News

When Marina Gallagher was sitting in Professor Laura Gray’s Music and Landscapes class in 2013, she didn’t imagine that the connections she was making between pastoral music, landscapes, and Classical literature would lead her back to Grebel a decade later, teaching a special topics course on Video Game Music.  

Think about a time when you attended a worship service in a community that was new to you. What stood out as different? What is most important about worship for you? Now imagine you’re 13-29 years old. Would you answer differently? 

Two Grebel alumni, Sarah Kathleen Johnson (BA 2007, MTS 2008) and Mykayla Turner (BSC 2020, MTS 2024), are asking these very questions through a collaboration on the Young People and Christian Worship study. This research project aims to shape better conversations about teenagers, emerging adults, and Christian worship by valuing their experiences as an important theological voice. 

Mechanical Engineering

For Conrad Grebel University College resident Jared Dyck, studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Waterloo hasn’t just been about equations and design; it also came with a soundtrack. Thanks to his love of music, Jared has meshed choral singing with university life, bringing creativity and balance to a demanding academic path. 

This spring, Grebel turned into a space for listening, wandering, and discovering the sounds of the medieval past through a chant-inspired soundwalk. Conrad Grebel University College, in partnership with St. Jerome’s University at the University of Waterloo, participated in the Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission Project (DACT) Soundwalk: “Singing Musical Fragments: Waterloo.” The soundwalk invited visitors to explore and listen to medieval chants originating from many different time periods and locations. The DACT Project is a Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Project led by Jennifer Bain, PI, and many co-investigators across Canada and around the world. DACT collaborators Kate Helsen, Debra Lacoste, and Kate Kennedy Steiner, created the DACT Soundwalk as an activity for the annual conferences of the Canadian University Music Society (MUSCAN) and the Canadian Society of Medievalists held at UWaterloo in May 2025. 

English and Music, Double Majors

Chloe Shantz is graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and a double major in Music and English Literature and is the recipient of the Music Departmental Award. “I grew up in a musical family, and English was always my favourite subject in school,” she said. After graduating high school during the pandemic, Chloe found herself drawn to the supportive and close-knit environment at Grebel.

Congratulations to Chloe Shantz (Honours Music & English Literature - Intensive English Specialization, Creative Writing Specialization) on being this year’s recipient of the Departmental Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement in Music for the graduating class of 2025.

On behalf of the Department of Music, congratulations, Chloe, on your academic achievement and very best wishes from all of us!

We'll also miss you in chamber choir ensembles!

Congratulations to the dozen music students who are finishing their UWaterloo degrees.

Before attending Ontario Mennonite Music Camp (OMMC) at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, campers Julia and Jaren thought the idea of making close friends there seemed too good to be true. Little did they know, they were entering an environment where friendship and music come together to create a sense of belonging for everyone, no matter their age or musical experience. In this article, they reveal why they encourage those interested in music to experience OMMC for themselves. "OMMC is where I found some of my greatest friends; my people. The people that let me be me,” Jaren said. “No matter who I was with at OMMC, I always felt I belonged," said Julia.

Students present research results, including musical topics such as "Don Giovanni" and "The Musical of Unusual Size", aka The Grebel musical in its many iterations.