands are being used in private instruction, one upright complements the electronic keyboards in the Music Technology Lab, and four uprights are in use as practice instruments. At the end of the school year these pianos will be sold with like-new warranties and replaced with new instruments for the next school year. (Interested in buying one? Give your name to the Music Office and we'll see that you have details when they are available.) This deal owes much to Tom Stampfli's contacts with Kurzweil/Young Chang of America, and Tennessee Music Masters of Kingsport, the local sponsor.

A Conn Artist 720 electric organ was donated to the Music Area by Bill and Lynnell Goacher of Asheville, N.C. Our organ students can now practice on an instrument with a pedalboard that matches A.G.O. specifications even when Seeger Chapel is otherwise occupied. Our thanks to the Goachers!

John Campbell attended the national convention of the American Choral Directors Association in San Diego, March 5-8. He prepared the Choral Union for the May performance of Brahms' Requiem with the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra. In August he led a workshop leader for Colonial Heights Christian Church in Kingsport, and in September worked with the choir of Chuckey-Doak High School in Greeneville. In addition to serving as music director for Smoke on the Mountain, which opens this month, Campbell will direct the massed choirs for Renewal '97, a city-wide revival sponsored by a wide range of area churches.

Sandra Ashley Stafford, former voice adjunct for many years, passed away August 26 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Carol Shelton ('76) just completed an eight-performance run of Annie Get Your Gun for the Bijou Theater in Knoxville, in a supporting role. She teaches choral music at three elementary schools, sings in the choir and Chamber Singers at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church (who have been invited to Carnegie Hall in March), and visits a nursing home once a week with her Siamese cat under the pet therapy program H.A.B.I.T. (Human-Animal Bond in Tennessee). She lives at 6028 Morning Glory Place, Knoxville, TN 37912-4548.

Angel M. Mumaw ('97) is happily working at the APPLE Institute (preschool) in Bristol, Va. She is singing with the Bristol Concert Choir and the Virginia Highlands Community College Madrigal Singers. Her address is 526 Whites Mill Road, Apt. 3, Abingdon, VA 24210.

This fall we are seeing continued growth in the Music Area. As noted above, in May we graduated the largest class of music majors in some time, and they all have jobs or are in graduate school. This fall ten freshman music majors have enrolled at Milligan, the largest freshman class in a good many years. New pianos and fresh attitudes have boosted practice hours such that students are finding it difficult sometimes to find a place to practice. That's good!

Together we can make a bright future!