Wartburg Choir 75th Anniversary Tour Program

75

th

Anniversary Tour 1937

The

2012

artburg Choir

Front Cover: 1959 Wartburg Choir performs at the Roskilde Cathedral in Roskilde, Denmark Inside Cover: 2011 Wartburg Choir rehearses at the Roskilde Cathedral

Telling our Story The Wartburg Choir’s 75th anniversary occurs during a year when “Telling Our Story” is the campus-wide theme at Wartburg College. We are excited to share the Wartburg Choir’s story with each of you today as we celebrate the group’s rich history. When Dr. Edwin Liemohn founded the Wartburg Choir, his guiding principles were to foster musical excellence, establish an unwavering work ethic, and create transformative concert experiences for performers and audience members alike. Now, 74 years later, the choir remains true to its roots and works daily to expand upon this legacy.

My goal in choosing this year’s tour repertoire was twofold: (1) I wanted to highlight some of the most beloved Wartburg Choir pieces to help “tell our story.” (2) I wanted to continue exposing students to a vast array of music that not only challenges their musical skills but also makes them examine themselves, their lives, and the world in which they live.

The first goal is easily spotted within the first and fifth sets of music, where you will find such Wartburg Choir staples as Liemohn’s joyous setting of A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, Fritschel’s reverent Qui Sedes and In Thy Hand, as well as beloved traditional songs, including Elijah Rock, Hark I Hear the Harps Eternal, and Give Me Jesus.

The second goal is evident in the diverse repertoire of the second, third, and fourth sets.

You will hear a piece that incorporates overtone singing, a piece sung in Haitian Creole, and a world premiere composition commissioned in celebration of the choir’s anniversary.

Excerpts from To Be Certain of the Dawn by Stephen Paulus and Michael Dennis Browne represent one of the choir’s most poignant musical experiences of the year. This Holocaust oratorio, commissioned in 2005 by the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis, was a gift to Temple Israel Synagogue. It commemorates the 60th anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Nazi death camps and the 40th anniversary of the Vatican document "Nostra Aetate." The project evolved over four years—beginning with the idea of Fr. Michael O’Connell, then rector of the Basilica. His desire was to create a work that encourages interfaith dialogue and empowers all people to dedicate themselves to extinguishing hatred, bigotry, racism, and religious persecution throughout the world. This work has deeply impacted each member of the choir, and we are excited to present excerpts for you today.

All Wartburg Choir alumni can tell stories of how their choir experience shaped and affected their lives. Their experiences create a rich testimony of the choir’s ongoing purpose and passion over the past 75 years. It is a story of dedicated faith and learning, told by scores of choir members who have truly learned what it means to be a servant leader. We are excited to share our story with you today.

Soli Deo Gloria – To God alone the glory.

Dr. Lee Nelson 1

the

artburg

C hoir at 75

The year 2012 marks the 75th year since the founding of The Wartburg Choir under Dr. Edwin Liemohn. Selecting 1937, the year of Liemohn’s arrival at Wartburg College, as the founding year is somewhat arbitrary.

There have always been music organizations, including choral groups, at Wartburg College and its predecessors. George Grossmann, who founded Wartburg, was a musician. As early as the 1920s there was an a cappella touring choir at Waverly. But before 1937, choirs at Wartburg College were modest singing groups. Their tour concerts rarely extended much beyond the near neighborhood. Hence, we begin the history of “The Wartburg Choir” with Liemohn.

There were, in the midst of scores of German Lutheran congregations planted by the German Lutheran Iowa Synod in a wide swath between Ohio and Colorado, a collection of schools intended for the training of pastors and parish schoolteachers. By 1935, in the depths of the Great American Depression, only two continued — Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, and Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque.

Because Wartburg College’s very survival was in question for the first decade after its consolidation in Waverly, it seems a small miracle that a credible mixed-voice a cappella choir could emerge and thrive in its midst. It was from extremely inauspicious beginnings that what became today’s Wartburg College Choir, highly acclaimed and widely traveled, had its beginning.

Due to the fact that the college, in 1935, had but meager financial resources, faculty members were expected to multi-task. The music instructor given the assignment of organizing and directing a mixed a cappella choir, Dr. Ernst Heist, was less than enthusiastic about the assignment.

He more preferred to teach piano. That may explain why, during his second and final season as choir director, Heist abandoned the ensemble in mid-tour, handed the baton to a student director, and returned to Waverly to attend to what he thought was more important business.

Concerned for the choir’s future, the college administration lured to campus a promising young musician, Dr. Edwin Liemohn. With solid music credentials — he secured degrees from the McPhail School of Music and the Eastman School of Music, among others — Liemohn infused in the fledgling a cappella group a love of Scandinavian choral literature. Of Norwegian Lutheran parentage, he brought to the ensemble, which he renamed “The Wartburg Choir” in 1937, an appreciation for the compositions of his mentor, St. Olaf Choir founder and director F. Melius Christenson.

Keenly aware of Wartburg’s German Lutheran heritage, Liemohn created his own arrangement of Martin Luther’s signature Reformation hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. After 75 seasons, the Wartburg Choir continues to sing

this powerful and stirring composition at concerts.

One-time choir president, the Rev. Edgar Zelle, remembers the formative period of the organization. “It is hard to imagine the early years. [As late as] 1945, there were fewer than 200 students at Wartburg College. From this limited pool of students, Dr. Liemohn developed an outstanding choir.”

Liemohn recruited around 60 singers annually. This means that nearly onethird of the student body made up the Wartburg Choir in its first years. How was it possible? Another choir alumnus, and later director, Dr. James Fritschel, offers an answer. “High school students in the upper Midwest tended to have

Left: The 1938-39 Wartburg Choir performs at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Waverly.

Right: Dr. Edwin Liemohn directed the Wartburg Choir from 1937 to 1968.

3

good grounding in music. Many were from German Lutheran congregations, where singing was important. When they came to a school like Wartburg, they had the discipline, and the readiness, to participate in a choir singing serious sacred music.”

Liemohn quickly experienced the same dilemma faced by the director of any Lutheran college or university choir.

There were too many candidates for too few openings. Even in the late 1930s, the college newspaper, The Trumpet, reports there were sometimes 150 applicants for 60 places in the choir. For Liemohn and the ensemble it was a good problem, because it guaranteed that the very best singers would make the final cut.

Following the pattern begun by Heist, Liemohn took his singers on annual tours. These annual trips resulted in concerts in Lutheran venues throughout the Midwest. These events offered unmatched opportunities for the choir to give the college a favorable public face in congregations whose members supported Wartburg. It is impossible to determine how many high school students during the past 75 years later enrolled at the college because they heard a tour concert and fell in love with the choir and, by extension, the college.

Right: Dr. Edwin Liemohn rehearses the Wartburg Choir in the early 1960s.

As early as 1946 tour concerts were garnering rave reviews. Said the music critic for the Duluth, Minnesota, NewsTribune, “[This choir demonstrates] freshness and fluency of singing, skill in dynamics, polyphonic dexterity, rhythmic precision [and] perfect unanimity in every attack and turn of phrase.”

Liemohn found other ways to give the choir a public face. Already in the 1940s there were radio broadcasts, originating from the college campus, featuring the choir — along with other music groups and, on occasion, speakers and lectures.

During the choir’s 1938 tour, a trip that took the choir through Illinois, the singers were featured for an hour on radio station WLS in Chicago. Broadcast after dark, the clear-channel 50,000-watt signal carried the program all over the country.

Letters flowed in, all of which were forwarded to Liemohn. They praised the sound of the choir. Some former choir members who heard the broadcast were downright giddy with excitement after having heard the musicians from their alma mater on a major radio outlet.

The choir was earning a growing reputation through its annual tours. In the midst of growing acclaim, there were the inevitable unexpected challenges. During a journey that took the singers across the

Canadian prairies, one of the two tour buses broke down on the highway. Only half the singers arrived in time for the concert.

Dr. Liemohn’s daughter, Muriel, was one of the vocalists who made it to the intended destination. She said, “Fortunately, there was a good mix of all four parts on that single bus. So, even though my father was left behind, we were able to put on a credible concert, under the direction of a student conductor.

The audience seemed to love what they heard, even though we were only at half strength.”

Liemohn clearly loved touring stateside.

But he soon set his sights on wider vistas.

He wanted to take the choir across the Atlantic. After a decade of planning, he got his opportunity.

In late spring of 1959, the choir traveled to Europe and sang concerts in a half-dozen countries. Unlike later overseas trips, planned and executed by a tour manager, Liemohn made all the contacts for this first European adventure himself. The tour was a triumph for the singers and their director. Newspaper reviews in Germany, Denmark, Holland, and England offered effusive reviews.

Among other things, the Europeans seemed surprised and delighted to

Above: Dr. James Fritschel rehearses with two of his vocalists.

Below Left: Fritschel directed the choir from 1968 to 1984.

experience a concert in which the singers had memorized all the music.

One of the pieces Liemohn’s vocalists offered, a motet by Heinrich Schütz, was written for two choirs, the second echoing the first. In Denmark’s Roskilde Cathedral, the echo choir sang from the balcony. The local newspaper’s music critic, who knew the building’s tricky acoustics, enthused that what he considered to have been a risky undertaking turned out to be an unqualified success. Such an effort was, he suggested, “only [to] be carried out by a choir of such high standard as the Wartburg Choir.”

The reviewer in Fürth, Germany, was equally taken with the singers. “If the

concert had not been given in a church but in a concert hall, and if the numbers had not been exclusively sacred, the conductor and the choir would have been rewarded with a hurricane of applause.”

Responses such as these, from audiences used to hearing and critiquing high-quality sacred music, constituted high praise indeed.

Six years later the choir returned to Europe. By this time, one of Liemohn’s star pupils and former Wartburg Choir member, James Fritschel, had graduated, pursued advanced study in music, and returned to join the music faculty. Liemohn structured the repertoire for the second overseas tour in an unconventional fashion, a clear indication that the director was grooming his successor. There were three sets in the performance, with two intermissions.

Liemohn conducted the first group, Fritschel the second section, and Liemohn the final portion.

European audiences found the twoconductor approach interesting, and

critics seemed to like the innovation.

The reviewer for the Graz, Austria, Kleine Zeitung wrote, “The three-part program, the middle section directed by Dr. James Fritschel, reached a high-point in performance.” There was another curiosity that seemed to mesmerize music critics and concertgoers. Liemohn had worked out a complicated system for moving his singers, between numbers, so that entire sections of the choir could be relocated within seconds, and then the ranks closed seamlessly. Some choir members, somewhat whimsically, took to calling this device “the Liemohn shift.”

At the close of the 1968 academic year, Edwin Liemohn conducted his final concert — number 666! He then handed the baton off to Fritschel and retired, moving to another Lutheran college town, Northfield, Minnesota. For the choir it was the end of a long and, in many ways, glorious chapter.

Fritschel put his own stamp on the choir. The familiar black and white silk 5

Right: 1993 Wartburg Choir performs at Carnegie Hall.

Below: 1969-70 Wartburg Choir gathers for a photo before leaving on their European tour.

choir robes from the Liemohn era were retired in 1971. The singers began appearing at concerts wearing formal gowns and tuxedos.

In 1963 the college’s music department began hosting Meistersinger Festivals, drawing choristers from area high schools to campus. It gave the new director an opportunity to showcase the choir. At such events the choir performed with the New York Pro Musica and Gregg Smith Singers, among others.

The singers sponsored a Christmas Carol Buffet as an “appetizer” for the annual Christmas with Wartburg concert, which followed. On several occasions the choir hosted a Kaffee Klatsch

when the event added concerts in nearby Cedar Falls and the state’s capital, Des Moines. In recent years, the annual celebration of Advent and Christmas, usually presented before sellout audiences, has been broadcast statewide over Iowa Public Television and other public television stations.

When Fritschel’s singers toured Europe in 1974, a new activity — one destined to become an overseas tour tradition — was included. The choir visited the college’s namesake, Wartburg Castle. Because the Iron Curtain was still in place, there was no vocalizing inside the structure, but graduating seniors touring with the choir received their diplomas in the shadow of the famous fortress.

Perhaps the pinnacle of the choir’s success

Konzert at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Waverly, during which the singers sat among the diners, serenading them at their tables.

The college had begun an annual Christmas concert decades earlier.

By the Fritschel years, the Wartburg Choir was an integral part of Christmas at Wartburg.

The festival was renamed Christmas with Wartburg

during the Fritschel years consisted of two visits to Cork, Ireland. The singers were invited to sing at the International Choral and Folk Dance Festival.

They placed fourth in 1976, while a chamber choir consisting of some of their members ranked second in the Madrigal competition that year. It was the first time an American choir had placed in the competition at Cork.

Things took a spectacular turn four years later.

Returning to Ireland in 1980, the chamber choir again took second prize, while the Wartburg Choir became the first American choral group to win first-place recognition among mixed choirs of 30 voices or more. Fritschel proudly displayed the silver trophy when stepping off the bus as the

choir returned to Waverly. With the trophy came a cash prize of 200 Irish pounds (around $450). As late as the year 2000, no other North American choir had won a first prize at Cork.

During the Fritschel years, an annual choir retreat was instituted. The first was held at the Lutheran church camp, EWALU, near Strawberry Point, Iowa. It gave members of the choir an opportunity to bond with one another, and for newcomers to learn and embrace — and for returning singers to reaffirm — choir traditions.

A prolific composer, Fritschel left a lasting mark on choir and college traditions with a disarmingly simple composition. Taking the text of a four-line poem, penned years earlier by college English professor (and American Lutheran Church poet laureate) Gustav J. Neumann, the composer set words to music of his own creation. For years, In Thy Hand was offered as a benediction at Homecoming and Baccalaureate services.

One of the vocalists in the Wartburg Choir during the Fritschel years was a music major from Elmore, Minnesota. Paul Torkelson graduated from Wartburg, later earned a doctorate, and returned to campus in 1984 to succeed Fritschel.

Until his retirement, Fritschel directed the touring choir at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.

