Published: July 14, 2008 11:25 am         

Goshen College show nominated for Emmy

“A Festival of Carols 2007,” the television broadcast of the annual Goshen College Christmas music concert, has been nominated for an Emmy.

The concert broadcast was nominated in the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Lower Great Lakes Chapter. The broadcast is nominated in the Special Events Coverage (other than news and sports) category.

Video production students and Ron Johnson, associate professor of communication and producer of “A Festival of Carols,” earned the nomination.

“I am excited that we are being recognized by television professionals for the quality of our work,” Johnson said.

This is the first Emmy nomination for the college.

Twelve students, under the direction of Johnson and audio recording engineer Matthias Stegmann, with the assistance of ITSMedia and Music Center faculty, recorded and edited the broadcast. The production crew filmed the event using new high-definition cameras, operated the sound and edited the final program in a time span of 12 days.

“This Emmy nomination is obviously a recognition of the video production team directly, but it is also a recognition of the quality of these other participants, of the ensembles from the Music Department and Community School of the Arts, and their directors, to the lighting operators and stage managers,” said Music Center Executive Director Brian Wiebe. “Of course, the production also benefits from being staged in Sauder Concert Hall, a world-class performance hall.”

For the first time, “A Festival of Carols” aired on Indianapolis’ public television station, WFYI, and for the third consecutive year, the recording was broadcast on WNIT, South Bend’s public television station. “Our annual television broadcast of ‘A Festival of Carols’ in partnership with WNIT and WFYI provides students the opportunity to work on a television music special that must meet local PBS quality,” Johnson said. “It has real world deadlines, expectations and audience.”

“Students and faculty are realizing that a smaller private college program, when it focuses its energy in doing larger things, can do them,” Johnson said. “(Quality) is not limited by how many resources you believe you have or don’t have, but more by how big the vision is.”

There were more than 500 entries from the Lower Great Lakes Chapter — which includes the region around Indianapolis and Cleveland — representing work performed by professionals and students between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2007. Television professionals outside the Indiana-Ohio-Pennsylvania region judged each entry, and only the best entries received nominations for an Emmy Award.

“A Festival of Carols 2007” faces competition for the award from public television stations in Indianapolis, Cleveland and Bloomington, Ind.

The winners of The 39th Annual Emmy Award for the Lower Great Lakes Chapter will be announced at this year’s Emmy Gala at the Marriott Key Center Grand Ballroom in Cleveland on Sept. 13.

Students involved in the production included: Luke Nofsinger, a senior from Marcellus, Mich., Sarah Jenson, a senior from Everest, Kan., Douglas Hallman, a sophomore from Lancaster, Pa., Jordan Clay Swartzendruber, a senior from Elkhart, Dusty Diller, a junior from Colorado Springs, Colo., Grant Bachman, a sophomore from Roanoke, Ill., Katie Gencay, a first-year from Powell, Tenn., Abri Houser, a senior from Newton, Kan., Nathan Morrow, a sophomore from Wenatchee, Wash., Taylor Stansberry, a sophomore from Greentown, Ind., and Alex Troyer, a senior from Wooster, Ohio.

Others involved in the production include: Matthias Stegmann, Paul Housholder, Sarah Mlotshwa, Mike McHugh and Andrea Johnson.