Although the 2012-13 concert season is over, we are busy ... busy planning the upcoming release of our new CD, "Sheer Grace!" Included on the recording are works by Ola Gjeilo (pictured left), Stephen Paulus, Sergei Rachmaninoff and more, plus the 2013 Raabe prize-winning composition, "Nada Te Turbe," by Jake Runestad.
Here are the reflections spoken by Susan Palo Cherwien during the National Lutheran Choir's hymn festival on Friday and Sunday, May 3 and 5. Some variant of these reflections will also be part of the hymn festivals performed at Lutheran Summer Music (on Saturday, June 29 @ 7:30pm) and Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (on Monday, July 1 @ 7pm).
Ann Lamott, a liberal born-again Christian, has an incredible knack for capturing the feeling you get when music connects you with the people around you. Listen to this memorable story. A National Lutheran Choir hymn festival is a little like this - you come to hear a "concert" and then, suddenly and unexpectedly, you're singing out loud in front of strangers. You might know the melody but sometimes you are completely lost and, to yourself, you sound like someone in pain, moaning an approximation of a song. And then you hear it. You hear yourself as part of the audience.
The National Lutheran Choir is now interviewing potential interns for Summer 2013 and for the 2013-14 Season. There are opportunities in Arts Marketing and Arts Development available.
For those who listened to the National Lutheran Choir's performance of the Mass in b minor on MPR (via radio or online), here is Rob Hubbard's review of that performance as it appeared in the St Paul Pioneer Press. Many of you might not have access to the print version of the paper -- here it is for you to read online.
What a wonderful evening of Bach @ Central Lutheran Church. Thank you to everyone at Central for the incredible partnership with you: volunteers, staff members (Erica, Joe) and pastoral staff (Foy, Mark). You folks set a very high standard of excellence for the choir.
Thank you to our soloists: Susan Druck, Susan Palo Cherwien, Paul Max Tipton and Matthew Anderson.
Thanks, not least of all, to all the volunteers from Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
The tenors' section leader, Bob Quast, distributed a note to all of the tenors on the eve of the performance of Bach's Mass in b minor (March 21, 2013) to encourage them to open their eyes and ears and their hearts. A soft-spoken leader, Bob packs a punch whenever he has something to say. These words moved us to tears because his "favorite moments" were not about the tenor part but about everyone else. Generous, gracious, great: these are the words that describe the members of our National Lutheran Choir.
Although the 2012-13 concert season is over, we are busy ... busy planning the upcoming release of our new CD, "Sheer Grace!" Included on the recording are works by Ola Gjeilo (pictured left), Stephen Paulus, Sergei Rachmaninoff and more, plus the 2013 Raabe prize-winning composition, "Nada Te Turbe," by Jake Runestad.
