NEW MUSIC MAJOR

Check out the webpage and video about the new Music Ministry Emphasis here!

SPRING TOURS 

(March 3-11) John S. Herlihy led the NWC Symphonic Band and Jazz Ensemble on tour throughout Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota, performing concerts at Casper College (Casper, Wyoming), Manhattan Christian School (Manhattan, Montana), Billings West High School (hosted by Sarah Zerbe Hanson, NWC '08 alumna, in Billings, Montana), and Bismarck Baptist Church (Bismarck, North Dakota). In addition, several chamber ensembles participated in Sunday worship at Bethel Christian Reform Church in Manhattan, Montana. Of special note was an evening concert at the Absarokee Evangelical Church in Absarokee, a small church tucked away in the hills of Montana, where -- after having been on the road for six days -- the ensemble was feeling the strains and stresses of tour. There was a palpable sense of spiritual attack that evening, so several students prayed in earnest asking God to show his presence in a mighty way. He did just that and it became a night that will forever be etched in the memories of the performers and those who attended.

(April 2-4) Dr. Mary Kay Geston led the NWC Women's Chorale on a tour to South Dakota and Iowa on which the choir performed in concert with a women's ensemble from Sioux Falls' Washington High School directed by NWC alumna Emily Cromwell Danger ('06). They also sang at two worship services at Faith Baptist Fellowship Church, Sioux Falls, and sang for the entire student body of Western Christian High School in Hull, Iowa. During their Homecoming concert, alumna Andrea Needham ('10) performed as guest flutist with the choir.

(April 1-3) Timothy Sawyer conducted the Northwestern College Choir on tour to Duluth. En route, the choir sang for about 500 high school singers at Mounds View, Irondale and Duluth East High Schools, followed by concerts in Duluth. The NWC Choir also took part in a recording session at University of Minnesota-Duluth's Weber Music Hall.

(April 8-10) Timothy Sawyer led the NWC Varsity Men's Chorus on tour to the Rochester area. En route, the choir sang for and ate lunch with the inmates of the Red Wing Correctional Facility. In Rochester, they performed at Schaeffer Academy, St. Mary's Chapel (in St. Mary's Hospital), and in a joint concert with choirs from nearby Stewartville High School. Their conductor, Nick Johnson, said of the combined concert, "that was one of the most meaningful choral experiences of my life." The next morning the Men's Chorus sang at Grace Ev. Free Church, where NWC alumnus Andrew Langseth ('07) leads the youth and music ministry, as they baptized 10 youths from the community -- including some students from Stewartville High School, which moved their director, Nick, to tears. Langseth wrote in a letter to Sawyer: "... Your time spent investing in Nick has ignited a passion in him to serve these students in a completely different way! Never for a second underestimate the way God will use your 'little Minnesota tour' to do amazing kingdom work."

Orchestra Tour 2011 to France and Switzerland
Postcards from America: A Musical Journey Through the Ages

  Orchestra Tour 2011 at the Eiffel Tower

 Orchestra performance at the Church of St. Denis Nuits, St. Georges, France

(May 16-26) David Kozamchak, conductor, and Julie Johnson, tour director, led the Northwestern College Orchestra, joined by Leonard Danek, organist, on an international tour to France and Switzerland. On the way to France they enjoyed a layover in London and toured many historic sites. While in France, they toured the city of Toulousse and the beautiful walled cities and castles of Carcassonne and Avignon, along with a drive through the French countryside to Lavaur for their first European concert at Halle aux Grains. In Switzerland, they toured Geneva and the castle Chateau de Chillon, viewing the spectacular Swiss Alps. They had the amazing opportunity to perform in the Sunday services of Cathedral of Saint-Pierre in Geneva, the protestant cathedral where John Calvin preached, and they also toured the Museum of the Reformation followed by a concert at Calvin College where they received standing ovations. The audiences especially appreciated NWC '10 alumnus Jordan Cox's original composition "Andante and Capriccio for English Horn and Orchestra," featuring Colton Cox on English horn. At the concert at the Church of St. Denis in Nuits St. Georges, Leonard Danek played works by Alexandre Guilmant on the very organ for which the Guilmant pieces were written. Northwestern College President Alan Cureton joined the group for three concerts, including the final concert at the Lutheran Church of St. Marcel in Paris, France. The group enjoyed many of the sites of Paris for their final days of the tour, including the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum. 

