As Henry Waters begins his tenure as Bethel's director of choral music, one of his first steps has been to revive some old choir traditions.

This year, in addition to the Concert Choir, Waters is leading a Chamber Choir and a Chapel Choir.

“Both of these are still in the Bethel catalog,” he says, “but it’s been [decades] since they existed.”

However, while the Chapel Choir was once a choir that sang in chapel services during the school year, the revived name is being applied to what was previously called the Women’s Chorus.

On Nov. 6, the community will have a chance to hear the 16-voice Chamber Choir, the treble-voice Chapel Choir and the 45-voice Concert Choir, along with the small a cappella ensembles Open Road and Woven, in the annual choral showcase, “Bethel Sings.”

The concert is at 3 p.m. at Bethel College Mennonite Church in North Newton and is free and open to the public.

Waters has titled the program “Can We Sing the Darkness to Light?”

“I’m a thematic programmer,” he says. “I develop a theme and try to follow it all the way through the entire program.

“All the ensembles featured will have this throughline of hope and encouragement, of finding the light in the darkness.”

Waters says the idea came from his attendance this summer at the Kansas Choral Directors Association meeting.

“I was talking to teachers from K though 12, and seeing the toll that the pandemic has taken on everyone, physically but especially mentally.

“I often choose themes around topics that need to be discussed but aren’t. So there’s a thread of mental health [going through Sunday’s program].”

Before coming to Bethel, Waters spent 10 years teaching music and leading the Chamber Singers at Butler Community College in El Dorado.

He is also director of music at Plymouth Congregational Church in Wichita, where he directs the choir and helps with special events such as the church’s annual Fine Arts Series.

Waters has an undergraduate degree in music with a concentration in vocal performance and an MBA from Millsaps Collete, master’s degrees in choral conducting and sacred music from Southern Methodist University, and a doctorate in music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory.

Now at the halfway point of his first semester at Bethel, Waters says his vision for choral music at Bethel includes “growth.”

By that he means expanding the choirs, especially the Chapel Choir, and “reaching as many students as possible to show them that Bethel is this extra-special place, and so is Bethel music.”

He also wants to encourage his singers to see that “we’re sharing a conversation with the audience. We are telling a story, along with them.”

Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Known for academic excellence, Bethel ranks at #14 in the Washington Monthly list of “Best Bachelor’s Colleges,” and #24 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of “Best Regional Colleges Midwest,” both for 2022-23. Bethel is the only Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu