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Chapel Choir, Viking Chorus to perform at annual convention of choir directors

kla
November 15, 2000

NORTHFIELD, Minn. ? Two St. Olaf College musical ensembles will perform Saturday, Nov. 18, in St. Cloud, Minn., at the invitation of the American Choral Directors Association.

The St. Olaf Chapel Choir and the Viking Chorus each will present 25 minutes of music during a concert that begins at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Ritsche Auditorium of St. Cloud State University. At 5 p.m. the Chapel Choir will participate in an evening worship service at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, St. Cloud.

Both events are open to the public; admission will be charged at the 1:30 p.m. concert.

The Viking Chorus and the Chapel Choir will perform motets and anthems beginning with the Renaissance through the 20th century, according to the choirs? director and St. Olaf College music faculty member Robert Scholz.

The Viking Chorus will sing "If Ye Love Me" by Thomas Tallis, "Litany to the Holy Spirit" by Peter Hurford, "A Stable-Lamp is Lighted" by David Conte, "Listen to the Sounds in Heaven" arranged by John C. Phillips, "Loch Lomond" arranged by Michael Hanawalt, "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" arranged by Fenno Heath, and "Praise Him!" by Michael Cox.

The Chapel Choir will perform "Moses? Song (from Israel in Egypt)" by George F. Handel, "But I Am Afflicted (Ich aber bin elend), Op. 110, No. 1" by Johannes Brahms, "I Will Sing Unto the Lord" by Imant Raminsh, "Twelfth Night" by Robert Scholz, and "Lux Aeterna" by Morten Lauridsen. Together the Viking Chorus and Chapel Choir will sing "O Gladsome Light" by Alexandre Gretchaninoff.

The choirs were selected by judges who conducted "blind" auditions of audio tapes submitted by choirs from throughout Minnesota. St. Olaf College choirs make up two of the five college choirs chosen to perform at the choral directors? convention.

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"It?s unusual that two of my choirs made it," Scholz said. The Viking Chorus is a first-year male choir. The Chapel Choir is comprised of first-year, sophomore, junior and senior male and female students.

Scholz, a St. Olaf College graduate, holds a master ?s degree in musicology and a doctorate in choral conducting from the University of Illinois. Before joining the St. Olaf faculty in 1968, he taught at Campbell College in North Carolina, directed the Chamber Choir at the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana), and was director of music at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Raleigh, N.C.

In addition to conducting the Chapel Choir and Viking Chorus, he teaches voice, choral conducting and choral literature. He also has directed a number of spring oratorio concerts with the St. Olaf College Orchestra and Chapel Choir. He is a choral clinician, a composer and arranger, director of the Northfield Chorale, and a member of the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Composers Forum. In 1995 Scholz received the F. Melius Christiansen award for outstanding contributions to choral music from the ACDA of Minnesota.

The Viking Chorus is an ensemble of 60 first-year men who sing the highest quality literature written for men?s voices. They perform music which includes motets, cantata movements and anthems, as well as contemporary choral pieces, spirituals, folk songs and other music traditionally associated with men?s singing groups.

The Viking Chorus was founded in 1935 when a number of students gathered together informally under student direction. In later years they began to tour in the Midwest, traveling to communities in Iowa, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota. The Chorus participates in many campus events, including the annual Christmas Festival, Family Day and chapel services.

Viking Chorus membership includes music majors as well as those studying a variety of courses in other majors.

The Chapel Choir provides music for Sunday services and occasional chapel services on the St. Olaf campus. It prepares an oratorio, Passion, mass or other large work for presentation every spring with the St. Olaf Orchestra, and performs other pieces for choir and orchestra at a fall Vespers with the St. Olaf Chamber Orchestra. Past performances have included the Bach Passions, Mozart?s Grand Mass, Mendelssohn?s Elijah, Brahms? German Requiem, and Britten?s War Requiem. The Chapel Choir also appears in the annual St. Olaf Christmas Festival and sings off-campus on special occasions.

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The 120-voice choir includes both music majors and other students who participate as part of their liberal arts experience. Performing anthems and other liturgical works in many styles from various historical periods and traditions exposes choir members to a rich musical heritage within the context of the worship service.

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 of approximately 256. It is one of Money Guide?s top 100 "elite values in college education today," and it leads the nation?s colleges in number of students who study abroad.

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