FACULTY NEWS

Dr. Leonard Danek, organist, performed his original composition, Fantasy on "By the Sea of Crystal," on the Organ Alumni Showcase at the University of Minnesota this spring. The organ was the 109-rank Aeolian-Skinner organ at Northrop Auditorium.  He also performed on the Fisk tracker organ at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church during the Northwestern College Orchestra Bon Voyage Concert.  This concert included a Handel organ concerto and three rarely performed pieces by Guilmant for organ and orchestra, as well as orchestral music by composers Korngold, Respighi, Copland and Sousa. Danek and the Orchestra toured France and Switzerland in May (see full report in this issue under "Tours").

This spring Dr. Mary Kay Geston was the featured conductor of the North Dakota All-State Women's Choir, the Mississippi 8 Conference Honor Choir at Cambridge-Isanti High School, and the BOCH Honors Festival Women's Honor Choir at University of Nebraska, Omaha. She presented "Making a New Case: Why We Must Change How We Talk About Music" at the Minnesota Music Educators Association In-Service Clinic and at the NWC Faculty Scholarship Symposium. Additionally, Dr. Geston adjudicated at the Minnesota Association of Christian Schools' Music and Fine Arts Festival and led a clinic for the Robbinsdale Armstrong High School Women's Choir in Nazareth Chapel.

Dr. Mary Kay Geston, Dr. Jeremy Kolwinska, and Rodney Loeffler adjudicated at the Minnesota Association of Christian Schools' Music and Fine Arts Festival at Fourth Baptist Christian School, Plymouth, Minnesota, April 8, 2011.

Dr. Cheryl Kelley, bassoon, performed in the following:  Strauss: Suite in Bb for Winds with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (January 2011); Adams: Chamber Symphony and Hindemith: Kammermusik #5 with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (March 2011); Minnesota Opera: reading sessions on Kevin Puts: Silent Night, an opera premiere (for fall 2011); and Minnesota Orchestra: Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (May 2011).

David Kozamchak was guest conductor and clinician for the Northwest Suburban Conference High School Music Festival held at Maple Grove High School on February 7, 2011.  Kozamchak worked with nine area high schools and conducted the All-Conference Orchestra for this event.  On May 11, David Kozamchak served as the guest clinician for the Robbinsdale Middle School Honor Orchestra.  The clinic session was held on the Northwestern College campus and, in the words of Lucas Shogren, Robbinsdale High School Orchestra Director, the students "had a blast and really got a lot out of the masterclass."

Dr. Phil Norris was selected to be included in an upcoming book entitled Trumpet Greats, a biographical dictionary of about 2,000 important trumpeters since the Baroque era. The book is being written by David Hickman and edited by Ed Tarr and Michel Laplace. In addition, as prelude to the International Trumpet Guild conference in Minneapolis May 24-28, Norris was part of a large trumpet choir playing at the Minnesota Twins game on Monday, May 23. Norris also performed with the conference's Festival of Trumpets which included portions of his arrangement of Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. 

Dr. Barbara Rogers composed "My song is love unknown" for soprano, trumpet, and organ in November 2010, and it was premiered by Cathy Larsen, Phil Norris, and Leonard Danek at the Faculty Artist Recital in January 2011.  Manna!, a children's biblical musical composed by Barbara Rogers in June 2000, was premiered by the Academy Youth Choir directed by Marlene Lee (April 2011). 

This spring, Timothy Sawyer conducted 400 high school singers from 10 Christian schools in the ACSI Northern California Honor Choir in Sacramento (March 2011); he led three rehearsals and a performance of Johannes Brahms' A German Requiem for the Minnesota Chorale's InChoir series, an innovative program in which outside guests join the Chorale in an engaging and interactive rehearsal/performance choral masterwork experience. Finally, on a two-week teaching trip (May 16-31) to L'viv, Luts'k, Zaporizhya and Kiev, Ukraine under the auspices of Music in World Cultures, Inc., Sawyer taught conducting, choral approaches to tone and blend, group vocal master class and vocal health.

Matthew Wilson has been occasional guest Principal Horn with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra this past season.      

OPENING THIS FALL

New Billy Graham Community Life Center.