The 91大神 Singers are a group of people who are highly diverse in terms of their backgrounds, interests, and talents, but who are united in their love of singing and their dedication to the choral art. We build music through community, and build community through music. We perform music from a wide variety of traditions and locales 鈥 from Brahms to bluegrass, from Renaissance England to 21st-century New York. We pursue the highest musical standards, and we are committed to fostering an environment that is welcoming and supportive for each and every member.
The Singers have an exciting year planned for 2024鈥25. They will be performing three concerts in February with a professional period-instrument ensemble, the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, in 91大神, Rochester, and Minneapolis. This will be their fifth collaboration with this outstanding ensemble. They are also planning a spring-break tour to New Orleans.
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Past Seasons
The 2024鈥25 Season
We had a rewarding year of choral music in 2024鈥25: We prepared three distinct concert programs that included four major works, completed a successful and enjoyable tour, and offered fourteen public performances overall. The first order of business in September was to build our team, so we started things off with a fall retreat at the College鈥檚 nearby CERA nature preserve. It was a chance to enjoy the outdoors together, to get to know each other, to sing, of course, and to reflect about the coming year and how we might best work together in the months to come. We also followed our tradition and observed the equinox sunrise through the two towers on either side of Mac Field 鈥 such a great way to mark the passage of time together. After just three weeks of rehearsal, we performed a concert at We Are Family Weekend in late September.
Our November concert featured some of the music that would form the core of our spring concert, including a group of pieces grouped under the heading 鈥渟ongs of earth鈥 鈥 highly contrasted works that consider our relationship to the earth and homeland in different ways. One of the most striking of these works was Alex Berko鈥檚 a piece that transforms the way we think about the living spaces that surround us. Other distinctive pieces in this concert include 鈥淩eveille,鈥 by the Soviet-era composer Gyorgii Sviridov, which involved a meditative solo for baritone, and two soloists situated off stage evoking the sound of bugles blowing reveille, and a rousing gospel version of Handel鈥檚 鈥淗allelujah鈥 Chorus, with piano, drum set, and electric bass, conducted by Assistant Director Jadyn Al-Fatah 鈥27.
In December, we joined forces with the 91大神 Oratorio Society to perform a special concert featuring Reena Esmail鈥檚 and J. S. Bach鈥檚 splendid Magnificat in D Major. We were so fortunate to have the resources to organize this ambitious project, which brought numerous professional musicians to campus. Indian-American composer Reena Esmail鈥檚 This Love Between Us explores the theme of unity through a powerful interplay of musical styles and sacred texts. This seven-movement piece highlights the teachings of seven major religious traditions in India 鈥 Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Islam 鈥 illustrating how each tradition approaches unity, brotherhood, and compassion. Esmail bridges Western classical music and Indian musical traditions by incorporating the sitar and tabla into a choral and orchestral arrangement. The musicians blend their unique expertise, creating a harmonious meeting of two musical cultures. For our concert, we had two fabulous professional musicians playing sitar and tabla, and the composer flew to 91大神 from California to meet with the choir and give us insights into her work.
This Love Between Us created a beautiful meeting of cultures, and the message of the work was so inspiring. It can be summed up in the final lines of the work, which features the words of Rumi, repeated like a mantra over affirming phrases from each of the seven religions, as they wash over one another: 鈥淩eligions are many, God is one. The lamps are different, but the Light is the same: it comes from Beyond. Concentrate on the Essence. Concentrate on the Light.鈥 The Esmail was a delight, but this abundant concert also included another substantial work, which features flourishing high trumpets and exuberant, highly decorated melodies for all sections of the choir. This was a proud moment for the choirs at 91大神.
Our spring break tour took us to Minneapolis, Madison, Chicago, Saint Louis, and Davenport. The trip included a in Wisconsin. Yonu Cha, a 91大神 alumna, had visited the cave and by singing one of the pieces from her time with the 91大神 Singers. In an email, she suggested to Professor Rommereim that we bring the choir to sing a concert in the cave 鈥 and we made it happen! You can read a little more about it in a article about the event. Overall, it was such a pleasure to travel together, to have so many shared experiences, to make music together each day, and to hear how our interpretation of the rich music we were performing matured with each concert.
