At 7 p.m. on Nov. 4, First Christian Church will be hosting their second annual New Beginnings Concert.
Jason Asbury, ‘94 DePauw graduate and Putnam County native, will be the featured performer at the concert. Asbury will be performing on the organ, accompanied by both DePauw students and Greencastle community members.
The concert will include many School of Music students, mostly vocal performance majors, who have volunteered to share their talents for the cause. A student from Greencastle High School will also be participating.
The performances will follow the theme “Song of Songs”; the participants will perform pieces on the subject of music.
DePauw senior Blake Beckemeyer will be producing the concert for the second year in a row. The Church hired Beckemeyer to sing for them during services, and he now handles the music and marketing for the concert.
Last year, the event drew in over 300 people and filled the space. Beckemeyer said that community members have recognized Asbury’s name and told him they would be coming, even though they do not really like organ music.
The concert aims to fulfill the Church’s mission of connecting DePauw students with Greencastle community members. “Part of the mission of the Church is to be a place that connects people from DePauw with people from the community,” Beckemeyer said. “The Church is working really hard particularly with serving students in the community and trying to give them the comforts of home at school.”
The concert has no admission fee, but the audience will be encouraged to donate. Last year, the event raised over $2500 solely from personal donations.
All proceeds from the event will go directly to Asbury Endowment for the Arts, Asbury’s charity which supports the arts exclusively in Putnam County. According to Beckemeyer, the charity “is designed to be a pool of money that helps promote arts in a county where there isn’t a lot of population density and there isn’t a ton of wealth.”
Asbury Endowment for the Arts has supported organizations such as the Putnam County Playhouse, the New Providence Church music outreach program, and “Impressions,” Greencastle High School’s student-run literary and art magazine. “Greencastle is a community that needs the arts,” Beckemeyer said, “and I don’t think we would get it if not for Jason [Asbury].”