Choir tour offers students exciting learning experience, new challenges

The sounds of million-dollar pipe organs blended with the voices from Chadron State College’s Concert Choir as they toured Colorado’s Front Range last weekend.  Thirty two students from the Concert Choir performed three times with an organ accompaniment during the trip; once in Colorado Springs and twice in Fort Collins.

Tenor Brendan Mead, junior of Knoxville, Iowa, said Tuesday that the tour highly rewarding.

“It was a great experience to go and perform that caliber of music,” Mead said, “especially for a college our size.”

“It’s high-impact learning experiences like this that really affect the students,” Joel Schreuder, CSC Choir director, said Tuesday.

The tour gave the choir students a valuable opportunity, because it is often challenging to find an accompanist, much less a pipe organ.  The Concert Choir originally had a scheduled choral and organ performance in Rapid City, S.D., on April 5; however, its organist became ill on short notice, forcing Schreuder to cancel the performance.

Struggling to find an alternate before the Colorado tour, Schreuder was referred to Joel Bacon, organist and liturgical director for Colorado State University.  Bacon agreed to accompany the choir only nine days before the start of the tour.  Some of the compositions were difficult Schreuder said, but Bacon was highly enthusiastic and managed to play them remarkably, given the narrow time frame he was given to prepare.

The first concert was Friday at the First United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs. Arriving mid-afternoon, the choir met Bacon, practiced for two hours, and performed together Friday evening.  The choir then travelled Saturday to the First Presbyterian Church in Fort Collins where, again accompanied by Bacon, it practiced and performed that evening.  The choir also performed select pieces from its concert during the church’s Sunday-morning service.

The first half of the Concert Choir’s performances centered on the centennial anniversary of notable English organist and choir composer, Benjamin Britten, and contained three of his compositions: “Jubilate Deo,” “Rejoice in the Lamb,” and “Festival Te Deum.”  Schreuder said that “Rejoice in the Lamb” was the most difficult piece the choir performed during the tour.

The choir also performed: “O, Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem,” composed by Herbert Howells; “Kyrie Eleison,” composed by Louis Vierne; “Lass Dich Nur Nichts Nicht Dauren,” composed by Johannes Brahms; “My Beloved Spake,” composed by Patrick Hadley; “God is Gone Up,” composed by Gerald Finzi; and an a cappella piece, “Grant Us Thy Peace,” composed by Geoff Wilcken.