One special aspect of our concert that distinguished this tour was our collaboration with the professional Hindustani musicians Sutanu Sur, on tabla, and Shreekant Shah, on sitar. These fine musicians joined us for the first three concerts in Minneapolis, Madison, and Chicago as we performed movements from This Love Between Us. What a privilege it was to collaborate with them, and to learn about the Hindustani tradition as we melded our voices with their artistry. Another very special feature of our concert was the brilliant singing of our first-year student from India, Adyasha Anindita 鈥28, who performed solos with the choir so capably in the Hindustani tradition. We were blessed with so much talent among the first-year students. Three other first-years in the choir also performed with the ensemble on instruments: Sarah Reif 鈥28 on cello, Abbie Elsbernd 鈥28 on oboe, and James Applegate 鈥28 on cello.
At each of our concerts, we sang 鈥淥 My Love is Like a Red Red Rose鈥 in a circle, surrounding the audience, which reliably moved members of the audience to tears. And during that song, at the final tour concert, we surprised the fifteen seniors in the ensemble by offering each of them a rose. It was a beautiful gesture and an emotionally intense, memorable moment. Yet another beautiful moment on the tour was our visit with Edith Renfrow Smith 鈥37 in Chicago, 91大神's oldest alumna at age 109, and 91大神鈥檚 first female Black graduate. What a privilege to spend time in the presence of this inspiring person.
Following the tour, we got busy preparing another completely different concert: Maurice Durufl茅鈥檚 Requiem and Benjamin Britten鈥檚 Rejoice in the Lamb. We were accompanied by the college organist, Michael Elsbernd, who performed on the mighty Aeolian-Skinner organ in Herrick Chapel. The Durufl茅 featured two outstanding baritone soloists from the 91大神 Singers, senior Beau Leavenworth 鈥25 and first-year Nathan Ruger 鈥28. Durufl茅's Requiem is a majestic piece that is largely based on noble and ancient Gregorian chant melodies. (Here鈥檚 a Beau Leavenworth鈥檚 solo begins at 1:37.) Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb is a setting of the quirky and brilliant 18th-century poet Christopher Smart. Smart expands the circle of community beyond the human and into the animal realm. The central theme is summed up with the line, 鈥淟et man and beast appear before him [God] and magnify his name together.鈥 It includes a delightful movement dedicated to the poet鈥檚 cat, Geoffrey, sung by soprano soloist Quinby Raney 鈥27, as well as a movement focusing on a mouse who stands up to the cat courageously, sung by alto soloist and 91大神 Singers President Valeria Woodard 鈥25. Tenor Ben Curran 鈥25 and bass Evan Albaugh 鈥25 also performed solos admirably in their final performance with the choir.
Before concluding this summary, a few words about fundraising. We were fortunate to be able to pursue our tour this year with the help of a significant donation from alumna Pam Rogacki as well as other generous gifts. The tour is an expensive proposition, and with inflation, it continues to become more costly. We have not emphasized fund-raising in previous years, but recently we have come to realize that we won鈥檛 be able to continue to pursue these ambitious programs 鈥 with week-long spring-break tours and high-profile guest artists that so greatly enhance the experience 鈥 without a steady stream of financial support. Regan Reedy 鈥26, this year鈥檚 tour manager, did an outstanding job of organizing the tour. Building on the excellent work of the 2024 tour organizer, Syd Weller 鈥26, Regan took the tour to new heights and helped us to set things on a professional footing. With Regan鈥檚 leadership, and with the help of many other members of the choir, we now have a tour organization that is set to continue ongoing fund-raising efforts that will help to put the tour on a more secure footing in the future. As we move forward, we are developing a number of paid student positions for the choir that provide excellent opportunities for students to gain experience in event planning, promotion, fund-raising, and a variety of other areas. These positions will help the choir flourish, and at the same time, they will offer the students career-enhancing opportunities that can make a difference in their lives after 91大神.