Above: Dr. Paul Torkelson directed the Warburg Choir from 1984 to 2009.

Below: In 1995 the Warburg Choir made its first appearance in the Great Hall of the Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, Germany.

The choir is the only American group with a standing invitation to perform at the castle.

Under Torkelson the Wartburg Choir achieved even greater stature. As part of the college’s long-running, highly acclaimed Artist Series, the singers performed the ambitious and difficult Mass in B Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach.

In 1994 the college dedicated a worship center, Wartburg Chapel. Acoustically superior to cavernous Neumann Auditorium, it quickly became the Wartburg Choir’s venue for home concerts. But the new chapel could accommodate far fewer people than Neumann Auditorium, where the choir had previously sung.

Some complained that the 500-seat facility was too small for concerts by a singing group with the reputation of the Wartburg Choir. Others simply learned to arrive early for performances, in order to assure themselves seats.

Torkelson led the choir into prestigious new performing venues. During May Term of 1985, his musicians sang at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, New York City. The choir performed for the American Choral Directors Association in San Antonio, Texas.

A 2004 performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., caused staff writer Cecelia Porter to headline her review in the Washington Post, “Wartburg Choir, a mighty fortress of skill.”

She wrote, “[This choir] is trained with rock-solid discipline.”

When the choir performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Torkelson received an unexpected telegram just before the performance. Weston Noble, then-director of the Luther College Nordic Choir and the dean of Lutheran choir conductors, sent a congratulatory message. The essence was that the Wartburg Choir was singing on that night for all of the nation’s Lutheran college choirs. Wrote Noble, “You make us proud.”

In advance of the Carnegie concert, the Des Moines Register told its readers, “The Wartburg College Choir is heading for the Big Apple. The production company setting up the [concert] originally asked choir director Paul Torkelson to form a 200-voice group to perform, 7

but he suggested his 78-member choir instead.” As it turned out, the sound from Torkelson’s ensemble was powerful enough to make the producers wonder why they wanted more voices in the first place.

Dr. Maynard Anderson, a member of the college music faculty during those years, observed that, unlike Liemohn and Fritschel before him, “Torkelson wanted a really big sound, and so he developed large choirs.” There was a second reason. The college’s music department had grown in size and reputation. By his own admission, Torkelson needed opportunities for more student vocalists to sing while on campus. In addition to expanding the choir’s numbers — sometimes to as many at 84 voices — the director championed more singing venues. The result was the development of a multi-choir environment at Wartburg.

In addition to the Wartburg Choir, music majors and other vocalists could audition

for the mixed-voice Castle Singers, the Ritterchor mens chorus, the women’s Saint Elizabeth Chorale, the Chapel Choir, the Gospel Choir and, in recent years, the all-male Festeburg octet.

With the end of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany, the choir found it possible in the year 1995 to return to Eisenach, the home of the Wartburg Castle, and this time sing inside the Great Hall. The Wartburg Choir is currently the only U.S. Lutheran college choir with

Right: Dr. Lee Nelson became conductor of the Wartburg Choir in 2009.

Below: As artistic director, Dr. Nelson's vision for Christmas with Wartburg has begun to take shape musically and visually.

a standing invitation for concerts at the castle.

Two years later, the college and the music department scored something of a coup. World-renowned opera singer Simon Estes came to campus for a concert. Afterwards, then-president Jack Ohle hosted him at Greenwood, the president’s residence. While there, Ohle invited Estes to join the college’s music faculty. Within days, Estes agreed.

While voice students on campus benefit

Left: The Wartburg Choir poses for a photo in the residence of the White House. The choir performed Christmas carols and sacred music for families of fallen soldiers.

from his coaching, so does the choir. Each school year Estes sings at Wartburg College concerts and occasionally tours with the singers. He was instrumental in arranging for a choir tour visit to South Africa, where he operates a school for young scholars.

In 2008 Torkelson accepted an opportunity to work short-term with a music placement agency in New York City. During his sabbatical, the college hired recently-retired Luther College Nordic Choir director Weston Noble to direct the Wartburg Choir.

When it became clear that Torkelson had decided to retire from Wartburg at the end of his sabbatical — today he directs choirs at the University of Nevada at Reno — a search for his permanent replacement began.

Dr. Lee Nelson, a graduate of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and previously director of choral music at St. Cloud State University, assumed leadership of the choir in the fall of 2009. The following year he took the choir to Europe, recreating the itinerary of Liemohn’s first overseas tour in 1959.

In fall 2011, the choir received an unexpected invitation to sing at the White House in Washington, D.C. Nelson led his singers in a program of

Advent and Christmas music, both at the executive mansion and at the Washington National Cathedral.

The Wartburg Choir has evolved from a marginal singing group on the campus of a tiny Lutheran college on life-support into one of the premier academic mixed-voice a cappella ensembles in the country. Today the choir auditions from the ranks of 1,800 students at a robust church-related private college whose thriving music program draws students from across the country. If the past is prologue, the Wartburg College Choir is on the cusp of still greater triumphs in decades yet to come.

— Michael L. Sherer, Wartburg Choir, 1962-63

The Wartburg Choir performs during the Bethlehem Prayer Service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

PROGRAM I. A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

*Edwin Liemohn (1903-1972)

Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV 230 Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

II. Tonight, Eternity Alone

René Clausen (b. 1953)

Past Life Melodies

Sarah Hopkins (b. 1958)

III. Estampie Natalis

Vaclav Nelhybel (1919-1996)

Noèl Ayisyen (A Haitian Noël)

Emile Desamours (b. 1941)

†When Jordan Hushed His Waters Still Excerpt from An Apostrophe to the Heavenly Hosts

Stanford E. Scriven (b. 1988) Healey Willan (1880-1968)

Intermission

THE WARTBURG CHOIR The internationally acclaimed Wartburg Choir performs sacred music from all historical periods and styles and often premieres new works of contemporary composers. Called a “mighty fortress of skill” by the Washington Post, the Wartburg Choir is one of three college musical ensembles that tour internationally on a triennial basis. Beyond tours, the choir receives invitations for special appearances in the United States and abroad, most recently to participate in the December 2011 White House Holiday Concert Series.

As part of that trip to Washington, D.C., the choir also sang at the National Cathedral’s Bethlehem Prayer Service, which was simulcast worldwide. In 2006, the choir performed with

the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in Prague at the invitation of Maestro Paul Freeman, CNSO music director and chief conductor, who had attended a Wartburg Choir concert at Orchestra Hall in Chicago.

During the past 20 years, the choir has appeared in such prestigious concert halls as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; Avery Fisher Hall of Lincoln Center, New York City; Carnegie Hall in New York City; Symphony Hall in Chicago; and Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. The choir competed in the International Trophy Competition in Cork, Ireland on two separate occasions and is the only American choral group to win first-place honors. The Wartburg

IV. Excerpts from To Be Certain of the Dawn Stephen Paulus (b. 1949)

Michael Dennis Browne (b. 1940)

Dr. Brian Pfaltzgraff, tenor Sh'ma Y'israel!

