Menno Singers, a community choir in Waterloo Region, Ontario, announces that Joanna Loepp Thiessen of Kitchener, Ontario is the recipient of the $4,000 Abner Martin Music Scholarship for 2020. A graduate of Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, Joanna is a fourth year vocal performance major in the Bachelor of Music program at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg.
Joanna’s home congregation is The Gathering Church in Kitchener. She has shared her musical skills there, as well as at House of Friendship, Floradale Mennonite Church and Ontario Mennonite Music Camp. She was a voice student at Wilfrid Laurier University from 2015-17.
She also served with MVS in San Antonio, Texas from 2017-19 where she was a church music leader and involved in community music workshops while volunteering full-time at a shelter for people experiencing homelessness.
At CMU Joanna is studying voice and church music and serving on the community gatherings committee. She also volunteered to help proofread and analyze data for the Voices Together Hymnal.
The Abner Martin Music Scholarship is awarded annually to a deserving student who is affiliated with a congregation in Mennonite Church Eastern Canada and is a full-time student in a graduate or undergraduate music program. This year’s award comes from the earnings of the scholarship endowment fund and donations from the Jim and Lorna Blair Charitable Foundation and the Wallenstein Feed Charitable Foundation. The next application deadline is September 15, 2021. More information and an application form is available from the chair of the scholarship committee, Linda Janzen (lindajanzen@sympatico.ca).
Joanna may be contacted at joannaloeppthiessen@gmail.com or by telephone at 226-789-6414.