The 2023-24 Season
This year was filled with great music for the 91大神 Singers.
We were excited to start the year off with our commissioned work by Joel Thompson. This project was several years in the making, and it involved four other distinguished choirs spread across the country. Joel composed such a rich and beautiful piece for us. It was a privilege to have the opportunity to play a role in bringing this music into the world. We were able to speak with Joel over Zoom as we were preparing the piece, and we were delighted to have the composer visiting us here in 91大神 for our performance in November. A video of the performance, , includes an introduction by the composer.
Our fall concert also included several other distinguished and exciting works besides the Thompson premiere.
- Hyejin Joo, our brilliant collaborative pianist, delivered a of A Choral Fantasy on 鈥楽oon I Will be Done.鈥
- We also collaborated with the 91大神 Children鈥檚 choir in a performance of Reginald Unterseher鈥檚 鈥淭his Light,鈥 and we sang Ken Burton鈥檚 gorgeous piece, 鈥.鈥
- Mia Eierman 鈥24 gave us a stunning rendition of the solo on Gyorgi Sviridov鈥檚 soulful piece, 鈥.鈥
We followed our tradition of having a fall picnic, and we gathered, as we always do each year, at Gates Tower at 6:58 a.m. to observe the fall equinox as the sun poured its light through the twin arches at opposite ends of the campus that are situated exactly on the east-west axis.
In December, we performed a brilliant and innovative piece by Jocelyn Hagen, titled The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. The piece involved a newly developed computer application that allows the video to follow the music rather than using a click track, as is typically done for movie soundtrack concerts, and having the music follow the video. Phukao Prommolmard 鈥25, from the 91大神 Singers tenor section, was our video operator, and he was situated among the orchestral musicians, where he managed the video while following the musical score and the conductor. Jocelyn Hagen鈥檚 music and her artistic vision took the audience on an imaginative journey into the mind of Leonardo da Vinci.
In the spring semester, we began work on Caroline Shaw鈥檚 powerful choral work, To the Hands, and we began preparations for our weeklong spring-break tour, which took us to Chicago, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Pittsburgh, and Washington DC. Soprano Syd Weller was our highly capable tour organizer, and former 91大神 Singers, now Technical Assistant Erik Jarvis traveled with the group as tour manager. We had some rocky moments in February, when it became clear that the significantly increased costs of the tour in combination with the depletion of certain music department funds, had left us with a major deficit in our tour funding. Due to some heroic efforts by students, and with the intervention of the College president, the budgetary issues were solved for this year, and we were able to forge ahead as planned. A fine student string quartet practiced outside of their regular schedule and generously agreed to travel with us on tour to perform Caroline Shaw鈥檚 To the Hands. We were so fortunate to have these fine musicians touring with us. Some of the highlights from the tour include a warm reception at Syd Weller鈥檚 church in Grand Rapids, with multiple standing ovations in the middle of the program, free days in Chicago and Washington, D.C., and another highly enthusiastic crowd at our final concert in Alexandria, Virginia.
After our tour, we got to work for the next three weeks learning some new repertoire in preparation for our visiting conductor, Mr. Carrington is a founding member of the famous vocal ensemble, the King鈥檚 Singers, and Professor Emeritus at Yale University. He was with us for a week, and helped us to take our performance to a new level at our April 21 concert. One of members was particularly busy during the weeks following the tour. As a result of a brief conversation during the tour, Jadyn Al-Fatah 鈥27 took on the project of choreographing an entire 18-minute solo dance to accompany To the Hands, and he spent those three weeks after the break developing and practicing his interpretation. Here鈥檚 a brief about that process, and here is the . It was so meaningful to have this new layer added to the piece as a result of Jadyn鈥檚 enterprise and talent. His dedication to his art was evident in each and every gesture.
We ended the year by singing at the Baccalaureate service, and we bid a fond farewell to our graduating seniors.
