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This academic year, the Augsburg Choir celebrates 75 years\u2014a choral tradition of distinction and excellence.<\/p>\nby Betsey Norgard<\/p>\n
This academic year, the Augsburg Choir celebrates 75 years\u2014a choral tradition of distinction and excellence.<\/p>\n
The Augsburg Choir was founded in 1933, when the Men\u2019s Glee Club and the Ladies\u2019 Choral Society, who had sung together on various occasions, voted to unite, under the direction of music department chair Henry P. Opseth. The first student president of the choir was a third-year music major and future choir conductor Leland B. Sateren.<\/p>\n
The new choir lost no time in preparing for tours and performances. In 1935, their tour through the Midwest took them more than 2,000 miles for 20 concerts, including a coast-to-coast broadcast in Chicago with the National Broadcasting System. On their return, they sang a home concert at Central Lutheran Church.<\/p>\n
Choir business manager Orville C. Hognander \u201936 planned the tour, plus arranged for a series of 18 Sunday evening radio broadcasts on WCCO radio, the \u201cHour Melodious.\u201d This program also was accessible over open channel across the country and brought visibility to Augsburg, reconnecting many alumni to the College.<\/p>\n
In 1946, Leland B. Sateren \u201935 returned to Augsburg to join the music faculty. Following Opseth\u2019s death in 1950, Sateren was named conductor of the Augsburg Choir.<\/p>\n
For the next 29 years, the Augsburg Choir developed its own distinctive tone quality, musicality, and professionalism under Sateren. While the choir continued to share the Gospel through church music, Sateren evolved a more contemporary classical sound, especially in his own compositions. His passion for Scandinavian music brought attention to music and composers relatively unknown in the U.S.<\/p>\n
In 1975, the Augsburg Choir\u2019s 40th anniversary tour took them to Scandinavia. They traveled by boat down the Norwegian coast, from above the Arctic Circle to Oslo, and sang in the Trondheim Cathedral.<\/p>\n
Leland Sateren retired in 1979, and the direction of the choir passed to Larry L. Fleming, a noted choral conductor and composer. In his first year, the choir was chosen as the official representative from the U.S. to sing in Augsburg, Germany, at the 450th commemoration of the Augsburg Confession.<\/p>\n
Fleming also established Advent Vespers, the College\u2019s annualholiday program, as a service of music and liturgy, which now attracts up to 8,000 people at its four services and will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2009.<\/p>\n
Fleming left Augsburg in 1986, and for the next several years the Augsburg Choir was under the direction of Thomas Rossin.<\/p>\n
In 1994, after serving a short time as interim director, Peter Hendrickson \u201976 was appointed the choir\u2019s new conductor. Over the past decade and a half, he has realized his vision for Augsburg\u2019s choral program\u2014one that offers distinct choral experiences for all students, including the extended Augsburg family, with different repertoires:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Augsburg Choir\u2014a cappella touring choir<\/p>\n
\u2022 Riverside Singers\u2014women\u2019s chorus<\/p>\n
\u2022 Cedar Singers\u2014men\u2019s chorus<\/p>\n
\u2022 Masterworks Chorale\u2014symphonic chorus<\/p>\n
All four choirs, as well as an orchestra and liturgical party, participate annually in Advent Vespers. In 2004, for the 25th anniversary, Twin Cities Public Television recorded the service and won a Regional Emmy award for the production. The program has been shown on public television during the holiday season since then.<\/p>\n
One of Hendrickson\u2019s passions is language, and to date, his choirs have sung in more than 15 languages. \u201cWe owe it to our students in the choral program to educate them not only in Augsburg\u2019s commitment to the Lutheran choral tradition, but also in creating, through music and language, a better understanding of other cultures and our responsibility to be world citizens,\u201d Hendrickson says.<\/p>\n
The Augsburg Choir\u2019s March tour this year took them south, traveling from Nebraska to Texas, and locations in between. Currently the choir is planning next year\u2019s tour, a trip that will take them to China in 2010.<\/p>\n
Hendrickson founded the Masterworks Chorale in 1994 as a symphonic chorus of approximately 100 voices, made up of students, faculty and staff, alumni, and others connected to the Augsburg community. Unique to a college campus, Masterworks Chorale presents programs of great choral works and explores new masterworks.<\/p>\n
In 1996, the chorale performed for the first time the entire Visions from Hildegaard by Minnesota composer Stephen Paulus. In 1997, it presented the English-language premiere of Norwegian composer Egil Hovland\u2019s opera, Captive and Free, and in 2001, the English-language version of Finnish composer and conductor Kari Tikka\u2019s opera, Luther.<\/p>\n
The Masterworks Chorale performs three times per year\u2014at fall and spring concerts, and for Advent Vespers. A number of chorale members are Augsburg alumni who sang as students in Leland Sateren\u2019s choirs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sateren choir alumni in Masterworks keep the legacy and spirit of the Sateren era alive,\u201d Hendrickson says. \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful connection for our current students, a passing of the torch, so to speak, from then to now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Betsey Norgard This academic year, the Augsburg Choir celebrates 75 years\u2014a choral tradition of distinction and excellence. The Augsburg Choir was founded in 1933, when the Men\u2019s Glee Club and the Ladies\u2019 Choral Society, who had sung together on various occasions, voted to unite, under the direction of music department chair Henry P. Opseth. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[39],"class_list":["post-839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-stories","tag-spring-2009"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7946,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions\/7946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}