The Wartburg Choir will perform its home concert Sunday, April 9, in the Wartburg Chapel.

The 4 p.m. concert will feature music from the choral ensemble’s upcoming international tour to Germany, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland. Free-will offerings will be accepted to support students participating in the tour. The concert will be live-streamed at www.wartburg.edu/knightvision.

The choir will premiere a new piece, “I Still Possess,” by Connor Koppin, a 2013 Wartburg graduate.

The concert will open with “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress is Our God),” one of the best-known hymns penned by Martin Luther. The song is sometimes called the “Battle Hymn of the Reformation,” which celebrates its 500th anniversary this year. The Wartburg Choir will honor Luther and celebrate the Reformation with a concert at the Wartburg Castle in Germany on May 5.

“We are excited to share this eclectic concert with the Cedar Valley,” said Lee Nelson, Wartburg Choir director and the Patricia R. Zahn Endowed Chair in Choral Conducting. “The concert is based on themes found in Psalm 46, the Psalm that Martin Luther utilized as the basis for “Ein feste Burg.”

The concert also will feature the music they performed at the 2017 National ACDA convention.

“This was the most important musical achievement in my career,” Nelson said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the Wartburg Choir for being chosen. Singing at this convention is the highest honor a choir can receive in the nation.”

The internationally acclaimed Wartburg Choir performs sacred music from all historical periods and styles and often features premiere works of contemporary composers, including Morten Lauridsen, Ola Gjeilo, Stacey V. Gibbs and Koppin. Choir members are chosen by audition and represent most academic disciplines on campus. The choir makes annual concert tours throughout the United States and travels abroad every three years during the college’s one-month May Term.