With the launch of their new CD, “Gospel”, Rosemary Siemens and Loren Hiebert would like to offer a blessing not only to their listeners, but also to people living with hunger. They’re holding three free concerts in Manitoba, and at each event, participants will be invited to make a freewill offering to Canadian Foodgrains Bank, an organization working to end hunger in developing countries.
“Music and food have often been compared,” says Loren Hiebert. “While food nourishes the body, music feeds the soul.” Sharing music with audiences, and sharing their love of music with their students, is planting the seeds which bear much fruit in future generations, just as farmers in faith prepare fields for future harvest. Rosemary and Loren both share the Christian commitment to love their neighbour. Their music has already traveled to several continents. It seems appropriate that now their music will help to feed people around the globe.
Rosemary Siemens and Loren Hiebert are both classically-trained musicians whose first musical love is the music of the church. Loren grew up in Kansas and was immersed in southern gospel music there. The Blackwood Brothers, the LeFavres, and many other southern gospel groups permeated his early years. Rosemary grew up in southern Manitoba where she began to play the violin at the tender age of three years. Every family gathering included singing, playing instruments and celebrating faith through song.
The music of the church is the fabric upon which their early musical experiences were sewn. They both began improvising almost immediately when called upon to contribute to the music of their respective churches and within the community. Years later they became teacher and student, soloist and accompanist, and musical colleagues. Almost by accident they discovered a mutual love of hymn improvisation when they were playing together in 2003, a number of years after they had first played music together. Soon after, they began playing in church services, making recordings and performing extensively in concerts.
Now living in Vancouver, Rosemary is an internationally acclaimed concert violinist who has performed in dozens of countries across the globe (in such venues as Carnegie Hall, St. Peters Basilica at the Vatican and Donald Trump’s private estate Mar-a-lago). Loren is a well-known collaborative musician and educator in southern Manitoba who appears in more than fifty concerts a year. They both are active as music educators, clinicians and studio musicians.
Concerts are as follows:
Emmanuel Mennonite Church. 750 15th Street Winkler, Saturday, Nov 21, at 7:30pm (reception to follow)
Springfield Heights Mennonite Church. 570 Sharron Bay Winnipeg, Sunday, Nov 22 at 2:30pm
Steinbach Evangelical Mennonite Church (Steinbach EMC) 422 Main Street, Sunday Nov 22 at 7:30pm (reception to follow)