Teshuvah (Returning) First Blessing Kingdom of Night Du sollst deinen Nächsten lieben wie dich selbst Boy Reading Hymn to the Eternal Flame V'a Havta Le Reacha Kamocha

V. To be chosen from the following:

Qui Sedes **James Fritschel (b. 1930) In Thy Hand James Fritschel

Psalm 50 arr. F. Melius Christiansen (1871-1955)

Beautiful Savior arr. F. Melius Christiansen

Way Over in Beulah Lan’ arr. Stacey Gibbs

Elijah Rock arr. Moses Hogan (1957-2003)

Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal arr. Alice Parker (b. 1925)

Give Me Jesus arr. Larry L. Fleming (1936-2003)

† Commissioned by The Wartburg Choir in honor of its 75th Anniversary – World Premiere * Founder and conductor of the Wartburg Choir – 1937-1968 **Conductor of the Wartburg Choir – 1968-1984

Choir has been invited to perform at two national and two divisional conventions of the American Choral Directors Association. In 2012, the choir was featured at the North Central ACDA convention spotlight concert, singing Stephen Paulus’ Holocaust oratorio, To Be Certain of the Dawn.

For 75 years, the Wartburg Choir has toured annually throughout the United States and the District of Columbia.

Beginning in 1959, the choir has toured internationally every three to four years, performing in a total of 21 European countries, three Canadian provinces, Scandinavia, and South Africa. The choir frequently performs with Simon Estes, a world-renowned opera star who also serves as distinguished professor and artist-in-residence at Wartburg College. Estes joined the choir on two international tours to South Africa, which included performances at the Simon Estes Music High

School in Cape Town. Most recently, he joined the choir in a concert with special guest Madame Denyce Graves, an internationally recognized mezzo soprano and opera star.

Founded in 1937 under the direction of Dr. Edwin Liemohn, the choir became one of the first American college choral groups to tour Europe. Liemohn’s successor, Dr. James Fritschel, directed the choir from 1968 to 1984, expanding its reputation for excellence and international exposure. Dr. Paul Torkelson, director from 1984 to 2009, conducted the choir at nearly every major concert hall in the United States and led the group on numerous international tours. Dr. Lee Nelson, who became the Wartburg Choir’s fourth conductor in 2009, continues to build upon the choir’s 75-year tradition of choral excellence.

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{

selected texts and translations

}

Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV 230

Noèl Ayisyen (A Haitian Noël)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Emile Desamours (b. 1941)

SUNG IN GERMAN

SUNG IN HAITIAN CREOLE

Praise the Lord, all you nations, and praise Him, all you people.

For His grace and truth Reign over us forevermore.

Alleluia!

-- Psalm 117: 1, 2a, with alleluia

It was in Bethlehem, a little corner of Judea, that Mary had a baby boy at midnight in a stable.

He was the Son of God and he was the King of Kings.

Since I was a little child I have known this story.

Tonight, Eternity Alone

There were three wise kings who followed a great star with gifts in their hands to come worship the child.

And they were quite amazed when they saw little Jesus lying between a cow and a donkey.

René Clausen (b. 1953) Tonight eternity alone is near: The sunset and the darkening blue; There is no space for fear, Only the wonder of its truth.

-- paraphrased from Dusk at Sea, Thomas S. Jones, Jr.

Estampie Natalis

Hear that, my friends! Noel is a strange story indeed!

Jesus, Son of God, King of Kings, doesn’t even have a cradle.

He sleeps on the straw among animals…Oh my!

They called Him Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God; the Everlasting Father, too; and He was the Prince of Peace.

Both shepherds and wisemen bowed down to worship Him. They gave Him gifts according to what they had.

Vaclav Nelhybel (1919-1996)

SUNG IN LATIN

A boy is born in Bethlehem, alleluia! Rejoice Jerusalem, alleluia!

In joy of heart let us adore the newborn Christ with a new song.

Back then, if we would have been there (ta-ma-na), we would have done something fitting (ta-ma-na), we would have offered Him music (ba-dap-peem) of the best Haitian kind (chee-kee-chee).

We would have brought drums, manniboulas, vaccins, maracas; with fine banjo strums we would have charmed little Jesus.

The Son has assumed flesh, alleluia! The Father most high, alleluia!

In joy of heart let us adore the newborn Christ with a new song.

Jesus, Jesus, our little Jesus, we love you greatly.

You bring peace to all people and you offer us grace.

From Gabriel’s greeting, alleluia, the virgin conceived a Son, alleluia!

In joy of heart let us adore the newborn Christ with a new song.

Noel, Noel, Noel, long live Noel!

He lies in the manger, alleluia! He who rules without end, alleluia!

In joy of heart let us adore the newborn Christ with a new song.

Let us bless the Lord, alleluia, in joy of this birth, alleluia!

The Holy Spirit be praised, alleluia! Give thanks unto God, alleluia!

When Jordan Hushed His Waters Still Stanford E. Scriven (b. 1988) When Jordan hushed his waters still, and silence slept on Zion’s hill, when Bethlehem’s shepherds through the night, watched over their flocks by starry light.

Wartburg Music Summer Camps Meistersinger All-State Choir Camps Aug. 1-3, 4-6, 2012

Hark! From the midnight hills around, a voice of more than mortal sound in distant hallelujahs stole, wild murmuring over the raptured soul.

On wheels of light, on wings of flame, the glorious hosts of Zion came; high Heaven with songs of triumph rung, while thus they struck their harps and sung!

Directed by Dr. Lee Nelson, director of choral activities and associate professor of music, this camp introduces high school vocalists and music teachers to music for the Iowa All-State vocal auditions. Individual vocal lessons and group vocal classes are available for an additional fee. Information will be sent out via email this year.

Individuals who have not received information may send a request to allstatecamp@wartburg.edu or call 319-269-4974.

O Zion, lift Thy raptured eye; the long expected hour is nigh; the joys of nature rise again; the Prince of Salem comes to reign.

He comes to cheer the trembling heart; bids darkness and His host depart; again the daystar gilds the gloom, again the bowers of Eden bloom.

--Thomas Campbell (1777-1844)

Excerpt from An Apostrophe to the Heavenly Hosts Healey Willan (1880-1968) Ye watchers and ye holy ones, bright Seraphs, Cherubims and Thrones, raise the glad strain – Alleluia!

Cry out Dominions, Princedoms, Powers, Virtues, Archangels, Angels’ choirs, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

--Athelstan Riley (1858-1945)

Qui Sedes James Fritschel (b.1930)

Band Camp July 15-21, 2012 Directed by Dr. Craig A. Hancock, director of bands and associate professor of music, this camp is open to high school students. Daily sessions include music theory, beginning conducting, jazz improvisation, composition, and instrument repair. Call 319-352-8296 for more information.

SUNG IN LATIN

Eastern Iowa Clarinet Camp

Lord, You who are seated above the cherubim, stir up Your power and come down.

This camp features Dr. Eric Wachmann, Wartburg College clarinet professor; Dr. Michael Chesher, Luther College clarinet professor; and Myron Mikita, Jr., camp coordinator. For more information, contact Dr. Eric Wachmann at 319-352-8508 or eric.wachmann@wartburg.edu.

texts and translations continued on page 16

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Christmas with Wartburg 2011 Mural designed by Chris Knudson '01.

