Sing For Joy Gets New Voices

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2003 issue of St. Olaf Magazine.

St. Olaf College Pastor Bruce Benson and John Ferguson, the Elliot and Klara Stockdal Johnson Professor of Organ and Church Music, have recently teamed up to present the national radio broadcast of Sing For Joy. The half-hour program features Christian choral music and can be heard on 150 stations nationwide, including Classical 89.3 in the Twin Cities on Sundays at 10 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Classical 89.3, the public radio service of St. Olaf College, produces the show, and it is sponsored by St. Olaf. Rev. Alvin Rueter, the show’s host since 1954, retired on Dec. 1, 2002, at age 81.

Benson and Ferguson already collaborate in preparing and presenting St. Olaf worship services each week. “This will give the two an opportunity to share their talents more broadly,” says Marty Pelikan ’80, Classical 89.3 director of national programming and new ventures, and executive producer of Sing For Joy.

“Sharing the enduring classics of Christian music is important,” says Benson. “Even if listeners are not religious, I can’t help but think that the radiant beauty of the music might cause them to wonder, if even for a moment, what inspires such splendid expression.”

Classical 89.3 has broadcast Sing For Joy under various names for more than four decades. In 1993, St. Olaf College acquired the program from Rueter, the show’s founder, and kept him as host.

St. Olaf was committed to keeping the program on the air after Rueter’s retirement. “There’s a great affinity between the mission of St. Olaf and the mission of Sing For Joy,” Pelikan says. “Both are rooted in the Christian Gospel and foster the development of the spirit. It’s a harmonious match.”

Today, Ferguson oversees music selection for the program,
and Benson is the writer and on-air host. Ferguson is recognized internationally for producing hymn festivals for church congre-gations and is also cantor for the St. Olaf student congregation.

Jeffrey O’Donnell ’02 recently began working behind the scenes of Sing For Joy, helping make music selections and cataloging them on a computer database. O’Donnell, who majored in church music, served as an audio engineer at Classical 89.3 as a student.

Sing For Joy is made up principally of choral works, but the program’s hallmark is the way in which it selects and presents the work. The pieces are based on the scriptural lessons of the ecumenical Common Lectionary. The Lectionary, which has been adopted by an increasing circle of church bodies over recent decades, is a three-year cycle of lessons upon which most Christian churches base their worship services.

Although the Sing For Joy format remains largely unchanged, Ferguson is reaching far and wide to introduce choral works that will speak to all Christians. He will seek out recordings by lesser-known American and non-Western choirs. As he says, “All God’s children have a place in the choir.”

— Elizabeth Child