Written by Cassidy Stephenson<\/p>\n
What is your name, job title, and how long have you been at CUC?<\/b><\/p>\n
My name is Steven Wente and I am the Distinguished Professor of Music and Organist to the Chapel at CUC since 1984.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How would you describe Concordia to a stranger?<\/b><\/p>\n I think Concordia is a small, quiet community of students, faculty, and staff.\u00a0 The strength of Concordia is in the dedication of faculty and staff, which in turn attracts, inspires, and encourages students to do their best work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What part of your job do you enjoy the most?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been blessed to have a varied course load in my years at Concordia. I\u2019ve always taught applied organ lessons, helping to guide organists to better lead congregations in song. In the early years, I was able to teach some music courses to education students.\u00a0 For a number of years, I served as department chair, through which I got to know better the workings of the department and a broader perspective of our work together.\u00a0 In the last three years, I have had the opportunity to teach in the first-year experience humanities courses. Through this experience, I have gotten to know a wider diversity of our Concordia student community.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Do you have a favorite memory during your time at CUC?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n There are many:\u00a0 the open welcome of many faculty and staff when I first came to teach at Concordia; the opportunity to be involved with the annual Lectures in Church Music and Lessons and Carols for 35 years; the fine celebration of CUC\u2019s 150<\/span>th<\/span> anniversary in 2014 and the 500<\/span>th<\/span> anniversary of the Reformation in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n What\u2019s your favorite dish that Sodexo serves?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n I don\u2019t get to the cafeteria very much, but the pizza is quite good, considering it is made in bulk.\u00a0 I\u2019ve enjoyed the 3-buck lunches!<\/span><\/p>\n What are three things you can\u2019t live without at CUC?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Every student who comes to Concordia has a story.\u00a0 Perhaps a Concordia coach made a good impression on the student. It may have been a teacher, a youth director, or a pastor who encouraged the student to come to Concordia. A number of students have a parent or grandparent who attended Concordia (my grandfather attended Concordia back when it was in Addison, IL).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b>Chapel occurs in the middle part of the day and is a centering experience. I know that time is tight for everyone, but chapel is a great gathering together of the community. Livestreaming chapel in recent years is a great addition.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Do you have a favorite song\/hymn to play on the organ?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n This is always a hard question, not unlike the one asked of a grandparent, \u201cwho is your favorite grandchild?\u201d The answer: \u201cthe one I\u2019m with at the present time.\u201d There are so many hymns, each with its own purpose, message, and way of expressing the word \u201cin meter.\u201d\u00a0 When a hymn can reflect and expound on (and even proclaim) the word of God\u2019s grace and love, that\u2019s a great gift.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":4553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[305],"class_list":["post-4532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concordia-news","tag-faculty-profile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}