News
Wednesday, July 19, 2006Yet another summer, bringing many changes to the Limestones. The Limestones will greatly miss its four departing members, Eric, Marc, Skip and Phil, but we're very excited to welcome our four newest members! Tyler, Paul, Elwyn and Andy, the future of the group is in good hands, we're sure. Thanks to the four members who are no longer singing with us, as well as all of our family, friends and concert-goers who made the year so very special. Next year we'll continue to build on what we've already accomplished. Look for big news involving the Limestones; we're going places!
In other major news, this is the last update to ever hit this Limestones website, as we are in the process of upgrading our site for visitors. Tyler has seen fit to create an entirely new Limestones website, complete with graphics, updates and much more aesthetic beauty. For all of your future Limestones needs, be sure to visit http://www.thelimestones.com
Tuesday, May 9, 2006
This year's spring concert will be Monday, May 15, at 5:00. The concert this spring will be outside, on the Buntrock Plaza (between Buntrock Commons and the Science Center). Rainsite is the Pause, which we hopefully won't have to use. It's the day before reading day, so we're hoping to see a lot of our friends and supporters there. This will be the last concert ever for Eric, Mark, Skip and Phil; come out and help us make it a memorable one!!!
Tuesday, May 9, 2006
We just finished our last off-campus concert of the year, at Benilde-St. Margaret's High School in Minnetonka (Jake's High School). Fantastic crowd!! The energy was tremendous, and I get chills thinking about how it would have been had the auditorium been filled to capacity. Thanks for making it a special one, Benilde!
In the past month, we've also sung in Jeremy's and Drew's hometowns, Worthington, MN and Appleton, WI, respectively. Both of those concerts were also a blast, and we are so grateful for the hospitality of their families. The food was wonderful, as were the accomodations, and both weekends were great experiences.
Three weeks ago was our performance at the Ted Mann Theatre on the University of Minnesota campus, opening for the Apollo Men's Chorus. It was a lot of fun to hear Apollo doing their thing; we aren't exposed to that type of choral music as often, and it's a great change of pace from our more upbeat a cappella. When we saw that they were singing "Prayer of the Children"........
We have finished our auditions and callbacks for next year, and we have our 2006-2007 Limestones!! The new members are Tyler Hayes (vocal percussion), Elwyn Fraser (baritone), Paul Olson (tenor) and Andy Shetka (tenor). The group is bringing in four extremely talented guys, and next year should be a great one to build on what we have accomplished this year. Thanks to everybody who auditioned; we heard great things from everybody, and unfortunately we had to turn down some very skilled singers, but hopefully everybody will audition again next year.
Sunday, March 5, 2006
Happy New Year! I suppose a brief update is in order. The Limestones have finished recording their latest album, the title of which has yet to be released yet, just like the CD itself. We recorded the music in just over 100 hours during the eight days of interim break, in The Terrarium, a fantastic studio up in Minneapolis. A big thanks to Luke for helping us out with the recording. It really went smoothly overall, considering we had to do the whole thing without Skip, who was on tour with the St. Olaf Choir and recorded his VP tracks in two days after returning. But now everything's being mixed and mastered, after which we'll get it all put together and make plans to release the album. Excitement builds.....
The website has undergone one of the biggest overhauls in its history, with the addition of a completely new page, this one aptly titled "Pictures." You can find the link on the top left and the bottom of every page now, and it has links to several other pages containing pictures of the group from the past two years. This page can be added onto over time, creating a visual archive of sorts for the Limestones. However, we have no professional photographers in our group, and we don't have a cameraman following the group around to every concert, so our pictures tend to be few and far between. This means we're always looking for new photos to put on the website, so if you have some images you think could be put on the website, send them our way and we'll see what we can do.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Finally I find time to update the news section of our website again. We just completed a ten day stretch during which we sang five concerts, four of them in a span of five days. Needless to say, we are exhausted and ready for our Christmas break to come next week.
Last week, on Wednesday the 7th, we performed in Rogers, MN, for the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. Jake was unable to sing, so we gladly welcomed back Andy Johnson, a former Limestone, for that evening of singing. Andy was a member of the group that graduated two years ago, so it was great to have him back with the group again for a night. Not to mention the grandeur of the facilities. It really was a pleasure to sing that evening.
Sunday morning, December 11th, Faith Lutheran Church in Waconia, MN, invited us to sing two songs during their morning service and then a full set between their services. This was a homecoming for Marc, whose family attends FLC. The sound in FLC was unbelievable, and it was definitely one of our most enjoyable locations in which we've ever sung. The congregation was so welcoming and appreciative, and we hope to return once our upcoming CD is released. Thanks especially to Marc's parents, Scott and Jan, whose hospitality was unbelievable. What a great night!
Tuesday night was our traditional home Christmas concert. The crowd was fantastic, and we enjoyed ourselves as much as we ever have in a concert. It was also possibly the best we've ever sung in the Pause, so Tuesday really was a great night for us.
A group of about fifty St. Olaf alumni held a breakfast yesterday morning, Wednesday the 14th, in the Cities. We were thrilled to sing for former St. Olaf students. It's amazing to see students get together after fifty years and still share the same bonds they created when they lived on the Hill together. We enjoyed meeting former St. Olaf students, and it was a privilege to realize that we're a part of this group of students, past and present.
