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Keyword: music
Violinist wins 2026 Verna and Peter Janzen Music Competition
Thursday, March 26, 2026 @ 1:38 PM
The Verna and Peter Janzen Music Competition at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) brought together a range of student performers, with violinist Bella-Sophia Rogers earning first place at the finals held in the CMU Laudamus Auditorium on Thursday, March 19, 2026.
"The performance was exhilarating. I have performed for larger audiences before, but never one so full of friendly faces, and as soon as I looked out into the crowd it stopped being about impressing an anonymous crowd of faces and became an opportunity to show all my friends who I really am," Rogers said. "I was floored when it was announced that I had won—everyone performed fabulously and I was honoured to stand on that stage in front of my friends and colleagues for such a triumphant moment."
Continue Reading2026 Verna Mae Janzen Music Competition (video, photos)
Thursday, March 26, 2026 @ 11:20 AM
In its 21st year, the finalists of the 2026 Verna and Peter Janzen Music Competition were:
View DetailsCMU professor gives light to the darkness of history with WSO commission
Wednesday, February 25, 2026 @ 11:37 AM
Neil Weisensel, CMU's Associate Professor of Music, was recently commissioned to write an orchestral composition to be performed by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (WSO). "Centuries of Hope: Variations + Theme," was performed by the WSO at the Winnipeg New Music Festival on January 27, 2026.
Inspired by composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Frederick Rzewski, whose work responds to the rise of fascism in the 20th century, "Centuries of Hope" is itself a tribute to citizens' strength and resilience in the face of authoritarianism.
Continue ReadingWhen the world feels unsteady, CMU invites Winnipeg to sing
Thursday, January 29, 2026 @ 10:32 AM
Canadian Mennonite University will host a community-wide singing event, Singing Resistance, on Monday, February 2, at 7:00 PM in the Laudamus Auditorium at 500 Shaftesbury Blvd. The evening will bring together students, alumni, churches, and the wider public to sing songs of protest and courage, in solidarity with Minneapolis—part vigil, part community chorus—in response to the unsettling and often painful realities unfolding in the world today.
Continue ReadingBridging traditions: Stan Rogers' folk legacy honoured by CMU Concert Band
Friday, December 5, 2025 @ 11:20 AM
Bella Rogers is a part of a musical legacy.
The second-year CMU student, studying a Bachelor of Music, is the grand-daughter of the late Canadian music icon Stan Rogers, but she has found her own way to carry the tune.
Continue ReadingChristmas at CMU 2025 (video)
Monday, December 1, 2025 @ 8:33 AM
Recorded November 29, 2025
View DetailsAlumni in their own words - Tania Mulki (CMU ’23)
Monday, November 10, 2025 @ 8:00 AM
Where has your life taken you since you left CMU?
I completed my coursework at CMU in 2022, and after finishing the 1,000-hour internship required for my Bachelor of Music Therapy degree, I officially graduated in 2023. I did my internship in Calgary with JB Music Therapy, a well-established organization that offered a strong and varied clinical experience. It was a great place to learn and gain confidence as a new therapist, and I felt well prepared thanks to the training and support I received at CMU.
Continue ReadingCMU welcomes new faculty to start 2025/26 academic year
Monday, September 15, 2025 @ 9:18 AM
CMU enters a new academic year with both excitement and gratitude, welcoming five new faculty members whose expertise spans music, biology, social work, psychology, and chemistry.
Together, these teaching appointments highlight the university's ongoing commitment to interdisciplinary teaching, faith-integrated scholarship, and nurturing students in ways that prepare them to engage the world with curiosity, compassion, and purpose.
Continue ReadingFinding connection as an outsider: How CMU shaped a public servant
Thursday, September 11, 2025 @ 12:00 AM
Marvin Marcial didn't mean to become a CMU student. What was initially supposed to be one music elective as a visiting student from the University of Winnipeg turned him into a full-time student who ended up graduating from CMU with a Bachelor of Music in 2007. "I ended up in choir and that changed the whole trajectory of my education, and I transferred over to CMU the next year," he says.
Continue ReadingNotes, nursing, and new horizons: A journey of learning and service
Wednesday, September 10, 2025 @ 12:00 AM
When Heidi Derksen meets for a conversation in the mid-afternoon, she's wrapping up her day and going to sleep after the interview ends. This unconventional bedtime is because she's an ICU nurse in Saskatoon's hospitals, working alternating day and night shifts. The routine can be taxing, but it allows her a lot of flexibility for one of her favourite activities: travel.
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