To Be

Certain OF THE Dawn

The photographs were taken by Roman Vishniac between the years 1935-1938 in various cities and villages of Eastern Europe. They are published in the book Children of a Vanished World (University of California Press, 1999), © Mara Vishniac Kohn.

Excerpts from To Be Certain of the Dawn

First Blessing

Music by Stephen Paulus (b. 1949) Text by Michael Dennis Browne (b. 1940)

Adonai! Adonai, Adonai, Adonai, Adonai!

Who gives us our hearts, and as they open, so You fill them.

Hope. We thank You for our hope.

Adonai, Adonai, who gives us our dreams, and as they blossom, so we praise You. Dreams. We thank You for our dreams.

Sh'ma Y'israel!

SUNG IN GERMAN AND HEBREW Hear, O Israel: Adonai our God, Adonai is One. Blessed is the name of God’s glorious reign forever and ever.

Teshuvah (Returning) Create a great emptiness in me.

Send a wind. Lay bare the branches. Strip me of usual song.

Drop me like a stone, send me down unknown paths, send me into pathlessness; drop me like a stone so that I go where a stone goes.

Send me down unknown paths, send me into pathlessness, into the lost places, down into echoes to where I hear voices, but no words: a place of weeping below any of earth’s waters.

Teshuvah, Teshuvah, Teshuvah.

Give me difficult dreams where my skills will not serve me; make bitter the wines I have stored.

Begin the returning. Teshuvah, Teshuvah, Teshuvah.

Kingdom of Night Holy God, Who found no strength in us to be Your power.

How should we think ourselves Your hands, Your feet? How should we be Your heart?

On the day You called to us, in the kingdom of night where You kept calling, how did we heal one another in Your name?

How did we think we might be recognized as You in all we failed to do?

(Cantor: Mourner’s Kaddish) In the kingdom of night where, again and again, out of the mouths of children, You kept calling, calling.

Adonai, Adonai, Adonai.

Calling and calling and calling and calling in the kingdom of night. Adonai!

Du sollst deinen Nächsten lieben wie dich selbst SUNG IN GERMAN AND HEBREW

You should love your neighbor as yourself.

Boy Reading I’m looking down from far away, I’m high up on a branch looking down on the book so many little characters all of them keys says Mama keys to all the doors I want to open, I want to open them all I like the way the characters are sometimes I think I see looks on their faces (they’re looking at me).

(Chorus: Jews may not imagine. Jews may not dream.)

They’ll take me into the stories where I want to go I had a dream where I grew so heavy I fell out of the tree down, down into the characters and they covered me over and no one could find me they never found me.

And everywhere such wounds.

Wear this star. Wear this star. Wear this star.

Hymn to the Eternal Flame Every face is in you, every voice, Every sorrow in you, every pity, Every love, every memory, Woven into fire.

Above: Jewish children in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp (Photograph taken by unknown Nazi Soldier).

Every breath is in you, every cry, Every longing in you, every singing, Every hope, every healing, Woven into fire.

Every heart is in you, every tongue, Every trembling in you, every blessing, Every soul, every shining, Woven into fire.

V'a Havta Le Reacha Kamocha SUNG IN HEBREW

You should love your neighbor as yourself.

17

the

WARTBURG CHOIR members

Soprano 1

Alto 1

Danni Bilidt, Austin, Minn. – Communication Arts

Anne Bomgaars, Sheldon, Iowa – Music Therapy/Vocal Performance

Erica Bush, Fulton, Ill. – Business Administration/Accounting

Robin Evans, Davenport, Iowa – Music Education

Morgan Dickman, Blue Earth, Minn. – Elementary Education

Alyssa Hanson, Vinton, Iowa – Mathematics

† Elise Duvall, Mason City, Iowa – Music Education

Megan LeVasseur, Cedar Rapids, Iowa – Elementary Education

Kim Hesse, Sheboygan, Wis. – Music Therapy

Lauren Matysik, Clive, Iowa - English

Brittany Johnson, Clive, Iowa – Vocal Performance

Brittany Reynolds, Sumner, Iowa – American History Education

Kayla Meitner, West Union, Iowa – Business Administration

Marie Sorenson, Cedar Rapids, Iowa – Vocal Performance

Andra Peeler, Indianola, Iowa – Music Education/Music Therapy * Leah Podzimek, Cedar Rapids, Iowa – Vocal Performance #

Chelsea Reisner, Appleton, Wis. – Flute Performance

Soprano 2 Ali Brown, Cedar Rapids, Iowa – Communication Arts

† Alexis Spain, Castalia, Iowa – Music Education

Cailee Whitefield, San Antonio, Texas – Music Education/Music Therapy Sarah Wilkin, Titonka, Iowa – Biology Sarah Wolf, Indianola, Iowa – Vocal Performance/Music Education

Alto 2

Emily Bush, Cleghorn, Iowa – Elementary Education

Alyx Coble-Frakes, Swisher, Iowa – Business Administration

Megan DeBoer, Blooming Prairie, Minn. – Music Education

Kristina Goemaat, Belmond, Iowa – Music Therapy

Katelyn Ewing, Le Mars, Iowa – Music Education

Maleah Kelly, New Hope, Minn. – Music Education

Susannah Gafkjen, Spencer, Iowa – Music Therapy

Megan Lien, Rockford, Iowa – Applied Music/Business Administration

Sara Hummel, Spirit Lake, Iowa – Biology (Pre-Nursing)

† Alison Nicoll, West Des Moines, Iowa – Social Work

Amelia Kischer-Browne, Waterloo, Iowa – Vocal Performance

Maya Véronique Pérez, Los Angeles, Calif. – Vocal Performance

Alexandra Madole – Dallas Center, Iowa – Communication Arts (Public Relations)

Jamie Peterson, McGregor, Iowa – Mathematics Education

Beth Moellers, West Union, Iowa – Business Administration •

Sadie Kaminski, LeClaire, Iowa – Music Therapy

Kate Glenney, Muscatine, Iowa – Religion

* Jessica Nilles, Webster City, Iowa – Piano Performance/Pedagogy

Morgan Phelps, Olympia Fields, Ill. – Applied Music Daria Zawierucha, Eugene, Ore. – Music Education/Music Therapy

Caitlin Retz, Sheffield, Iowa – Music Education/Music Therapy † * Claire Traynor, Star Prairie, Wis. – Music Education/Music Therapy *

