By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

An oratorio and alumni chorus and a community orchestra will perform Handel’s “Messiah” at 7 p.m. Dec. 10 in the new Shari Flaming Center for the Arts at Tabor College.

A 35-member hired ensemble, comprised mostly of players from the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, will join more than 90 alumni voices and 50 Tabor choir members for the performance.

The performance will be a day after the center is dedicated in a 2 to 4 p.m. ceremony Saturday.

The center is the largest building project in school history.

According to the book, “Tabor College, A Century of Transformation, 1908-2008,” after dedication of a new library in 1984, the college had planned to create a Worship Center for Performing Arts, including a 700-capacity auditorium.

However, because of fiscal constraints, the project was scaled back to provide for the immediate needs of the music department, and the auditorium was postponed.

The music building is named for Paul Wohlgemuth, a 20-year Tabor music instructor who was killed in a car accident in 1987. The facility was dedicated Feb. 25, 1990 and cost $790,000.

It wasn’t until May 2015 that groundbreaking for the arts center occurred. Now, almost 27 years after the Paul Wohlgemuth Music Education Center was dedicated and two and a half years after groundbreaking, the facility has come to fruition on an even grander scale than planned in the beginning.

The auditorium is attached to the north side of the music education center. Attached to the auditorium on the north is the David and Mary Flaming Virtual Arts Education Center. The facility seats 820 people and cost $13.6 million.

“My heart is full of gratitude to all who helped make it happen,” said Tabor president Jules Glanzer. “So many people have been part of this project.”

The dedication address will be delivered by Tabor College Professor Del Gray. Stephen Vincent is returning from California to play a specially- designed organ. Professor of music Brad Vogel will lead the chorus, brass ensemble, and organist in a special composition created for the occasion.

An open house will follow.

The college believes the facility will benefit the whole county.

Former Tabor board of directors president Lyndon Vix said, “I think the entire county and beyond is going to be enriched by what goes on here. Not just by what Tabor puts on here, but what we’re able to bring in to give a little bit more taste of some cultural things that is hard to do unless you travel a ways.”