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Southwest Minnesota Orchestra to host Schubert Festival 2026

Schools

The Southwest Minnesota Orchestra, with musical director Dr. Daniel Rieppel, will host events for the Schubert Festival 2026, featuring the music and life of Franz Schubert. The public is invited to attend the festival events at the SMSU Campus Religious Center Thursday, April 23-Saturday, April 25 leading up to the grand finale festival concert on Sunday, April 26 in Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. Guests include Victoria Erickson, Dr. Jean King, and SMSU alumnus Dr. Paul Schell.  The schedule includes: Thursday, April 23 Schubert Liederabend with Minnesota vocalist Victoria ...

Finding Community: JJ Ostenson finds his place in Marshall

Schools

JJ Ostenson’s path to Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU) began with curiosity and a desire to broaden his horizons. Hailing from Edgemont, South Dakota — a tiny town of about 750 residents and a K–12 school with just 126 students — Ostenson was used to tight-knit communities ...

Faith Briefs

Faith

Seminarian to be ordained transitional deacon Brent G. Sundve, a seminarian of the Catholic Diocese of New Ulm, will be ordained to the transitional diaconate in May, marking a significant milestone on his journey to the priesthood, tentatively set for 2027.  Sundve is currently studying ...

Heads up: The mission really is the point

Faith

This week, I found myself around a table of about a dozen faithful people gathered together by a local church that wishes to find a way to live more fully into mission work. Turns out that in recent years the church leaders asked their congregation to help envision what the church’s next ...

Marshall Knowledge Bowl competes at state

Schools

The Marshall Knowledge Bowl program represented the community on the statewide stage as two Marshall teams advanced to the Minnesota State Knowledge Bowl Meet, earning their spots through strong performances during the regular season and regional competition.  The state competition ...

Faith Forum

Faith

The coming of Spring and "the events we remember and honor during Holy Week,” leading to "a joyous story on Easter morning,” were the subjects of Randy Krzmarzick's Good Friday column (4/3/26). I liked his choice of the words from John 1:1-5. He particularly referred to verse 5: "And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness has not overcome it,” stating that the darkness of Good Friday did not diminish the light of Jesus. Toward the end of his column Randy wrote: "Life here is always a paradox. Imperfect people created by a perfect God." In the beginning God did ...