Additional Past Seasons
It was such a joy to begin rehearsing again in person this year. The choir was highly capable and well-balanced, and we enjoyed a year filled with great music and good companionship. We started out with a get-to-know-each-other picnic at John's house, with volleyball and cornhole games.
As is our tradition, a few weeks later, we also got up early to view the fall equinox together as the sun streamed between the two arches that are placed exactly on the east and west (in the photo, Maddie seems to be holding the equinox sun in her hands).
We spent the fall preparing for a beautiful concert in November called 鈥.鈥 (Here's the ). Highlights from that concert include a simple, moving song, sung in Arabic, about the struggle against violence titled 鈥Lao Rahal Soti;鈥 鈥淪ing to the Moon,鈥 a consoling piece by the British/Jamaican recording artist Laura Mvula; the magisterial ninth movement from Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil; and three rich works for double choir, 鈥Singet dem Herrn,鈥 by Heinrich Sch眉tz; 鈥Dormiva dolcemente,鈥 by Giovanni Gabrielli; and 鈥淭he Spheres,鈥 by Ola Gjeilo. It was a special pleasure to have a choir that was capable of performing these works that require the ensemble to split into two fully functional, balanced choirs. We had the special opportunity to meet online with , the composer of a fine arrangement of 鈥淧oor Wayfaring Stranger,鈥 and we were honored to have soprano join us for a performance of Undine Smith Moore's 鈥淢other to Son.鈥
After the fall semester, we returned early for a four-day winter-break retreat. It was a gift to have this time to strengthen our bonds and to spend a few days focused exclusively on choral music. We worked on Jan Dismas Zelenka's Missa Omnium Sanctorum, a fabulous work for choir and orchestra that has some of the most virtuosic choral writing that you will find in the baroque era. The music of Zelenka, a Czech composer who spent most of his career in Dresden, Germany, has been said to combine the complexity and majesty of J. S. Bach with the tunefulness of Handel. On the weekend of March 13, the orchestra came down from the twin cities to rehearse with us, and we had a rousing performance of the Zelenka Mass in Sebring-Lewis Hall.
A week later, we began our spring-break tour, and the choir loaded on the bus to head to St. Paul to perform again with the orchestra in four concerts, two at Hamline University on Saturday and two in Rochester on Monday. In between these concerts, we had a day-long recording session. The long hours of recording were grueling, but it was also deeply rewarding to have this opportunity to delve further into this remarkable music together with such an outstanding group of professional musicians.
After our three days in the Twin Cities, we traveled on to Madison, where we performed a completely different program 鈥 our 鈥淭he Stars Will Shine鈥 program from the fall, with the addition of a beautiful piece by Caroline Shaw, 鈥渁nd the swallow.鈥 We were so fortunate to be welcomed by a warm audience at First United Methodist Church in Madison. It was certainly a challenge to switch gears musically in one day, but the choir performed admirably. We then headed to Chicago where we had a little bit of time to explore the city.
Our concert in Chicago at Wicker Park Lutheran Church in Chicago went beautifully, as the choir found more secure footing with the fall repertoire. After a long drive back to Iowa, we finished up our tour at Plymouth Congregational Church in Des Moines. The season didn't stop there, however. During the last few weeks of the semester, we combined forces with the Oratorio Society and produced a fine performance of Schubert's Mass in G Major, 鈥淐antique de Jean Racine鈥 by Gabriel Faur茅, and the thrilling 鈥淭ryptich鈥 by Tarik O'Regan.
The 2020鈥21 Season
As with all the choirs across the world, this year was without a doubt the most challenging we鈥檝e ever experienced. It was tough, but we found ways to cope and to keep the flame alive. In the fall, when the college was meeting exclusively online, we had virtual visits from various guests such as Joel Thompson (the composer of Seven Last Words of the Unarmed whom we are commissioning in the coming year), Mary Moore Easter (poet, and daughter of composer Undine Smith Moore, known as the 鈥淒ean of African-American Women Composers), Sarah Cowan 鈥08 (91大神 alum and accomplished choral conductor), and the distinguished African-American composer Adolphus Hailstork. We produced several virtual choir videos: by Jocelyn Hagen, by Undine Smith Moore (贬补苍诲别濒鈥檚 and we presented an online concert titled . The 鈥淗补苍诲蝉鈥 video was emailed by the college to thousands of 91大神 alumni as a holiday greeting.
