“Todd’s Song” by Emerson Eads and Todd Mathistad
We’re delighted to share our 50th season with you, Minot! As we begin this 50th season, we are aware that in many ways our lives have changed. The distance between us has been important for curbing a world-wide pandemic, but in some ways the six feet has become a gulf that is hard to bridge. Our music in this 50th Anniversary Season focuses on the distance between us and the space that gives way to the warmth of connection and song.
Todd’s Song
Emerson Eads
Todd Mathistad
Tim Mathistad, tenor
Todd Mathistad’s poetry yearns for a tme when all are welcome to have a seat at the table– the table emerges as the metaphor of what connects us at a time when polarization plagues us. In the poetry, Mathistad memorializes those who settled this prairie land with that pioneering spirit, strength of will, and love as endless as the plain. Interpolated within the song is a quotation from the old American hymn Come and Dine by Charles B. Widmeyer, which was sung around the table as a blessing. This arrangement for choir, strings, and piano, is a world premiere.
Brink of Eternity from The Distance Between Us ............................ Emerson Eads
Dr. Jason Thoms, baritone
The Distance Between Us is part of a larger choral work that is still in its nascent stages. I’ve been wanting to write a cantata that celebrates our connection with each other. After a pandemic and keeping our distance from each other, we’ve gotten better at isolation, and building barriers. These helped us survive, but now these skills inhibit our connection. I wanted to set music that reminds us of the eternity that we share with our friends, our family, and even those who we think wish us harm.
of Eternity by Bengali poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore
In desperate hope I go and search for her in all the corners of my room; I find her not. My house is small and what once has gone from it can never be regained. But infinite is thy mansion, my lord, and seeking her I have to come to thy door. I stand under the golden canopy of thine evening sky and I lift my eager eyes to thy face. I have come to the brink of eternity from which nothing can vanish— no hope, no happiness, no vision of a face seen through tears. Oh, dip my emptied life into that ocean, plunge it into the deepest fullness. Let me for once feel that lost sweet touch in the allness of the universe.
Mass
It is that time of year when we yearn for spring. The light returns slowly, and with it, the warmth that beckons us to open our hearts to the sun and to one another. Perhaps no setting of the Catholic Mass is better suited to express this annual journey than Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass, and we’re delighted to share it with you.
Unlike most settings of the mass, Gjeilo (pronounced Yay-lo) replaces the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Agnus Dei with programmatic English titles: The Spheres, Sunrise, The City, Identity. The result is a work which celebrates the journey from heaven to earth—space-filled and ethereal—to something more grounded … winter to spring.
1. The Spheres
2. Sunrise
3. The City
4. Identity
O Jesu Christ, mein’s Leben’s Licht, Funeral Motet, BWV 118 ..............
This year the Minot Chamber Chorale has experienced the loss of longtime members, Tom Widdel and Audrey Hugelen. In their memory, we offer J.S. Bach’s motet Lord Jesus Christ, my Life, my Light. It was written for the outdoor funeral procession of his friend, the Governor of Leipzig, who died just 10 years prior to Bach’s own death. This cantata, or sacred motet, was scored for choir and brass as it was intended for an outdoor processional. Because of its popularity, Bach also scored it for strings, brass, and organ, and that is the version you will hear today. The sopranos carry the hymn tune serenely above the harmonic counterpoint of the choir and orchestra. As the text becomes dark on the last line, Bach takes the well-known chromatic descent of a fourth, which to audiences in the Baroque Era signified death and lament, and he inverts it. This ascending chromatic fourth changes everything for that final line. It is Bach reminding the listener of the first two lines of the hymn. We sing this for our friends and family who have experienced loss this year.
The evocative text is from a hymn written in 1610 by Martin Behm:
O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht, Mein Hort, mein Trost, mein Zuversicht. Auf Erden bin ich nur ein Gast, Und drückt mich sehr der Sünden Last.
O Jesus Christ, light of my life, my refuge, my comfort, my reassurance, on earth I am only a guest And the burden of sin presses down heavily upon me.
Dr. Emerson Eads currently serves as Director of Choral Activities at Minot State University. As a composer and conductor, Emerson has devoted himself to music of social concern. His Mass for the Oppressed, a setting of the Ordinary of the Mass featuring textual interpolations by his brother Evan Eads and a Credo adapted from the diary of Pope Francis, reflects on some of the most poignant social issues of our time. The Mass was written to muster public support for the Fairbanks Four, Native Alaskans from the composer’s hometown who were wrongfully imprisoned for eighteen years.
Eads’ cantata “…from which your laughter rises” was written for the mothers of the Fairbanks Four. It was conducted to acclaim, paired in a concert featuring Haydn’s Stabat Mater. His newest opera, The Princess Sophia, is about the sinking of the SS Princess Sophia. It was premiered in Juneau, Alaska, on October 25, 2018 — the disaster’s centennial — to rave review in Opera Magazine. His most recent large-scale project, A Prairie Cantata, recovers lyrics from North Dakota poet Huldah Lucile Winsted and was premiered with the Minot State University Choir.
