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Sing For Joy presents hymn festival tour

By Elizabeth Child
October 18, 2005

SingForJoy
John Ferguson (foreground) and Anton Armstrong teamed up at the first Sing For Joy hymn sing, at Central Lutheran Church last spring.
Hosts and special guests of Sing For Joy, a radio production of St. Olaf College heard in nearly 200 communities nationwide, were joined by fans in "Songs of Grateful Praise," a hymn festival that toured tour the Midwest Oct. 15-20. The Sing For Joy hymn festival traveled to Milwaukee; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Cleveland; Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Chicago before returning to St. Olaf.

ThompsonJanet
Thompson
"[The tour] has been incredible and is so far beyond anything we had hoped for or expected," says Janet Kringen Thompson, director of church relations for St. Olaf while she was traveling with the tour. "It has given wonderful visibility to St. Olaf and Sing For Joy.

"We've been in areas where Sing For Joy is known and loved, and in some areas where the program is not heard," she says. "We hope this will lift up our mission in an ecumenical arena." Thompson notes that she even met a group of Sing For Joy fans who had driven to Cleveland from Baltimore to participate in the festival at Severance Hall.

Benson
Benson
The hymn festival echoed the show's format, with Sing For Joy Host and St. Olaf College Pastor Bruce Benson offering scriptural readings and commentary that weave hymns together on the theme of the beauty of creation. John Ferguson, Sing For Joy music adviser and the Elliot and Klara Stockdal Johnson Professor of Organ Music at St. Olaf, led the hymns on the tour. Ferguson's work as an improviser and leader of congregational song has received national acclaim. Each year he prepares and leads numerous hymn festivals across the country.

Anton Armstrong guest conducted the St. Olaf Cantorei, one of the college's seven choirs. Established in the 1960s, the ensemble blends instrumental and choral music in a creative expression of sacred music. Armstrong is conductor of the St. Olaf Choir and a professor of choir and voice.

Established 50 years ago, Sing For Joy provides music and commentary that supports the church in evangelism and worship. Through radio and hymn festivals, the program prepares listeners for worship and reinforces their worship experience.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.