In the spring, we began rehearsals with about half the choir that was present on campus. We rehearsed in groups of 10, 10 feet apart, with masks and shields, for a half hour at a time, in the Bucksbaum rotunda (which was chosen for its excellent ventilation). It was such a pleasure to have the opportunity to sing together, even though the restrictions made it hard to hear each other. On the plus side, each individual really had to learn to carry their part solidly on their own without relying on the rest of the section. At the spring equinox, we gathered at dawn at Gates Tower, as is our tradition, to greet the sun shining through the two perfectly aligned archways on campus. We were asked by the college Development Office to make a video for the alumni reunion, and a professional film crew flew in from New York to make a music video of 鈥淭o Sit and Dream鈥 by Rosephanye Powell. It felt Hollywoodish as we were ordered around by the director with a bullhorn, and as we tried our best to ignore the buzzing drone camera flying around our heads. We created the audio using the virtual choir procedures, and that audio was then synched up with the video materials. We ended the year with a lovely picnic for the 28 Singers who were on campus.
We had a year of great successes, and great promise, during which we developed a highly capable 58-voice choir that was at the top of its game, with a wonderfully positive group spirit, ready to take on the world 鈥 and then came the crushing disappointments of the pandemic that has devastated choral singing. It has been hard, but through it all, we have emerged a resilient choir, ready to move forward and with a renewed and intensified commitment to our beloved art. We鈥檒l linger just a moment to contemplate the tantalizing plans that had to be cancelled: We had a truly spectacular Central-European tour arranged, with 72 participants, funded through the college鈥檚 Innovation Fund, the Institute for Global Engagement, and the Department of Music. We were to perform two concert programs, one orchestral and one unaccompanied, and we were to collaborate with numerous Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian singers and musicians. Music was to be a bridge that fosters connections between people who are widely separated by geography and culture. The tour also had official endorsement and support from the American embassies in the cities we were planning to visit. The 91大神 Singers were to perform three concerts of Mozart鈥檚 Requiem and John Rommereim鈥檚 Convivencia with professional orchestra and soloists, and three additional concerts that highlight aspects of American music. The choir鈥檚 performance at Bratislava鈥檚 RTV Auditorium was planned as a benefit concert for the Slovak Cancer Society. The tour included concerts in Des Moines, Budapest, Vienna, Bratislava, Karlovy Vary (near Prague), Prague, and Brno.
But like so many plans of so many choirs around the world, this tour was not to be. We have maintained the strong group spirit we had developed before we were forced to separate, and we continue to engage in creative projects. We created two virtual choir videos, 鈥溾 by Jocelyn Hagen, and 鈥溾 by Samuel Barber. These videos are still in development, and they will continue to expand. It doesn鈥檛 substitute for the experience of singing together in real time, but it is satisfying nonetheless to still have the ability to create fine, subtle works of art together in this new medium. You can have a taste of the choir鈥檚 2020 season from the videos we made just a few days before we had to separate: , by William Averitt, and , by Anders Paulsson. And here is a movement from our fall 2019 performance of Mozart鈥檚 Requiem, 鈥.鈥
As we look forward to the coming year, we face some uncertainty, but we also have some exciting plans that continue to inspire and motivate us. We are planning to commission a new choral work from the outstanding composer Joel Thompson. We performed Thompson鈥檚 beautiful 鈥淗old Fast to Dreams鈥 last year and found it to be so inspiring and uplifting. Joel Thompson is an important voice in today鈥檚 world, and we look forward to helping to bring his music into the world.
