"'A culture of quality' emanates from the Alexandria Area High School music department," says choral director Steven Deitz. It provides student leadership that influences the academics and athletics. There is a strong, decades-old tradition of excellence in the choral, as well as band and orchestral, ensembles that are highly valued by the Alexandria community at large — something for which Deitz is very grateful.
Formed in 1939, the Concert Choir is the preeminent of the four curricular choirs and has only had three different directors in the past 62 years (Deitz has been there for 27 years). Made up of 50 sophomores, juniors and seniors, the Concert Choir rehearses every other day for 86 minutes, preparing for a variety of concerts and festivals throughout the academic year.
In the past year, the choir has received several invitations to participate in prestigious choral events. Last April, they sang at Orchestra Hall in the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Choral Arts Finale. This fall they have already participated in the USA Choral Festival and were the guest honor choir at the St. Olaf Choral Festival. The Concert Choir has also had the opportunity to work with some pretty exceptional figures from the world of choral music, including Dr. Jo-Michel Scheibe (of the USC Thornton School of Music, and national president of the ACDA), local powerhouse Cantus, and Classical MPR's very own Manager of Choral Works Initiative, Tesfa Wondemagegnehu.
The Alexandria Concert Choir is committed to performing works that encompass a wide range of styles and eras, from the Renaissance to contemporary commissions. For instance, at the 63rd Annual Kiwanis Concert on March 16, 2015, they will be premiering a new work commissioned from Colorado composer Timothy Tharaldson, entitled "From This Hour, Freedom!"
Recently, the choir performed a song with a chant melody that would be familiar to a large proportion of the American public — certainly those with children. Eatnemen Vuelie (Joik of the Earth), by Norwegian composer Frode Fjellheim, was originally composed in 1996 for Cantus (not the ensemble we in Minnesota immediately think of, however; this is a Norwegian women's chamber choir). It includes a "joik" part in the 2nd alto, which is a traditional style of Sámi (Laplander from the northern-most regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland as well as the Kola Peninsula of Russia) chant paired with a Danish hymn known in America as "Fairest Lord Jesus." This style of singing surely wouldn't be recognizable outside of Scandinavia, had not the makers of Disney's "Frozen" happened by this song on Cantus's 2011 Norwegian Voices CD. They asked Fjellheim if they could rewrite the music, removing the hymn, but leaving the "joik" as they were keen to include traditional Nordic elements of all sorts in the movie. The result is called simply Vuelie, which means "joik" in the southern Sámi language, and is featured in the opening of the movie. You can hear the Alexandria Concert Choir perform the original by clicking the media player.
The Alexandria Concert Choir will next perform at their Christmas Concerts on Sunday, December 21 at 3:00 and 5:30 p.m. The performances will include the high school orchestra and the 58-voice Select Women's Choir.
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