The Gustavus Oratorio Festival, sponsored by the Department of Music at Gustavus Adolphus College, brings high schools choirs from around the region to campus for a day of choral study and performance. The Festival provides an opportunity to study choral music at the college level and to participate in the Festival Concert, presenting choral masterworks with a full symphonic orchestra. The 2010 Gustavus Oratorio Festival is Tuesday, April 20. The Festival Concert begins at 7:00 p.m. in Christ Chapel.
This year’s participants, more than 300 voices, include five choirs from four high schools. Participating choirs include the Jordan High School Choir, Brian Ohnsorg, conductor; the Sauk Rapids-Rice High School Concert Choir, Andrew Hasty, conductor; the Wayzata Concert Choir of Wayzata High School, Rebecca Wyffels, conductor and Jeff Dahl, associate conductor; and two choirs from Willmar High School, the Cardinal Choir, Neal Haugen conductor and the Choralaires, Suzanne Michelson, conductor.
The participating choirs, selected by audition, will have the opportunity to attend clinics, master’s classes and rehearsals throughout the day with voice and choral faculty from the Gustavus Department of Music. The primary focus for the choirs, and the festival, is the opportunity which high school choirs seldom experience — rehearsing and performing with a full symphonic orchestra.
The Festival’s evening concert will feature solo works by the high school choirs as well as selections from the Gustavus Choir, Gregory Aune, conductor and the Choir of Christ Chapel, Patricia Kazarow, conductor. The concert’s finale features all choirs in massed performance, joined by Gustavus student musicians. The finale opens with Ron Nelson’s Fanfare for a Festival, accompanied by brass and organ, followed by The Lord is a Mighty God by Felix Mendelssohn, with string orchestra. The performance concludes with two works accompanied by the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra under the direction of festival director and organizer, Gregory Aune. These final two works are Josef Haydn’s The Heavens are Telling and Roger Quilter’s Non nobis, Domine.
The Gustavus Oratorio Festival Concert is open to the public at no charge. It begins at 7:00 p.m. in Christ Chapel.