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St. Olaf Band to perform 27th annual Cathedral Concert April 22

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April 12, 2001

NORTHFIELD, Minn. ? The St. Olaf Band, under the direction of guest conductor Kenneth G. Bloomquist, will present its 27th annual Cathedral Concert Sunday, April 22, in Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.

The concert will begin at 3:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Central Lutheran Church is at 333 South 12th St., Minneapolis.

The band will perform "Abram?s Pursuit" and "Hymnsong of Philip Bliss" by David Holsinger, "For the Unfortunate" and "Mass" from La Fiesta Mexicana by H. Owen Reed, "Amazing Grace" by John Newton, "God of Our Fathers" by George Warren, "Praise Jerusalem" by Alfred Reed and "Toccato, Op. 59," No. 5, by Max Reger, featuring St. Olaf music faculty member John Ferguson on organ.

Bloomquist will direct the band in the absence of regular conductor Timothy Mahr, who is on sabbatical leave.

Bloomquist is a professor emeritus at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich. He was Michigan State University?s director of bands for 14 years and director of the School of Music for 10 years until he retired in 1994. He is a past president of the American Bandmasters Association and the National Band Association, and serves as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator at events throughout the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia and Mexico.

The St. Olaf Band Cathedral Concert was first presented in Central Lutheran Church in 1975. It was inspired by a performance of the band in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral ? destroyed by Germans in World War II ? during the band?s tour to England in the summer of 1974. Last summer the band returned to Britain and Ireland, again performing at Coventry Cathedral.

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The St. Olaf Band is the oldest music organization at St. Olaf College. From its earliest days it has toured nationally and internationally, and in 1906 became the first American collegiate band to make a European concert tour, with a four-week, 30-concert tour to Norway. Since then it has toured several times in Norway, Great Britain and Europe, as well as throughout the United States.

In 1978, 1980 and 1984 the band conducted month-long study programs in England, highlighted by joint concerts with the Royal Military School of Music-Kneller Hall Fanfare Trumpets. The St. Olaf Band is the only American college or university band ever to play in concert with the Kneller musicians, who perform for British royalty on all state occasions. In 1991 the St. Olaf Band celebrated its centennial by again touring the British Isles.

In 1995 the band performed for King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway when the royal couple visited St. Olaf College, and performed with His Majesty?s King?s Band. In 1996 the band traveled to Norway for an 18-day tour, and last spring returned to England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland and for a tour which included joint performances with the Wind Ensemble of the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Band of Her Majesty?s Grenadier Guards.

St. Olaf College prepares students to become responsible citizens of the world, fostering development of mind, body and spirit. A four-year, coeducational liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), St. Olaf has a student enrollment of 2,950 and a full-time faculty complement of approximately 300. It is one of Money Guide?s top 100 "elite values in college education today," and it leads the nation?s colleges in percentage of students who study abroad.

Contact Michael Cooper at 507-786-3315 or cooperm@stolaf.edu.