Courtney Westling, Algona, Iowa – Music Education

Tenor 1 † Aaron Benson, New Hampton, Iowa – Elementary Education

Bass 1 Myles Finn, Manchester, Iowa – Exploring

Schuyler Bieber, Cedar Rapids, Iowa – Music Education

Brett Gregory, Altoona, Iowa – Church Music

Jeremy Corbett, Cedar Rapids, Iowa – French/Biology

Kyle Harms, Independence, Iowa – Music Education

Dan Darnold, Underwood, Iowa – Vocal Performance

* Connor Koppin, Mason City, Iowa – Music Education

Rex Davidson, Johnston, Iowa - Biology

Christopher Kurt, Independence, Iowa – Music Education

Koby Edler, Fairbank, Iowa – Music Education/Performance

Jud Lee, Indianola, Iowa – Applied Music

Nick Morrison, Davenport, Iowa – Music Therapy

Aaron Schendel, Brooklyn Park, Minn. – Computer Science

* Cody Osegard, Cushing, Minn. – Computer Science

Kevin Schneider, Elgin, Iowa – Biology/All Science Education

Zach Sommers, Des Moines, Iowa – Political Science/ International Relations

Austin Scholten, Rockton, Iowa – Communication Arts

Joe Strong, Elgin, Iowa – Music Education

Austin Siefers, Muscatine, Iowa – Music Education

Tenor 2 Taylor Boeckholt, Milford, Iowa – Elementary Education Ben Engelken, Manchester, Iowa – Music/Business Administration Nate Fratzke, Wilton, Iowa – Music Business * Chris McIntyre, Mediapolis, Iowa – Music Education

Bass 2 Therin Bradshaw, Port Byron, Ill. - Biology Wes Carlson, Cedar Rapids, Iowa – Elementary Education * Kyle Fleming, Worthington, Minn. – Music Therapy

Eric Fonck, Delhi, Iowa – Political Science Ryan Harms, Aplington, Iowa – Engineering Science

Aaron Moore, Oak Park, Minn. – Elementary Education

Crosby King, Northfield, Minn. – Sociology

Chad Nelsen, Rock Valley, Iowa – Elementary Education

Joshua Lehman, Plainfield, Iowa – Mathematics Education

Jason Neumann, Forest City, Iowa – Social Work

Joseph Lorenzen, West Des Moines, Iowa – Music Education

Dylan Nieman, Wilton, Iowa – Applied Music/Computer Information Systems

Alex Nicoll, West Des Moines, Iowa – Exploring

Reed Pedersen, Jefferson, Iowa – Applied Music

Alex Schaefer, McHenry, Ill. – Mathematics

Ben Sande, Adel, Iowa – Social Work

Michael Sauer, Le Mars, Iowa – Music Education Zakary Steib, Fort Dodge, Iowa – Political Science † – Choir Council •

– Choir Accompanist

# – Choir Librarian * – Section Leader

the INSTRUMENTALISTS Dr. Karen Black, organ Christine Kaplunas, violin Dr. Daniel Kaplunas, violin and viola Sally Malcolm, viola Joseph Lorenzen, cello Chelsea Reisner, flute and piccolo Jessica Nilles, keyboard and piano Judson Lee, shofar Maya Pérez, Michael Sauer, Andra Peeler, Courtney Westling, Susannah Gafkjen & Morgan Dickman, percussion

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{ Dr. Lee D. Nelson, conductor } Lee Nelson is the Patricia R. Zahn Chair in Choral Conducting and director of choral activities at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. Recently honored with the 2012 John O. Chellevold Award for Excellence in Teaching and Professional Service, Nelson conducts the Wartburg Choir and Ritterchor (men’s choir). He also teaches advanced conducting and applied voice and serves as artistic director of Christmas with Wartburg.

Nelson made his conducting debut at Carnegie Hall in 2011 and will be returning there to conduct the National Festival Chorus again in May 2012. His national and international tours have earned overwhelmingly positive reviews. On the most recent tour of Hungary, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, critics lauded Nelson’s innovative programming and the choir’s superior technique and choral tone. A sought-after conductor, Nelson has directed All State and honor choirs in Colorado, New York, Alaska, Mississippi, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Arizona, Iowa, Nebraska, and Manitoba, Canada.

In December 2011, Nelson and the Wartburg Choir were invited to perform at the White House Holiday Concert Series.

While in Washington, D.C., the choir also performed at the Washington National Cathedral for a worldwide simulcast of the Bethlehem Prayer Service. Most recently, Nelson was a featured conductor at the 2012 North Central American Choral Directors Association convention, where he conducted Stephen Paulus’ Holocaust oratorio To Be Certain of the Dawn with more than 360 musicians from six states.

Prior to his appointment at Wartburg College, Nelson served on the faculty at St. Cloud State University, where he received the SCSU Professional Achievement Award in 2008.

Under his direction, the St. Cloud State Choir was invited to perform at the 2007 Minnesota American Choral Directors Association convention and toured throughout the Midwest and Canada. During a 2008 European tour, the St. Cloud State University choir premiered To Be Certain of the Dawn at Natzweil-Struthof, the site of a former concentration camp.

Earlier in his career, Nelson received the Outstanding Young Choral Conductor of the Year, awarded by the Minnesota American Choral Directors Association, and won the 2005 National ACDA Conducting Competition in Los Angeles, Calif.

In addition to his work at Wartburg College, Nelson also serves as music director and conductor of the Metropolitan Chorale, a 100-voice community choir based in the Cedar Valley. Nelson has led the ensemble in performances of choral/orchestral masterworks by Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Mozart, Leonard Bernstein, Felix Mendelssohn, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Franz Joseph Hayden, and Carl Orff.

Nelson earned a Bachelor of Music degree in music education from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. He has done graduate work at Westminster Choir College and is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Arizona, where he earned his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in choral conducting and music education.

21

{ Featured Soloists } Dr. Brian Pfaltzgraff, tenor Dr. Brian Pfaltzgraff is an assistant professor of voice at Wartburg College. He has performed more than 30 leading operatic roles and an even wider range of concert works. He appears regularly with Union Avenue Opera in St. Louis and has also performed with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis Masterworks Chorale, Toledo Opera, Lima Symphony, Toledo Symphony, Detroit Symphony (Civic), Canton Civic Opera, Mansfield Symphony, Ann Arbor Festival of Song, Rochester (N.Y.) Chamber Orchestra, Oak Ridge (Tenn.) Civic Music Association, and the Des Moines Metro Opera.

Pfaltzgraff earned a Master of Arts degree in German literature and a Master of Music

degree from Bowling Green State University and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Simpson College. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Michigan, where he held the Joy Whitman Weinberger and Ara Berberian fellowships and was the inaugural recipient of the Jessye Norman Fellowship, an award recognizing vocal excellence. He was also the inaugural recipient of the James Paul Kennedy Alumni Recognition Award from Bowling Green State University.

Prior to joining the Wartburg faculty, he taught at Ohio Northern University and Concordia University, Ann Arbor.

Dr. Daniel Kaplunas, violin and viola Dr. Daniel Kaplunas conducts the Wartburg Community Symphony and the Wartburg Chamber Orchestra and teaches applied lessons in violin and viola, instrumental methods, and

UGA Symphony Orchestra and the University Philharmonia. As a guest conductor with the ARCO Chamber Orchestra, he presented American premieres of several works by

conducting. Prior to joining the Wartburg faculty last fall, he was an assistant professor at Agnes Scott College and Georgia College and State University.

He earned his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the University of North Texas, where he was concertmaster of UNT Symphony and Chamber orchestras and led NOVA, a New Music ensemble.

