Nearly 60 Wartburg College students will sing at the famed Carnegie Hall in New York City on April 20 as part of the Masterwork Festival Chorus and Octavo Showcase.
The concert begins at 8 p.m. in Stern Auditorium on Perelman Stage. The concert will include performances by the Masterwork Festival Chorus; the New York City Chamber Orchestra; the Meno Masterwork Festival Chorus; Wartburg’s Festeburg, a student-led low-voice ensemble; and Wartburg’s Rosenchor, a student-led high-voice ensemble. Students from the Wartburg Choir, Castle Singers, St. Elizabeth Chorale, Ritterchor and Kantorei will be part of a 130-voice choir representing five states.
Lee Nelson, Wartburg’s Patricia R. Zahn Endowed Chair in Choral Conducting, will serve as a guest conductor alongside choral music legends Rene Clausen, Rosephanye Powell and Andrea Ramsey. Nelson, who participated in similar events at Carnegie in 2017 and 2020, will conduct the choir for Kyle Pederson’s “A Vision Unfolding.” Centered around social justice themes, the piece invites the choir and audience into a vision of a world rooted in compassion, freedom, inclusivity and justice. Pederson used texts by Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, Robert Bode and Shanelle Gabriel throughout the piece.
“Experiences like these are truly transformational for our students. To perform on a stage like Carnegie Hall is extraordinary in itself, but what makes it even more meaningful is the opportunity to engage deeply with music that asks them to think, feel and lead with empathy alongside the very artists who brought it to life,” Nelson said.
Pederson will accompany the choir for the performance, and Gabriel will perform the spoken word portion of the piece.
“This opportunity gives our students a rare and profound connection to the creative process. These are moments where students begin to see themselves not only as musicians, but as thoughtful contributors to a broader human conversation,” Nelson said. “For many of our students, especially those coming from smaller or rural communities, opportunities like this open doors they may have never imagined, and they carry those experiences with them for the rest of their lives.”
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