Winter Edition, 2017
PACER NEWS
Sing to the Lord a New Song!
I
f you were one of the many people who attended a Shoreland sacred concert recently, you have had the privilege of hearing the entire music department working together to perform an orginal piece by Sarah Siegler. Sarah Siegler is currently the Cantate Choir, Orchestra and grade school strings director at Shoreland. She received a B.A. in Music Education from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, and her M.M.Ed. from VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, IL. She enjoys composing both choral and instrumental music, and her pieces have been performed by a wide variety of choirs and ensembles.
She has several choral pieces published with Northwestern Publishing House, as well as string orchestra music published by Grand Mesa and Imagine Music. Sarah is a member of Bethany Lutheran in Somers, WI. Sarah has had the privilege of writing several pieces for the students of Shoreland, including “Blessed Trinity,” “Gethsemane” and “Safe in God’s Hands.” The latest work ! for choirs, band and orchestra is called “Dawn on our www.tinyurl.com/SLHS-shine! Darkness,” which is an arrangement of the hymn “Brightest and Best.”
Shoreland is honored and excited to be one of the 356 organizations worldwide to be hosting a Night to Shine evening. This is our second year hosting the event. Students and guests had an unbelievable time last year! ! If you know of anyone ! who may want to attend,! please have them register at !
! If you would like volunteer your time or donate funds, please contact Renee Hundley at 262-237-2661 or ! reneehundley@gmail.com!
In this issue...
International Hosting pgs. 2-3
...Continued on page 2
Taste of
A Night in the Country
Taste of Shoreland pg. 4 Hosted this year at Shoreland
April 1, 2017
Night to Shine pg. 4
Compelled by the love of Christ to educate, equip, and encourage students for lives of Christian service.
Sho be o wor Shin yea gue yea
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If y o R
Sing to the Lord a New Song! Q: What goals do you have as a composer? Sarah: One of my goals as a composer is to take older hymns and bring them to light through new arrangements. My primary goal in composing music comes from Psalm 98:1, “Sing to the Lord a new song” I love that it says a new song – God is encouraging us to use his gift of creativity to find new melodies to praise him!
Q: Composing is a mystery to many nonmusicians. How do you go about it? Do you have a method? A schedule? Or do you rely on inspiration? Sarah: Creativity is a wonderful blessing from God, and so I feel very grateful that God enables us to create new songs to praise him. As far as the process goes, melodies usually bounce around in my head before I write them down. After I have the main tune worked out mentally, I use the piano to create a more detailed outline. For example, when working on the latest Christmas concert piece for combined choral and instrumental ensembles, I began the project by writing the outline for the entire piece just for piano and choir. Then I gave myself a deadline for adding each different group of instruments by sections – brass, winds, percussion and strings. I have learned that I need a little time away from a piece to come back and edit it, so I try to finish most pieces slightly before the deadline so I can take a break from it before making a final edit – similar to writing a research paper!
In-Home Ministry
inspire more families to consider becoming part of the international ministry.
od’s hand is always evident in the international program at Shoreland. Through the work God moves his servants at SLHS to do, Korean students build on the faith planted while they were still home and Chinese students hear about Jesus for the first time. Students are moved by the Holy Spirit to be baptized and confirmed. This year a senior Chinese student is considering Martin Luther College to become part of the full time ministry. Our international program has grown to 27 students from South Korea and China. We have 16 host families that are one of the most important aspects of the international ministry. Without host families we have to turn away students and the opportunity to teach them about their Savior. The Patterson family is one of our host families. They’ve answered a few questions to provide an idea of what it’s like and hopefully
Q: Why did you decide to expand your family by hosting an international student? God provided an opportunity through Shoreland to reach all nations --here--easily (without leaving our home country, family, and jobs)! He blessed us with space in our house that we figured would be better used to His glory full time than just occasionally. We decided that if a family overseas thought the best option for their child was to send them to our country for school, we could serve them by providing a loving, stable, Christian home for their child. We ask God to use us and this situation for His purposes.
G
Q: What have you done to include the international student as part of your family? We treat her (Sally) like a member of the family, with a
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Q: How would you describe the music you compose? Sarah: I like to write music that has lyrical melodies, and yet that has some contrast within it. When I write music with lyrics I often try to paint the text – for example, in the song “Safe in God’s Hands,” the melody rises in pitch when the text says “If I rise on the wings of the dawn,” and when they sing “the far side of the sea” the piano plays triplets to represent the waves of a stormy sea. I like to use music to express emotion that may be easier played or sung than said, hopefully pointing our eyes upward toward heaven when the text is sacred.
Q: Why does your music appeal to young people and is it designed for students to be able to perform it? Sarah: When I am writing music for Shoreland or the federation grade schools, I always try to think about the range that the younger singers need as opposed to the range that the older choirs can sing. I try to write songs that are easily learned for the grade school students, but that are a little more challenging for our Shoreland students. It really is such a privilege to write music for our student musicians - it is such a neat experience to work on something new together and hear the final results, which all ultimately gives glory to God.
To learn more about Sarah or to hear some of her compositions visit www.sarahsiegler.com
little more freedom and leeway. She goes with us on family vacations and weekends away. She is on our cell phone plan and dish washing schedule. She pitches in with house and kitchen help. We communicate about home and family
members with her as we do with our other children. We have asked grandparents to divide their gifts to our family to include her. She knows she is welcome “back home” here for holidays, weekends and summers once she goes away to college. Q: What do you think you’ll miss about your student once she graduates from SLHS? We’ll miss the same things about her when she graduates that we miss about her when she’s gone for the summer! Since she is a part of our family now, we feel incomplete without her. My natural daughter loves having a sister, and my high school students are more talkative about school when she is here. We’ll miss her wry humor and teasing her, but we are thankful for the addition of her to our family.
Shoreland is honored and excited to be one of the 356 organizations worldwide to be hosting a Night to Shine evening. This is our second year hosting the event. Students and guests had an unbelievable time last year! ! If you know of anyone ! who may want to attend,! please have them register at !
!
www.tinyurl.com/SLHS-shine!
! If you would like volunteer your time or donate funds, please contact Renee Hundley at 262-237-2661 or ! reneehundley@gmail.com!
Taste of
A Night in the Country Hosted this year at Shoreland
April 1, 2017