During his doctoral studies at the University of Georgia with Dr. Levon Ambartsumian, Kaplunas was assistant conductor of the

contemporary Russian composers M. Bronner and E. Podgaits that were released on compact disc by the Phoenix USA record label.

Kaplunas has participated in music festivals and performed concerts in the United States, Denmark, Holland, Lithuania, and Germany, where he was a soloist with the International Chamber Orchestra of Buckow. He was principal violist in the ARCO Chamber Orchestra and Gwinnett Ballet Orchestra, and he also performed with the Balkan Quartet, a group dedicated to the dissemination of Balkan music.

Dr. Karen Black, organ Dr. Karen Black chairs the Wartburg College music department and holds the Rudi Inselmann Endowed Professorship in Organ. She teaches organ and church music, aural skills, serves as organist for the college’s weekday chapel and Sunday worship services, and conducts the Chapel Choir. After completing a Bachelor of Music degree in church music at St. Olaf College, she earned a Master of Music degree in organ and church music and a Doctor of Music degree in organ performance and literature from Indiana University.

Before joining the Wartburg faculty, she served as director of music and organist at Zion Lutheran Church, Hopkins, Minn.; assistant organist at Trinity Episcopal Church, Indianapolis,

Ind.; and director of music at Church of the Annunciation, Minneapolis. Her recent organ recitals have included U.S. performances at St. Philip’s Cathedral in Atlanta, Ga., and Kansas State University as well as German appearances at the Castle Church in Wittenburg and St. George’s Church in Eisenach. She has been featured on Minnesota Public Radio’s nationally broadcast Pipedreams program, and her essay, “Musical Gifts for the Worshipping Body,” appears in Translucence: Religion, the Arts, and Imagination (Augsburg Fortress, 2004).

Black served as dean of the American Guild of Organists chapter in Waterloo, Iowa, from 2003 to 2005 and as Region III president of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians from 1996 to 2000.

{Wartburg Music Faculty} ADJUNCT INSTRUCTORS Dr. Karen Black, chair | organ, music theory, college organist, Chapel Choir director Dr. Jane Andrews | Castle Singers director, St. Elizabeth Chorale director, music education

Diane Beane | piano Laurie Braaten-Reuter | piano Gretchen Brumwell | harp Kimberly Burger | cello

Dr. Craig A. Hancock | director of bands, Symphonic Band director, Wind Ensemble director, conducting, trombone, euphonium, tuba

Jeff Burak | guitar

Melanie Harms | music therapy

Dr. Simon Estes | artist-in-residence

Dr. Jennifer Larson | voice

Michael Finelli | string bass

Dr. Scott Muntefering | music education, trumpet

Daniel Gast | voice

Dr. Lee Nelson | Wartburg Choir director, Ritterchor director, conducting, voice

Rosemary Gast | voice

Dr. Brian Pfaltzgraff | voice, opera workshop, diction Dr. Ted Reuter | piano, music history Dr. Paula Survilla | music history, music theory Dr. Suzanne Torkelson | director of Tower School of Music, piano, music theory Dr. Eric Wachmann | clarinet, music theory Dr. Daniel Kaplunas | Wartburg Community Symphony conductor, Wartburg Chamber Orchestra conductor, cello, violin, viola, conducting Dr. Geoffrey Wilson | piano, music theory

Dominique Cawley | flute

Jack Graham | clarinet Kara Groen | music therapy Aaron Hansen | handbell ensemble Dr. Andrew Harris | French horn Allan Jacobson | percussion, Knightliters Jazz Band director Michael Jensen | voice Dr. Gregory Morton | oboe, bassoon Carita Pfaltzgraff | voice Pat Reuter Riddle | piano Adam Webb | voice Jane Williams | saxophone

23

Wartburg College Wartburg is dedicated to challenging and nurturing students for lives of leadership and service as a spirited expression of their faith and learning.

Wartburg is a selective liberal arts college of the Lutheran Church (ELCA), internationally recognized for community engagement. The college’s 1,805 students come from 50 countries and 29 U.S. states. Wartburg is listed in U.S. News & World Report’s annual survey of America’s Best Colleges, The Best Midwestern Colleges, a publication of The Princeton Review, Barron’s Best Buys in College Education, Forbe’s America’s Best Colleges, and Peterson’s Top Colleges for Science.

Wartburg offers more than 50 academic majors, including music education, performance, music therapy, and church music. The college’s 15 vocal and instrumental music ensembles are open to music and non-music majors. The Wartburg Choir, Wind Ensemble, and Castle Singers tour annually and travel abroad every third year during the college’s one-month May Term.

All-State musicians who enroll at Wartburg qualify for minimum $1,000 scholarships. Meistersinger Music Scholarships offer up to $5,000 per year to music and non-music majors, based on audition.

Wartburg takes its name from the Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, Germany, where Martin Luther spent 10 months in hiding during the stormy days of the Protestant Reformation. Music groups frequently visit the castle during their May Term trips abroad.

Connect with Wartburg College on Facebook.

music degrees at Wartburg college The Bachelor of Music Education degree

students to combine K-12 music certification

The Bachelor of Music degree prepares

meets the requirements of the Iowa

through the state department of education

students for further study leading to

Department of Education for K-12 music

with certification as a registered music

professional performance, studio teaching,

certification. This entitles students to teach

therapist (RMT) through the National

or work in church music.

in the elementary general music classroom

Association for Music Therapy.

Bachelor of Arts degree in music provides

or teach in a band, choir, or orchestral setting at the middle school or high school

The Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy

a variety of career options in the music

level.

degree does not include the K-12 music

field. This degree is the most flexible music

certification, but it meets the requirements

degree, allowing students to combine a

The Bachelor of Music Education/Music

for certification as a registered music

music major with another major or minor

Therapy dual degree is offered for those

therapist (RMT) through the National

field, such as business or religion.

who wish to use music to help children

Association for Music Therapy.

A music minor offers the opportunity to

and adults with emotional, mental, and/ or physical problems. This degree allows

The Bachelor of Arts degree with a

satisfy and enhance a vocational interest in

major in church music combines course

music and combine music with majors in

work in music and religion to prepare

other academic areas. For education majors,

students for leading music programs in

a music minor offers the opportunity to earn

churches or for further study in graduate

an elementary or secondary music teaching

school.

endorsement from the Iowa Department of Education.

Music groups rehearse in the Bachman Fine Arts Center, which provides spacious rehearsal/ recital halls for band, choir, and orchestra.

A 20-station electronic music laboratory is equipped with synthesizers, sequencers, computers, and software for music theory, composition, and ear training. Bachman Fine Arts Center is furnished with grand and upright pianos, and students have access to five organs on campus.

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A Great Value

Enhanced

A Wartburg College education is a great value, providing students with an excellent education and personalized attention, while laying the foundation for life and career accomplishments. Numerous scholarship and grant opportunities for students enhance that value.

Check out the possibilities below and others at www.wartburg.edu/finaid/scholarships.html.

