This weekend there will be a special concert to celebrate Kansas/Paraguay Partners at Bethel College Mennonite Church

Three highlights

1. International director

The choir will be directed by Enrique Alfonso of Asuncion, Paraguay. He will direct a choir of between 20 and 25 people from the area — all who will be taking on a new type of music in a new language. This is the first concert during the 50th anniversary year of the Kansas/Paraguay Partners — and the first choral concert in the history of the partnership.

2. Talented neighbors

The choir is made up of about 25 people from the area. The choir recently sang at Bethel College Mennonite Church, and received an ovation in the middle of a church service.

3. Unique music

The concert will feature the Paraguayan Folklorica Mass in Spanish, a piece Alfonso is very familiar with as he and Kathryn Kasper  created and directed a choir to perform the mass for the Pope in 2015.  

"We have this syncopation throughout the music,"  Alfonso said. "You have a beat, and you sing right after it or before it. ... And there is the language. This combination is hard, but not impossible."

Also on the program for the concert is "Gloria" by Mark Hayes, a modern composer from the United States.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: A choral concert in multiple languages to celebrate the Kansas/Paraguay Partners' 50th anniverssary.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Feb 3

WHERE: Bethel College Mennonite Church, North Newton