You reached this page through the archive. Click here to return to the archive.

Note: This article is over a year old and information contained in it may no longer be accurate. Please use the contact information in the lower-left corner to verify any information in this article.

St. Olaf Homecoming/Family Weekend offers music for everyone

By Meredith Utt '08
October 6, 2004

Several St. Olaf music ensembles and two faculty members will perform during Homecoming and Family Weekend at St. Olaf College Oct. 8-10. On Friday the Manitou Singers, Viking Chorus and Norseman Band will perform a joint concert at 7:30 p.m. in Skoglund Auditorium. The St. Olaf Band's annual Collage Concert will take place Saturday at 7:30 p.m., also in Skoglund. On Sunday, St. Olaf Associate Professor of Music David Carter, cello, and Esther Wang, piano, will present a faculty recital at 3:15 p.m. in Urness Recital Hall in Christiansen Hall of Music. All concerts are free and open to the public.

The 100-voice Manitou Singers, a choir for first-year women conducted by Artist in Residence Sigrid Johnson, will be led by guest conductor and Tosdal Professor of Music Anton Armstrong '78. Their program includes "Children Blessed of the Lord" by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and "This is the Day" by Gerald Smith.

The Viking Chorus, directed by Professor of Music Robert Scholz, was founded in 1935 for first-year men. Their program includes two spirituals plus Gretchaninoff's "Only Begotten Son."

The Norseman Band, led by Associate Professor of Music Paul Niemisto, has developed a reputation as a dynamic and exciting concert ensemble. Its program will present the popular "Chester Overture" by William Schuman and "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Elliott del Borgo.

Mahr-head
Mahr
"It seems the members of the band are always bursting at their seams with anticipation for this first concert of the year," says St. Olaf Band Conductor Timothy Mahr '78 of Saturday's concert. "Rehearsals have been as exciting and intense. Saturday promises to be a special evening of music." The featured guest conductor at the band concert will be alumnus Bruce Perkins '79, who will return from his home in Wales to lead the band in Philip Sparke's "Invictus."

The program will also include a tribute of works associated with Miles "Mity" Johnson, the beloved former conductor of the St. Olaf Band who died in August, including transcriptions of the "Light Calvary Overture" by Franz von Suppe and "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral" from Richard Wagner's opera "Lohengrin."

A recent work by Mahr, "and in this dream there were eight windows," will also be presented, along with "First Norwegian Rhapsody," and early composition of F. Melius Christiansen that the band played on its 1906 tour of Norway. Alfred Reed's dramatic multi-movement suite "Music for Hamlet," a tender setting of the Irish air "Lagan Love" by Luigi Zaninelli and Michael Schelle's "Cliffhanger March" will round out the program.

The Carter and Wang recital will feature "Sonata for Cello and Piano" by Francis Poulenc and Bach's "Suite in d minor for Cello Solo." Other featured pieces include a Nocturne by Gabriel Faure and Issac Albeniz's "Iberia." The recital will conclude with Mendelssohn's "Sonata for Cello and Piano in D major."

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.