At Crescendo Festival, young artists find encouragement, faith
SÁROSPATAK, Hungary (Mennonite Mission Network) – The young woman at the piano takes a deep breath before beginning to play. In a moment the power of God will take on an audible presence within the auditorium, flowing through her fingers and out into the notes of the Schumann concerto she has selected for the evening’s performance.
“Jesus is giving me the power to play and to be who I am,” she said in a recent interview. “The Holy Spirit is talking through me to the people who are listening to me.”
It was not always this way for Roxana Ota, a 25-year-old from Romania and a recent alumna of the Crescendo Summer Institute of the Arts in Sárospatak, Hungary. For years her gift went mostly unshared, trapped within her by her paralyzing fear of public performance.
“I am 25 years old, and I am playing since I am five, and every time I was afraid,” she said. “I didn’t like very much to play in public. I was scared.”
The Crescendo festival changed all that. Part of a larger international movement known as Crescendo, the festival in Hungary is aimed at encouraging classical artists in their professional life and Christian faith, according to Timothy Bentch. A worker through Eastern Mennonite Missions and Mennonite Mission Network associate, Bentch is the Crescendo Festival’s founding director.
This year, some 140 entrants participated at the festival July 24–Aug. 7, which takes place at various locations throughout the town, including the local teachers college, several chapels, a cultural house, a castle courtyard and two historic churches.
“The festival is aimed at anyone preparing for a career in the fine arts,” said Bentch, an award-winning tenor who has sung with many orchestras and opera houses in Europe. “It doesn’t matter if they’re Christian or not. But we make it clear that there are Christian workshops as an integral part of the program.
“The course is high quality, artistically, but it’s also a good time for them to explore Christianity,” he said.
Every year, for two weeks in the summer, dozens of youth, teenagers and young adults from Europe and North America come to this beautiful historic town with its strong tradition in the arts for nearly six hours each day of intensive artistic study. Their instructors include internationally recognized soloists, leading orchestral and chamber musicians, and teachers from performing and visual arts universities.
Faculty members at Crescendo share a common vision.
“Many teachers I met in Europe were distressed to see the direction their students’ lives were taking – alcohol, drugs, bad relationships,” Bentch said. “They needed a way to introduce [their students] to Jesus while they’re still young.”
Such was the case with Roxana when Andreas Henkel, a noted concert pianist from Dresden, Germany, came to her hometown to give a recital and a master class. It was there that he told her about the Christian festival.
She doesn’t like to say much about what her life was like before she came to Crescendo, only that she was going through a difficult time.
“I was a little bit lost, and my faith was a little bit lost,” she said. “My eyes were closed. I couldn’t see the beauty of nature. I couldn’t see the love around me. It was a difficult time.”
Roxana attended Henkel’s recital and then his master class, where she was a passive student rather than an active one because of her fear to play.
At first she didn’t want to play for Henkel. But when at last she found the courage to do so, she was pleased to discover that Henkel liked her playing very much. Then he asked her a startling question.
“He asked me, ‘Why are you practicing if you don’t play in public?’ A very simple question.”
Roxana became a student in his classes at the Crescendo Festival, and “something happened,” she said.
She experienced God’s presence at the festival in a way she never had before. She understood for the first time that she could approach God “without standing in church and listening to a priest who is reading everything from his books.”
Everyone at the festival had a particular energy, she said. The presence of God was real.
At night as she fell asleep, she felt Jesus with her.
And somehow during those two weeks, she found the courage to play.
“Andreas gave me courage,” Roxana said. “I felt God in him. God’s spirit was talking to me through this teacher. And now every time I play I think, I am playing for God.”
Since attending Crescendo last summer, Roxana has played several successful concerts in Romania. She teaches at the College of Art in Iasi, Romania, and hopes to continue her studies as a doctoral student, then build on her career as a concert pianist.
Stories like Roxana’s are the reason the festival exists.
“I’ve heard students say things like, ‘I was an atheist, and now I believe,’” Bentch said. “They’ll say, ‘This is what I was looking for my whole life.’ Students have gone home from Crescendo and been baptized.
Every year the number of participants giving their lives to Christ at least doubles. There were so many this year that organizers decided to offer a follow-up discipleship group for new converts. That group will meet for eight weeks, at which time members will determine their next step.
“This is a model that is working and has been blessed,” he said.
Geared toward new Christians and non-Christians alike, the festival opens each day with a 45-minute chapel time that includes contemplative music and sharing from Scripture.
Arts study begins at 9:30 a.m. and lasts until dinner. In the evenings, participants may attend small groups where they can discuss issues including alcoholism, lifestyle and how to lead balanced lives as artists.
“We also do things like have teacher interviews,” Bentch said. “We invite faculty members to come in and talk about professional situations where they face challenges as believers.”
The festival concludes with a concert featuring select students. People from all over Hungary plan their vacations in order to attend the festival.
The festival is funded primarily through donations, plus a few grants. A small portion of income is provided through student tuition, which is figured on a sliding scale based on ability to pay.
Through EMM and Mennonite Mission Network, Timothy and Lorri Bentch also staff A Song for the Nations Association. Under the auspices of EMM, A Song for the Nations is a ministry of Christian fine arts professionals who take the message of Jesus Christ to countries where arts are a key to reaching people.
