Ritterchor 2016-17

Ritterchor 2016-17

Wartburg College’s Ritterchor is going back to its roots for its spring concert Sunday, April 2.

The men’s choir, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, will feature music from its first concert during the 4 p.m. performance in Wartburg Chapel. The concert will be live-streamed at www.wartburg.edu/knightvision.

The concert will feature three movements from Randall Thompson’s “The Testament of Freedom,” which the men sang at Carnegie Hall in February. Ritterchor alums will be invited on stage to perform Joseph Martin’s “The Awakening,” the final song of the afternoon.

Festeburg, a nine-member, student-led ensemble, will perform alone and with Ritterchor.

Lee Nelson, Wartburg’s director of choral activities, is the Ritterchor (“Knights Choir” in German) conductor. Founded in 1997, the ensemble, with more than 70 members, follows Wartburg’s rich German Lutheran tradition of choral singing and seeks to honor the Wartburg Castle, where Martin Luther once lived disguised as a knight.

The concert will be preceded by a 2 p.m. St. Elizabeth Chorale performance, also in Wartburg Chapel.