The Wartburg Choir, which sang at the White House and National Cathedral and earned rave reviews in Europe last year, will give 14 performances on its national tour.
The 85-member choir, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, will sing in Clive, Iowa City and Davenport in Iowa; Rochester, Saint Cloud, and St. Paul in Minnesota; East Milwaukee, Madison and East Richmond in Wisconsin; and Woodstock, Ill.
The complete schedule is at https://www.wartburg.edu/music/tours.html.Admission is a free-will donation.
The Wartburg Choir performs sacred music from all historical periods and styles and often premieres works of contemporary composers.
“We are excited to share the Wartburg Choir’s rich history,” conductor Dr. Lee Nelson said. “When Dr. Edwin Liemohn founded the choir, his guiding principles were to foster musical excellence, establish an unwavering work ethic and create a transformative concert experience for the performers and audience alike. Now, 74 years later, the choir remains true to its roots and works daily to expand the legacy.”
In December, the choir sang during the White House Holiday Concert Series and at the National Cathedral’s Bethlehem Prayer Service. During its 2011 European tour, one reviewer described a concert as “altogether unforgettable,” while another wrote, “The performance communicated feelings of joy and peace that defy description.”
Nelson described the forthcoming Spring Tour program as ranging from “such Wartburg Choir staples as Liemohn’s joyous setting of ‘A Mighty Fortress Is Our God’” to “Noel Ayisyen,” a piece sung in Haitian Creole and a new composition commissioned for the choir’s anniversary, “When Jordan Hushed His Waters Still,” by composer Stanford Scriven.
The choir also will sing excerpts from the Holocaust oratorio “To Be Certain of the Dawn,” by Stephen Paulus and Michael Dennis Browne, which it performed — along with other college musicians — at the recent North Central American Choral Directors Association convention in Madison, Wis., with Nelson as the featured conductor.
“This was commissioned by the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis as a gift to Temple Israel Synagogue,” Nelson said. “It commemorates the 60th anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Nazi death camps. The work encourages interfaith dialogue among all religions and empowers people of all faiths to dedicate themselves to extinguishing hatred, bigotry, racism, and religious persecution throughout the world. This work has deeply impacted each member of the choir, and we are excited to present excerpts.”
Noted tenor Dr. Brian Pfaltzgraff, Wartburg College associate professor of music, will be a soloist. Wartburg College faculty members Dr. Daniel Kaplunas, assistant professor of music (violin) and Dr. Karen Black, professor of music (organ), also will perform with the choir.