Campus Events

The VWU Concert Series presents the New Commonwealth String Quartet featuring VWU Performing Artist faculty Elizabeth Richards (cello), with Elizabeth Vonderheide (violin), Jonathan Richards (violin), Matthew Umlauf (viola). Formed in 2015 by members of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra family, the New Commonwealth Quartet has established itself as an in-demand ensemble throughout the region. In addition to presenting programs of cutting-edge music through Funhouse Fest, NCQ has also created a popular Sunday afternoon chamber music series at the East Beach Community Center in Norfolk, and has recorded tracks for Bruce Hornsby's next album. (Pay what you will ~ no reservations required.)

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The VWU Concert Series joins with the area PBS radio affiliates in this combination of WHRV-FM’s "Writer’s Block" and WHRO-FM’s "Classical Open Mic Night" for an evening of great classical music performances along with poetry and storytelling, all by local artists. (to be recorded for later broadcast on WHRO & WHRV). FREE - no reservations necessary.

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VWU's Center for Sacred Music presents its annual Sacred Music-Worship-Arts Summer Conference filled with some 50 workshop sessions led by VWU and guest faculty on a wide array of subjects of interest to church musicians, clergy, worship leaders and volunteers in these areas. Stay for the week or drop-in for a day or two. Also includes evening worship and hymn festival open to the public. (a requirement of VWU's Church Music Certificate program and also available for academic credit; for details contact Dr. Sandra Billy, 757-455-3376 or sbilly@vwu.edu)

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VWU's Center for Sacred Music presents its a Summer Hymn Festival, prepared and led by Dr. Wayne Wold, in conjunction with the American Organists Guild-Tidewater Chapter, as part of CSM's Sacred Music-Worship-Arts Summer Conference. The event takes place at First Presbyterian Church, 300 36th Street, Virginia Beach. (donations accepted)

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VWU's Center for Sacred Music presents its annual Summer Festival Worship as part of CSM's Sacred Music-Worship-Arts Summer Conference, featuring the 80-voice VWU Worship Choir led by nationally known composer Victor Johnson, a massed handbell choir from area churches led by Alan Reese, and VWU Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Nusbaum Center for the Study of Religious Freedom, Dr. Craig Wansink, preacher. The event takes place at Great Bridge Presbyterian Church, 333 Cedar Road, Chesapeake. (donations accepted)

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2020 Justine L. Nusbaum Lecture: The Art of Waging Peace - Why Peace Literacy Matters, presented by Paul K. Chappell.

Born in Alabama to a Korean mother and African-American father, Paul K. Chappell is a West Point graduate, former Army captain, and Iraq War veteran. His military service taught him that people don’t simply gravitate toward peaceful behavior, in large part because they aren’t trained to do so. In an era when humanity has the technological capacity to destroy itself, and when humans frequently don’t control their own dispositions, Chappell realized the pressing need for us to become as well-trained in waging peace as soldiers are in waging war. During the 2020 Justine L. Nusbaum Lecture, he shows how peace literacy frames peace not merely as a goal but as a practical skill-set that addresses the root causes of our human problems.

The Robert F. Boyd Institute will feature Rev. Olu Brown as keynote speaker on November 9 - 10, 2020. Rev. Brown is the lead pastor of Impact Church near Atlanta. In 2016, Impact Church was listed as one of the top 100 fastest growing churches in America. A graduate of Jarvis Christian College and the Interdenominational Theological Seminary, Rev. Brown says he is “truly a church planter at heart.” He is the author of Zero to 80: Innovative Ideas for Planting and Accelerating Church Growth, and Leadership Directions from Moses. His latest book, 4D Impact: Smash Barriers Like a Smart Church, was released in April 2019.

This two-day seminar focuses on how to anticipate and embrace change, particularly in an institution—the church—that frequently is reluctant to do so. Lunch is included on Monday and light breakfast on Monday and Tuesday. Monday, November 9, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., and Tuesday, November 10, 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. This $75 seminar is open to all, but also awards one continuing education credit for clergy from the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church. If you are interested in registering for the 2020 Boyd Institute, please contact Kelly Jackson (kjackson@vwu.edu) at the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom.

Commencement Ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, December 6, in the Jane P. Batten Student Center.