We鈥檙e also planning a complete performance of Sergei Rachmaninov鈥檚 All-Night Vigil op. 37 in the coming year. This work is so filled with beauty; it is such an intense and rewarding experience for the choir to take this journey together through this 70-minute unaccompanied choral masterpiece. The 91大神 Singers have produced a fine recording of the complete work in previous years. Here is a sample from their recording, Movement II, 鈥.鈥
We kicked off the fall season with our annual retreat at CERA, the College鈥檚 nature preserve. We had a great time out in the country playing some games, hiking, brainstorming, discussing our plans for the year, and, of course, singing. In December, we performed a very special concert of Craig Hella Johnson鈥檚 oratorio, Considering Matthew Shepard. This was such a powerful event; we had numerous people who reported to us that it was the most significant choral concert they have ever attended. One audience member even was moved to write several beautiful poems in tribute to the concert. 鈥淐onsidering Matthew Shepard鈥 has quickly become one of the country鈥檚 most treasured choral works since its premiere in 2016. The work centers on the shocking story of Shepard, a University of Wyoming student who in 1998 was beaten and left for dead for being gay. At that time, Johnson was profoundly affected by the news of Shepard鈥檚 death, as were so many were others worldwide. Yet his artistic response took many years to develop, as he contemplated and processed this deeply troubling story. Eighteen years later, Johnson finished composing what Jason Marsden, executive director of the , called, 鈥淏y far the most intricate, beautiful and unyielding artistic response to this notorious anti-gay hate crime.鈥 Here is a from our concert.
In March, we pursued an exciting collaboration with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra from the Twin Cities. Together with this professional period-instrument ensemble, we presented three performances of Handel鈥檚 (click for recording) and J. S. Bach鈥檚 Major in 91大神 and in St. Paul and Rochester Minnesota. One of our most illustrious musical alumni, , joined us as baritone soloist for these concerts. This is the third time that the 91大神 Singers have teamed up with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra. Our 2017 concerts, under the direction of guest conductor Simon Carrington, were hailed as 鈥渟uperbly nimble and confident鈥 by the Rochester Post-Bulletin. Our first collaboration in 2015, on Handel鈥檚 Esther was also very successful. (Here鈥檚 a , soprano soloist with the orchestra from our concert). We are so pleased to have this ongoing relationship with this fine ensemble, and their musical director, Jacques Ogg.
Following our Twin-Cities concerts with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra during the first two days of spring break, we continued on the road, performing concerts on our own on our spring-break tour, with performances in Madison, Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois; and Newton, Iowa.
The 91大神 Singers performing 鈥淎ll of Us鈥 in collaboration with the choir of First Presbyterian Church in Newton, Iowa
Finally, the year culminated with a splendid performance of Mozart鈥檚 Grand Mass in C Minor in collaboration with the 91大神 Orchestra and the 91大神 Oratorio Society. It was a year filled with great variety that included no less than four major works (Considering Matthew Shepard, Bach鈥檚 Mass in A Major, Handel鈥檚 Dixit Dominus, and Mozart鈥檚 Grand Mass in C Minor.) The choir was noticeably quicker at learning new music by the end of the year after all of this intense music-making.
We started of the year by loading up a school bus and heading out to the CERA prairie for a retreat. It was a great way to start to build a team and for the new folks to get to get acquainted with the 鈥渙ld鈥 folks.
One special project we pursued in 2017鈥18 was our collaboration with the Al-Bustan Takht ensemble, a professional group from Philadelphia who are steeped in Arab musical traditions. This project offered us an opportunity for substantial engagement with Arabic music and poetry. The collaborative concert consisted of music that combines Arab musical traditions with Western choral and instrumental traditions. Composer Kareem Roustom visited 91大神 in the fall to work with the choir, meet with student composers, and to give the 91大神 musicians a sense of the musical tradition. The composer Kinan Abou-afach also visited in February to work with the choir, and the Al Bustan Takht Ensemble then came to 91大神 for three days to rehearse and perform with the 91大神 Singers in late February of 2018.
