Music at Bethesda

by Randy Ewing, Nancy Ewing on June 16, 2025

As we wrap up the program year, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude to the many volunteers who have been the backbone of our music ensembles, provided special music, or served as cantors. Your contributions have enriched our worship experiences, and we are truly blessed to have such talented musicians among us. Thank you for sharing your time and talents! Holy week is a very special yet demanding week for church musicians. A huge amount of music is used to enhance worship from Palm weekend through Easter Sunday, and this year was no different. We pulled out all the stops and were blessed by our members’ musical gifts and the gifts of the non-members we could secure to make these services memorable! We hope to purchase two timpani before Holy Week 2026 as it becomes more difficult and costly to borrow from music programs in our area. Look for timpani updates in future publications.

Both the Carillon Choir and the Bethesda Adult Choir are ready to enjoy a much-deserved break, and we are looking forward to various special music offerings to fill the void. There are no age requirements for sharing your musical talents to enhance the Saturday or Sunday worship experiences. If you’ve prepared something for one of the services, consider sharing it at both services! Please contact Randy or Nancy Ewing ( or ) if you would like to offer a special music selection at one of our services this summer!
There will be two opportunities to sing in a choir this summer. Once for a bass clef choir (all tenors and basses) and once for a treble clef choir (all sopranos and altos). Watch the Living Current and the Weekly Current for details. You do NOT need to be a regular member of the Bethesda Choir to participate in these offerings!

Summer always seems to fly by; before we know it, fall is upon us. As always, we love welcoming new members to the Carillon Choir and Bethesda Choir! Please consider joining one (or both) of these ensembles in the fall. No
experience is necessary; we have a great time together, and our motto is always, “Make a joyful noise!”

About the Author

Randy Ewing

I was born and raised in a small town in eastern Iowa. I knew I loved Ames from the first time I came to town for an Iowa All-State Concert when I was in 8^th grade! Years later, I landed in Ames to attend Iowa State, where I met my wife, Nancy, and eventually finished my bachelor’s degree in Music Education. We will celebrate our 32^nd wedding anniversary in December 2022. Nancy and I are blessed with two children, Katelyn (29) and Karter (26). When we retired and moved back to Ames in July, we knew we’d be able to spend more time with our kids, their spouses (Layton and Brooke), and our grand dogs too!

Throughout my career as a music educator, I taught general music, choral music (and even one year of high school band), to students of all ages ranging from kindergarten through college. Most recently, I retired from Le Mars Community High School, where I was the high school choral director for the past 16 years. During our time in Le Mars, I earned my master’s degree in music education from the University of South Dakota.

My first official church job was as organist at the age of 11. Over the years, I’ve served several churches in a variety of different roles including organist, accompanist, choir director and soloist. We’ve enjoyed Bethesda since our first visit (which was before the pandemic) and I’m excited to share my talents with the hope of enhancing the worship experience for others.

About the Author

Nancy Ewing

I grew up in Cherokee, Iowa, and was surrounded by music my entire life. My grandmother was a long-time piano teacher and organist in our community. My parents, siblings and I followed suit by being involved in choir, band, symphony, community theatre productions, and church music from a very young age. (Fun fact: there are four generations of all-state musicians in my family totaling 38 years of participation in the festival.)

I attended Iowa State University receiving my Bachelor of Music in 1989 and began teaching vocal music that fall in Manly, Iowa. After my husband (Randy) and I were married, we moved to Audubon and then to Le Mars as we continued our careers in music education. During that time, I was actively involved in the American Choral Director’s Association both at the district and state levels and attended the University of South Dakota to receive my master’s degree in Voice and Music Education in 2003. After 33 years in public education, I retired from teaching in 2022.

We moved to Ames after retirement to be closer to our beloved alma mater AND (more importantly) our wonderful children, Katelyn (Layton) Elscott and Karter (Brooke). We brought with us our miniature golden doodle Koko. Grateful to continue sharing my musical gifts, I’m currently working with the Ames Children’s Choir, I have opened a private voice studio out of our home, I continue to be involved in ACDA as a clinician, director, and mentor to new music educators in the state of Iowa.

I feel blessed that God has called us to our new church family and look forward to joining with Bethesda’s many gifted members as we “Make A Joyful Sound”.