Andrew Stanton Performs for Central Students

McPherson, Kansas – The Central Christian College of Kansas (CCCK) Music Department hosted guest Andrew Stanton for the annual Chaney Music Symposium, held Friday, February 4th in The Warehouse.  Due to COVID restrictions and zoom events becoming more popular, Mr. Stanton was zoomed into The Warehouse where he presented a lecture to students.  The lecture centered around his story of growing up in a Christian household and beginning to play guitar in the youth group praise band.  Through connections he made, he ended up joining Disciple (Christian Rock Band) around 2014 to tour and write songs.

Today Andrew is still writing with Disciple, though he does not tour any longer.  He currently resides in Nashville where he works from home fulfilling a contract to write stock music for Sound Stripe, where he writes and produces approximately seventy stylistic songs per year.

In the lecture, Andrew provided encouraging and inspiring words to the CCCK students.  He stressed to students that they must prepare themselves to be used by God by developing skills (on their instrument) and networking with other musicians, and at some point in time, God will open doors.  He also encouraged students to incorporate new skills into what they do to make themselves more valuable and to be adaptive to different situations (for example, using COVID as an opportunity to build on skill sets).  More musically specific, Andrew challenged students in their musical creativity – to listen to something and re-create it to make it their own.

Mr. Stanton then performed a concert later that evening where he performed his own material which included songs written for Sound Stripe and songs from Disciple.  The attendees of the performance included a small gathering of CCCK students who enjoyed listening to the songs and the elaboration into the background of the songs of how they were written and how he prepared for the performance.  This was the first time that Mr. Stanton performed a concert by himself from his house – one of the adaptations that he has made during COVID.

Andrew provided many encouraging and inspirational words to the music students at CCCK.  He appreciated being the guest for the Chaney Music Symposium and the students were pleased to hear the music and encouraging words and to witness the humility of a musician of a high caliber.  This provided motivation to the students during this season of COVID.

The endowed Chaney Music Symposium was established in 2003 in memory of Edris (CC ’23) and Albert (CC ’24) Chaney, who were both devoted to the college and had a love for the Lord.  The purpose of the Chaney Music Symposium is to bring a Classical or Christian musician to the college campus to provide an educational opportunity for the CCCK community, followed by a musical performance.

Next year’s Chaney Music Symposium will be held Monday, Oct. 18th, 2021, which will feature Mr. Sam Rotman, a Christian classical pianist, who will talk during convocation to the student body, and then in the evening perform a piano recital featuring the music of Beethoven.

ABOUT CENTRAL CHRISTIAN COLLEGE OF KANSAS

Central Christian College of Kansas is a regionally accredited institution offering undergraduate and graduate-level programs. Central strives to offer Christ-centered education for the whole person – heart, mind, soul, and strength. Its history dates back to 1884, and it is located in the friendly town of McPherson, Kansas. Central is a strategically small college that offers over forty areas of residential study and a thriving online program for non-traditional students. To learn more about who Central is go to centralchristian.edu/about.