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He Comes To Us is theme of 2000 St. Olaf Christmas Festival

bj
November 17, 2000

NORTHFIELD, Minn. ? "He Comes To Us" is the theme of the renowned St. Olaf Christmas Festival concert, to be presented at St. Olaf College Thursday, Nov. 30, through Sunday, Dec. 3.

The 89th annual event, a worship experience of carols, hymns and choral and orchestral selections celebrating Christ?s birth, is performed by more than 500 student musicians. The concert will be held in Skoglund Center Auditorium on the St. Olaf campus at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 30-Dec. 2, and at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 3.

More than 12,000 people will attend the four performances of the festival. Millions more will hear it on radio or live webcast, or watch it on television.

All tickets for the concerts have been reserved, but the Dec. 3 performance may be heard live at 3:30 p.m. on the college?s public radio stations ? 89.3 WCAL in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and 88.7 KMSE in Rochester, Minn. The stations also will broadcast a 90-minute, nationally distributed program at 1 p.m. on Christmas Day and at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 6 (Epiphany). For the first time, Sunday?s concert will be "webcast" on the Internet by WCAL.

The St. Olaf Christmas Festival includes performances by five St. Olaf choral ensembles and the St. Olaf Orchestra in a service of celebration. The five choirs are the St. Olaf Choir, directed by Anton Armstrong; the St. Olaf Cantorei, directed by John Ferguson; the Chapel Choir and Viking Chorus, directed by Robert Scholz; and the Manitou Singers, directed by Sigrid Johnson. Each ensemble performs individually and together as a mass choir. The St. Olaf Orchestra, directed by Steven Amundson, performs orchestral selections and accompanies some choral works. St. Olaf College Pastor Bruce Benson serves as narrator, and Northfield artistic designer Judy Swanson creates the set and visual design.

"He Comes To Us" includes 21 choral pieces, several orchestral numbers, congregational hymns, narrations and readings. A number of works were written or arranged by St. Olaf music faculty members, including "Soli Gratia" by Amundson; "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence," "He Comes to Us," "What Child is This" and "Christus Paradox," all arranged by Ferguson; "Twelfth Night" and "Nunc dimittis" by Scholz; and the orchestral setting of the processional hymn, "Hail to the Lord?s Anointed," by Timothy Mahr, conductor of the St. Olaf Band.

A collection of carols arranged by Carolyn Jennings, associate dean for fine arts, and F. Melius Christiansen?s arrangement of "Beautiful Savior" ? the traditional closing piece of the festival and signature piece of the St. Olaf Choir ? also will be featured.

WCAL-FM?s 90-minute national production will be broadcast on hundreds of public radio and classical music stations around the country on or near Christmas Day. More than 200 other radio stations throughout the nation will broadcast a 30-minute version of the 1999 Christmas Festival, and public television stations around the country will air a one-hour PBS special, "Christmas at St. Olaf: Dawn of Redeeming Grace," during December. (Consult local listings for a date and time in each city. In Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., KTCA-TV, Channel 2, will broadcast "Christmas at St. Olaf.")

The Sunday, Dec. 3, "webcast" by WCAL will make the concert instantaneously available worldwide. The webcast also will be archived for replay through January 2001. Those who wish to listen must have Real Player or Windows Media Player software ? downloadable from the St. Olaf College website (www.stolaf.edu) before the webcast. To access the presentation, go to the website at 3:30 p.m. (central time) and click on the Christmas Festival icon in the banner at the bottom, then click on the direct link to the audio.

Visitors to St. Olaf College may take part in a number of other special events during the festival, including a traditional Scandinavian Christmas smørgasbord meal, a worship service featuring the St. Olaf Band, performances by several music ensembles, and book signings in the St. Olaf Bookstore. Visitors needn?t have tickets to concert performances to partake of the other activities.

Bon Appetit will serve traditional Norwegian meals during the Scandinavian Christmas Smørgasbord. The smørgasbord will be served in the Black and Gold Ballroom of Buntrock Commons from 4-7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Nov. 30 and Dec. 1; from 3:30-7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2; and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 3. The smørgasbord also will be served in Stav Hall of Buntrock Commons from 4:30-7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 30 through Dec. 2, and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 3.

Other St. Olaf Christmas events include:

  • Book-signing Thursday, Nov. 30, by Kathleen Stokker, author of Keeping Christmas: Yuletide Traditions in Norway and the New Land. Stokker will sign her book from 5-7 p.m. in the St. Olaf Bookstore, Buntrock Commons.

  • Book-signing Friday, Dec. 1, by Dick Jorgensen and Warren Hanson, author and illustrator of Reading With Dad. Jorgensen and Hanson will sign their book from 5-7 p.m. in the St. Olaf Bookstore, Buntrock Commons.

  • Book-signing Saturday, Dec. 2, by Sallie Ketcham, author of The Christmas Bird. Ketcham will sign from 5:30-7 p.m. in the St. Olaf Bookstore, Buntrock Commons.

  • Book-signing Saturday, Dec. 2, by St. Olaf psychology faculty members Bruce Roberts and Howard Thorsheim, authors of I Remember When. Roberts and Thorsheim will sign from 6-7 p.m. in the St. Olaf Bookstore, Buntrock Commons.

  • A service of morning worship, featuring musical contributions by the St. Olaf Band. The service, open to the public, is at 10:30 a.m. in Boe Memorial Chapel.

  • Book-signing Sunday, Dec. 3, by Janet Martin and Suzann Nelson, author and illustrator of Growing Up Lutheran: What Does This Mean? and Luther?s Small Dictionary from AAL to Zululand. They will sign from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in the St. Olaf Bookstore, Buntrock Commons.

  • The annual German Advent Service Wednesday, Dec. 6, at 10:10 a.m. in Boe Memorial Chapel. The service is open to the public.
The St. Olaf Christmas Festival is one of the oldest choral Christmas celebrations in the country. The festival was started in 1912 by F. Melius Christiansen, who established a cappella singing in American churches and colleges and founded the St. Olaf Choir and the St. Olaf Music Department.

The New York Times called the St. Olaf Christmas Festival "one of the 10 Christmas events in the United States not to be missed." The festival also was listed as one of The Times? five significant global holiday events. It has been featured in hundreds of other publications, including The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, and has been broadcast on thousands of radio and television stations.

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.