Another exciting project we pursued was the performance of Caroline Shaw鈥檚 recent work, . Caroline Shaw is the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in music 鈥 and the only woman to ever receive that award. Her piece focuses on the issues of refugee resettlement and homelessness. Rather than charging a fee for the performance materials, Shaw provides them for free with the strict stipulation that the ensemble must make funding efforts to contribute toward the resolution of these problems. The musical work uses phrases from the poem inscribed in the Statue of Liberty and holds them up to the listener as a provocative challenge. We performed in a special fundraising event in Marshalltown to benefit Immigrant Allies of Marshalltown. We also raised money at our regular concerts to benefit Lutheran Immigrant Services and Immigrant Allies of Marshalltown. Here is a in Dallas, while on tour in March.
We completed a tour to New Orleans, with concerts in Des Moines, Lawrence, Kansas City, Tulsa, Dallas, and New Orleans. In April, following our tour, Anthony Fu 鈥19 worked with the choir as part of his Mentored Advanced Project in choral conducting. Anthony conducted the choir at each of the tour concerts, and in May, he conducted the choir in a short concert of 鈥淎esop鈥檚 Fables鈥 by Bob Chilcott. Here鈥檚 a conducting the choir on Brahms鈥檚 鈥淥 sch枚ne Nacht.鈥
The 91大神 Singers had an action-packed year in 2016鈥17.
One highlight came in March when our tour performance with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra was hailed as 鈥渟uperbly nimble and confident鈥 in a Rochester Post-Bulletin Newspaper review. The ensemble participated in a two-week residency with the renowned conductor Simon Carrington (founding member of the King鈥檚 Singers and professor emeritus at Yale), who conducted the group together with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, a professional period-instrument ensemble based in the Twin Cities. This was the second collaboration with this outstanding ensemble, and it was so successful that we have established a regular relationship with the group, and we are looking forward to another collaboration with them in 2019.
Over the course of the year, the 91大神 Singers also participated in a performance of Handel鈥檚 Messiah, and the German Requiem of Johannes Brahms 鈥 two of the most celebrated choral/orchestral works in the repertoire. A rich and rewarding year of choral music.
Past Tours
In past years, the 91大神 Singers have completed tours to Finland, Estonia, Russia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Their 2012 tour took them into Canada, with concerts in Chicago, Ann Arbor, Toronto, and Montreal, culminating in a concert at Boston University, and in 2013, they traveled to California, with concerts all along the coast, from San Francisco to San Diego.
Accomplishments
The Singers have produced two recordings:
- a CD of the complete All-Night Vigil by Rachmaninov () 鈥 hailed for its 鈥渃onsummate artistry鈥 by Iowa Public Radio host Kurt Snook, and
- Seeking After that Sweet Golden Clime, a varied collection () with Jonathan Dove鈥檚 The Passing of the Year as its centerpiece.
They have been honored with two ACDA convention invitations.
The ensemble regularly performs works by its members, and a number of students in the ensemble have gone on to careers as composers. We were proud to see that works by 91大神 Singers alum Jisoo Ben Kim 鈥08, for example, was performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale. The performance by this world-class choir was facilitated by the fact that the 91大神 Singers had taken the time and effort to record these works, which helped them to be published 鈥 which in turn brought them to the attention of the LA Master Chorale.
Each year, we have a composition contest to provide 91大神 students the opportunity to have their music performed by the choir.
In addition, in previous years the ensemble has commissioned several major composers. In 2006, the Singers commissioned an extended work from the 2005 Pulitzer Award winner, Steven Stucky in a consortium with the Kansas City Chorale, the Phoenix Bach Choir, and Seattle Pro Musica.
The 91大神 Singers鈥 2012 season featured the premiere of a commissioned work, 鈥淎nything Can Happen,鈥 by Mohammed Fairouz (). In pursuing this project, the ensemble formed a consortium with three of the country鈥檚 most distinguished choirs: the Back Bay Chorale and the Marsh Chapel Choir of Boston, Scott Jarrett, Conductor, and Cantori New York, Mark Shapiro, Conductor. Through these commissioning projects, the 91大神 Singers are playing a role in advancing the choral art in the twenty-first century.
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