The Genevans, the student choir of Geneva College, reached the pinnacle of their 76th concert season in May with a 21-day international tour. The ensemble continued its quadrennial international travel tradition with a 16-concert tour, performing in the Philippine venues of Manila, Davao, Malaybalay, Cagayan de Oro, Batad Ifugao, Baguio, as well as in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

Echoing the college’s Reformed Presbyterian heritage, second-year conductor Dr. David Kenneth Smith, who was raised in the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam by missionary parents, chose a repertoire that explored the major themes of the book of Psalms. The ensemble performed “Psalms for the King” in a wide variety of musical settings by Mendelssohn, Palestrina, Bach, and Brahms.

“The centerpiece of the program was Mendelssohn’s double choir setting of Psalm 2, in which God the Father, in the face of human rebellion, declares that He has enthroned His Son as King in Zion,” explained Smith. “This posed the gospel message of the psalm, which is the question, ‘Who is on the throne of your life?’”

The Genevans continued with psalms on the theme of the righteous life with compositions by Geneva College Old Testament scholar and musician Dr. Byron G. Curtis, Professor of Biblical Studies. They also performed a lovely setting of Psalm 16, Keep me, O God, which was composed by previous director Dr. Robert Copeland, a Reformed Presbyterian.

In addition, Dr. Smith added music of his own: an arrangement of Michael Tabon’s Psalm 118, O Thank the Lord for He is Good. He also versified two stanzas of Psalm 104 to put with his new arrangement of The Trees of the Lord, after the traditional Ashgrove tune.

The choir ended its presentation with the psalm themes of creation, provision and protection by singing a setting of Psalm 98 that was commissioned from Indiana native composer Diane Whitacre for the Genevans’ 75th anniversary. “The piece never fails to give me chills,” Smith recounted. “It builds such intensity and joy. Diane releases the exuberant praise the psalmist had in mind when he wrote ‘let the mountains sing together for joy!’”

The ensemble’s concerts also included a collection of national anthems and folk songs from the Philippines and Malaysia.

The Genevans performed for Makati’s International Baptist Church of Manila, Faith Academy Performing Arts Center, the school at the Ifugao tribal village of Batad in the rice terraces, the Association of Ifugao Bible Churches, and the Benguet State University Center for Culture and the Arts. The group also contributed to a seminar for the indigenous Christian youth groups and worked with choir classes at Cainta’s Faith Academy. Along the way, they had home stays with missionaries and Reformed church members.

But the tour wasn’t all work. Group members also had the pleasure of spending a day at the beach on Samal Island, visiting Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, and choosing to climb to the 13,435-foot peak of Mount Kinabalu, hike to Poring Hot Springs, or relax and refresh on a beach near Kota Kinabulu.

Tour participants from the RPCNA included Hannah Falk, Caleb McCracken, Annie McCune, Juliana Miller, Stephen Noell, Colin Smith, Maggie Rose Smith, and Hannah Troup. Members of the Genevans will share their experiences in the Philippines and Malaysia with the readers of the RP Witness in an article to be published in the September/October 2014 issue.

—Greg Wise