This evening we finished off our first semester with a concert in Hopkins, MN. We sang at Oak Ridge Country Club for Jake Mahler's father's company, and it was fairly well received. Again, a very nice venue in which to sing, though the timing was made interesting by late finals and heavy traffic.
And now, we rest our voices for several weeks. We'll pick things back up again in January, just in time to record our upcoming album at the beginning of February. We're excited for the next couple months of singing, and we'd love to hear from you before then!
Thanks to everybody who made this semester such a success and so enjoyable for us. We've had a great first half of the year.
Merry Christmas!!
Saturday, November 2, 2005
We've got sound clips!!!! After months of sitting around trying to find time to spend on the website, the mystery of embedding sound clips has been uncovered. Visit our "repertoire" page to find a few audio clips from the group. This is one of the biggest breakthroughs in Limestones technological history, so don't miss out!
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
No real news to speak of, but we have set a date for our Christmas concert. The 2005 Limestones Christmas concert will be held Tuesday, December 13th, at 7:30 in the Lion's Pause of St. Olaf's Buntrock Commons. Once again, admission will be $5, free for students. We're working on a large new chunk of music by then, so we hope to see a big crowd again in the Pause. We're absolutely working our butts off, so the concert should be an excellent one.
Sunday, October 2, 2005
Well, this past month has turned out to be full of amazing experiences for us. Our fall concert back on September 9th went as well as we could possibly have hoped for. The crowd that came to support us was phenomenal, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves up on stage. The next night saw us traveling to Mankato, MN to sing for the 100th birthday of a house. We were well received at that party and found the evening to be fun for all.
This past weekend, September 30th, was the first Limestones reunion concert. Limestones from the past 17 years of the group came to participate, and we were lucky to meet members of the group from all the way back to the founders of the Limestones. It was such a thrill to meet the original Limestones, and we were incredibly honored to sing with them and hear stories about the Limestones of old. It's amazing to see all of these groups come back together after anywhere from two to fifteen years, and all of a sudden they're back in college again. We were blessed with an amazing experience this weekend, and our thanks goes out to those who made this reunion concert possible, particularly Jed Anderson, David Hein, Ben Lunstad and Aron Acurso, who were instrumental in getting the reunion off the ground. And the support from the student body and family and friends was beyond anything we had hoped for; thanks to all the current and former Oles for your continued support of the group. This was an excellent way to usher in the Bob Gilhoi Endowed Scholarship, dedicated to the late father of the writer of Cream of Wheat (or Malt-O-Meal, whatever it's really called). What a weekend!
Sunday, August 28, 2005
This year is looking to be a good one! Camp Limestone was a fantastic experience, preparing for the fall concert and hanging out as a group. We are incredibly grateful to Drew's family for their hospitality over the course of the week. It was great to hang out with his cousins, and his mother and grandparents were more welcoming than we could have dreamed. And the food was most excellent!
We're less than two weeks from our fall concert, and we're excited to be performing at Olaf again, in the Lion's Pause. The concert will be Friday, September 9th, at 7:30 pm, and we hope to see a huge crowd there as this group performs its first concert together.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Here it is, the end of the year. Our concert in the Pause was a huge success! We felt great about our performance, and were really happy with the crowd that turned out, especially for a Monday night. Agnes, Olaf's new female ensemble, was also amazing; we were thrilled with their performance, and look forward to working with them in the future. But now this group has reached the end of the line, and it's time for us to take our finals and part ways. This group has grown extremely close over the course of the year, and we hate to have to say goodbye to Nev, BK and Zac, but we've been blessed to have them with us this year, and the group as a whole has really been fortunate to have some fantastic opportunities and an incredible group of guys.
Looking towards the horizon, we now begin thinking about next year. We're excited already about our week of rehearsing before school starts ("Camp Limestone," to some), and our opening fall concert has been set for Friday, September 9th, in the Pause. Next year is of special interest, because some members from previous Limestones groups have taken the initiative to plan a reunion weekend, including a concert, which will be held on Saturday, September 30th, in The Lion's Pause. We're bringing back as many former Limestones as can attend, so it will be an event not to be missed!
But for now, finals beckon, with summer break just around the corner. We will soon bid St. Olaf a fond, temporary farewell, and we wish our departing members the best of luck, Nev in his continued studies at Olaf, and BK and Zac as they graduate and move on in their lives. Thanks for making this year a memorable one, guys.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Auditions for the '05-'06 Limestones are now over, and we have selected three new additions to the group for next year. The new Limestones are Skip Napier ('06, VP), Jake Mahler ('07, tenor) and Jeremy Berger ('08, bass). Congratulations to Skip, Jake and Jeremy, and a big thank you to everybody who tried out. We were caught off guard by the amount of talent in the auditions, and the decisions were much more difficult than we expected.
Please check out the frequently updated website as long as you're here. Most pages have been slightly altered, and bios and pictures are updated for the entire group. Take a quick break and spend some time getting to know us. We'd feel kind of silly making this website if nobody looked at it!