Regents and Presidential Scholarships

Meistersinger Music Scholarships

Legacy Grant

$7,500-full tuition

Up to $5,000 per year

Nearly 600 Regents and Presidential Scholarships were awarded last year to first-year students based on a combination of high school gpa, class rank, and ACT/SAT score.

Open to music and non-music majors participating in an ensemble and enrolling in music lessons. Auditions are in January.

For full-time students with alumni parent(s) and/or grandparents, and students with a sibling who currently attends or has graduated from Wartburg. Applicable toward tuition.

Not based on financial need.

Wartburg College Funded, Endowed Scholarships $50-$2,500 per year Last year 471 scholarships were awarded, recognizing academic talents, vocational goals, and personal characteristics, primarily for upper-class students.

Education Partners In Covenant (EPIC) Up to $750 per year A matching funds program for members of participating congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Wartburg matches up to $750 per academic year.

$1,500 per year

Connect with Wartburg choirs on Facebook.

Student Profiles

REX DAVIDSON BIOLOGY PRE-MED JOHNSTON, IOWA

Whether it is traveling to Europe for a month to sing in some of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world, being invited to Washington, D.C. to sing at the White House, or singing for thousands of people during our various yearly performances, there is no doubt the choir has afforded me a unique opportunity to give back to the college, community, region, and nation in ways I never thought were possible.

Being able to share my gifts in the company of my closest friends, under the direction of our conductor and mentor Dr. Lee Nelson, has been a sincere pleasure and honor which will not soon be forgotten.

Since I arrived on campus, it has been a privilege to participate in such a life-changing choral program. Even though I currently live so far away from San Antonio, Texas, each person in the Wartburg Choir has treated me like family. At the end of each concert, we sing “Give Me Jesus.” When we held hands and sang this song at our first concert, I was overwhelmed by the text, “When I am alone, give me Jesus.” At that moment, it was as if each member was singing those words to comfort and reassure me that I was not alone. Each day, it is such an honor and blessing to be a part of the Wartburg Choir.

crosby King

cAILEE WHITEFIELD MUSIC EDUCATION/MUSIC THERAPY SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

My time in the Wartburg Choir has been an amazing experience! Our recent European tour was a lifechanging experience that I will always cherish and remember. One of the best parts of singing in the Wartburg Choir is the relationships I have developed and the lives that I have touched around the world through music. I can only imagine what the next couple of years have in store for me and my fellow choir members.

SOCIOLOGY NORTHFIELD, MINN.

Being part of an on-campus organization, especially the Wartburg Choir, has been the best thing that has happened to me. With the choir alone, I have been able to travel to six countries and nine different states!

My senior year in the Wartburg Choir has definitely been the highlight of my college experience. I was fortunate enough not only to be elected president of the ensemble but also to sing with the choir at the White House in Washington, D.C., and at the North Central American Choral Directors Association conference in Madison, Wis. In just four years I'm graduating with two degrees, a multitude of amazing experiences, and wonderful memories to last a lifetime.

75

th

ANNIVERSARY 1937

2012

Alumni choir to perform at Homecoming Mark your calenders now. In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Wartburg Choir, a special concert will feature Wartburg Choir alumni.

If you are a former choir member, please make plans to return to campus Oct. 18-21, 2012.

Dr. James Fritschel, Dr. Paul Torkelson, and Dr. Lee Nelson will conduct the Alumni Choir in popular Wartburg Choir pieces, including Liemohn's A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, Give Me Thy Hand and Guide Me, Lullaby at the Manger, In Thy Hand, Qui Sedes, Elijah Rock, Hark I Hear the Harps Eternal, Precious Lord, and Give Me Jesus.

The choir will rehearse Thursday evening, Friday, and Saturday and perform Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in Neumann Auditorium, followed by a dinner in Knights Ballroom. Wartburg Choir spouses are also welcome to sing. We hope you will consider making this momentous occasion part of your Fall 2012 plans!

CLAIRE TRAYNOR MUSIC EDUCATION/MUSIC THERAPY STAR PRAIRIE, WIS.

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The Wartburg Choir 2012 Tour Friday, March 30 8 p.m.

In collaboration with Valley High School Singers Faith Lutheran Church 10395 University Ave. Clive, Iowa Saturday, March 31 7:30 p.m.

In collaboration with Iowa City West High School Chorale Zion Lutheran Church 310 North Johnson St. Iowa City, Iowa Saturday, April 14 3 p.m.

Home Concert Wartburg Chapel Wartburg College 100 Wartburg Blvd.

Waverly, Iowa Friday, April 20 7:30 p.m.

Bethel Lutheran Church 810 Third Ave. SE Rochester, Minn.

Saturday, April 21 7:30 p.m.

In collaboration with Unum Vox Bethlehem Lutheran Church 4310 County Rd. 137 Saint Cloud, Minn.

Wednesday, April 25 11:45 a.m.

Mini concert before noon mass Basilica of St. Josaphat 2333 South Sixth St. Milwaukee, Wis.

Sunday, April 22 9 a.m.

Morning Church Service Bethlehem Lutheran Church 4310 County Rd. 137 Saint Cloud, Minn

7:30 p.m.

In collaboration with Madison Youth Choirs Capriccio and Britten Luther Memorial Church 1021 University Ave. Madison, Wis.

4 p.m.

In collaboration with Blaine High School Concert Choir Luther Seminary – Olson Campus Center Chapel of the Incarnation 1490 Fulham St. St. Paul, Minn.

Thursday, April 26 7:30 p.m.

In collaboration with Woodstock High School Choir and Woodstock High School North Choir Grace Lutheran Church 1300 Kishwaukee Valley Rd. Woodstock, Ill.

Monday, April 23 7:30 p.m.

In collaboration with New Richmond High School Kammerchor New Richmond High School Auditorium 650 East Richmond Way New Richmond, Wis. Tuesday, April 24 7 p.m.

In collaboration with the Milwaukee High School of the Arts Choir The Basilica of St. Josaphat 2333 South Sixth St. Milwaukee, Wis.

Saturday, April 28 7:30 p.m.

St. Paul Lutheran Church 2136 North Brady St. Davenport, Iowa Sunday, April 29 9:20 a.m.

Sunday Morning Service St. Paul Lutheran Church 2136 North Brady St. Davenport, Iowa

Wartburg Choir Recordings CDs $15 | Online Albums $9.99 | Single downloads 99¢ Search for Wartburg on:

Only select albums are available online

2010 The Wartburg Choir, Concert Tour

2010 Christmas with Wartburg Shepherd Us, O Holy Child

Christmas with Wartburg DVD/CD sets available A one-hour production of highlights from the Christmas with Wartburg performances aired three times on Iowa Public Television during the holidays. The broadcast and a commemorative DVD/CD set were made possible by a generous donation from the Sukup Family Foundation and Eugene and Mary Sukup of Sheffield. The DVD/CD sets, with the entire performance, are available at the Wartburg Bookstore or online at www.wartburgbookstore.com.

Weston Noble, Director

2008 The Wartburg Choir, International Tour

2009 The Wartburg Choir, Midwest Concert Tour

75th Anniversary Tour 1937 - 2012

100 Wartburg Blvd., Waverly, Iowa | www.wartburg.edu