Dr. Eads studied choral conducting with Carmen-Helena Tellez at the University of Notre Dame, working with eminent choral conductors including Joseph Flummerfelt, Stephen Cleobury, Anne Howard Jones, and Peter Phillips. Prior to his graduate work, he studied composition with Alaskan composer John Luther Adams.
Tim Mathistad is a native of Watford City, ND. Tim has been blessed to have a nearly 50-year musical and theatrical career that has included performances in Minneapolis, Denver, Louisville, Chicago, and Phoenix. He received a Bachelor of Music Performance degree from Wartburg College in 1977 and went on to serve two summer repertory seasons as a Graduate Assistant at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He met and married his wife, Dair, in Louisville, KY in 1983 and later accepted a Musical Director position for a children’s theatre company that lasted for 23 years. Tim still performs and is honored along with his brother Todd and sisters Judy and Kristie to be able to once again be a part of this family table grace that honors our parents. Many thanks to Emerson Eads and Todd for their collaboration, and as always, Tim dedicates his performance to Dair and their two adult children, Joe and Molly.
Dr. Jason Thoms is the Director of Choral Activities at Bismarck State College and the Founder and Artistic Director of Dakota Pro Musica. Dr. Thoms formerly was the Director of Choral Activities at Concordia College New York where his choirs tour domestically and internationally. He has directed concerts in 49 states, Canada, Germany, and Italy over the past 25 years. Dr. Thoms has a secondary career as a professional bass/baritone soloist and chorister, and is especially in demand across the U.S. as an “octavist” in Russian and American Christian Orthodox music. He was a chorister for the 2020 Grammy-nominated recording of Alexander Kastalsky’s Requiem, and a featured soloist in the 2021 Grammy-nominated recording of Benedict Sheehan’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Jason has sung with many professional choirs across the U.S. including Conspirare, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Clarion, The Saint Tikhon Choir, Spire, South Dakota Chorale, Houston Chamber Choir, and the Bard Festival Singers.
Minot Chamber Chorale Scholar Residency Program Recipients: Christina Larsen Trapper Simmers
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Emerson Eads, artistic director
Briana Schwan, piano
Sopranos
Brittany Armstrong
Sarah Campbell
Martha Fix
Lauren Kinker
Christina Larsen
Ashley Mogard
Stephanie Ness
Monica Padgett
Terrie Schoch
Colleen Schwan
Carolyn Seehafer
Maddy Sem
Katie Sundbakken
Jacqué Younger
Altos
Bethany Andreasen
Jennifer Brenna
Pamela Hopkins
Bethany Jensen
Janet Mathistad
Ashley Nilsen
Cheryl Nilsen
Lana Simons
Jeannie Sovak
Heidi Super
Violin I
Emily Knutson
Rachel Dokter
Trish Hinkel
Taj Baang
Violin II
Ivana Cole
Mya Temanson
Zoefia Mojica
Tenors
Greg Carpenter
Chad Parton
Norman Paskowsky
Daniel Ringrose
Trapper Simmers
John Young
Basses
Erik Anderson
Nathan Cagle
Blake Caldwell
Ben Eder
Eric Furuseth
G. Alex Garver
Stanley Hirst
Daniel Hohman
Rich Jensen
Todd Mathistad
Joe Skurzewski
Ken Starr
Joe Super
Jess Thomas
Viola
John Jermiason
Abby Walker Gaskill
Gabe Brooks
Cello
Abbie Eads
Natalie Couture
Bass
Rachel Maxfield
Trumpet I
Pat Schwan
Trumpet II
Emily Legering
Organ
Kari Files
The Minot Chamber Chorale thanks its benefactors and invites you to join the ranks!
Maestoso Level
$200 & up
Emerson & Abbie Eads
Laurel Livingston
John & Cheryl Nilsen
Joann Samuelson
Ken & Sandy Starr
Anonymous donor
Marcato
$100 – $199
CAP Consulting
Bob & Brenda Demke
Shanette Haarsager
Daniel & Jerlyn Langemo
Frank & Marjorie MacPherson
Mary Muhlbradt
Dan Ringrose
Lana Simons
Shawneen Voiles
Les & Jacqué Younger
Espressivo
$50 – $99
Becky Esades
Michele Herrington
The Minot Chamber Chorale relies on its patrons to exist. Without the generosity of the Minot Community and surrounding areas, we wouldn’t be a choir! Our concerts, aside from the Renaissance Christmas Feast, are always free and open to the public.
The donations we receive at our concerts and from our generous donors usually goes toward the purchase of new music for the chorale. In the past, we have also used those funds to invest in new choir risers, make new Renaissance costumes, and repair the Renaissance set.
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