HESSTON – Sons of Serendip, finalists in season nine of NBC’s America’s Got Talent, will ring in the Christmas season for Hesston-Bethel Performing Arts (HBPA) with their unique combination of harp, cello, piano/keyboard and voice at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 4, at Hesston Mennonite Church on the Hesston College campus.
As graduate students in a variety of fields at Boston University – law, cello performance, harp and theology – the men met through a series of serendipitous events. Though music had been a part of each man’s life since childhood, music was not the primary focus for all of them. After graduating and working for a couple of years, vocalist Micah Christian, was presented the opportunity to audition for America’s Got Talent. He invited his friends to join him, forming Sons of Serendip and shifting each man’s plan for his career and life.
The quartet appeared on America’s Got Talent in May 2014 for season nine, finishing in fourth place later that fall and gaining national attention. The end of the show was beginning of a musical journey for the newly-formed group.
Now with three albums to their name, including a Christmas album, “Christmas: Beyond the Lights” (October 2015), the group continues to grow in popularity, with recordings used in several performance-based reality television shows, touring nationally and collaborating with orchestras and other musicians.
Sons of Serendip features Micah Christian, who earned a master of divinity and spent time serving overseas prior to launching the group. Christian became interested in music as a child and spent his undergraduate years following his passion for music and spending summers performing with an a cappella group, Hyannis Sound.
Kendall Ramseur is the group’s cellist, and is also a singer-songwriter and composer. His history with the cello dates back to the age of 10, and his studies and career have all involved cello.
Featured on harp with Sons of Serendip is Mason Morton. After accepting a free offer to learn the harp as a child, Mason continued to play and teach others, eventually taking him to Boston University to learn from the teacher of his undergraduate instructor.
Cordaro Rodriguez, pianist, began teaching himself piano at the age of 10. After completing an undergraduate degree in psychology, he spent a year volunteering as an English teacher in Ecuador before earning his juris doctorate degree from Boston University. Rodriguez has also produced music for several well-known international artists.
Reserved seating and general admission tickets for Sons of Serendip are available at hesstonbethel.org or by calling 620-327-8105. Single tickets are for sale at the Hesston College Bookstore in Erb Hall or Bethel College’s Thresher Shop in Schultz Student Center during regular business hours. Reserved seating is $27 for adults and senior citizens, and general admission seating ranges from $18 to $23. Discounts are available for students and senior citizens.
Started in 1982 as Hesston Performing Arts, the series expanded in 1998 when Hesston College joined forces with Bethel College for The Hesston-Bethel Performing Arts series. The series presents five performances by world-renowned or regionally acclaimed artists each year. HBPA is funded in part by the city of North Newton, Excel Industries and Hustler Turf Equipment (Hesston), the North Newton Community Foundation and the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Area businesses and patrons provide additional funding for the HBPA series.
Located 30 miles north of Wichita, Hesston College is a liberal arts college of Mennonite Church USA.
