The Tabor College Concert Choir will head north for its annual spring tour, March 14-23. The choir will visit five states during the 10-day tour, performing 11 concerts.
One stop on tour will be Tuesday, March 18 to perform at the First Lutheran Church located at 410 Main Street in Onalaska, Wis. at 7:00 p.m. The choir, under the direction of Dr. Brad Vogel, professor of choral music, will perform its concert series with the theme “I Lift My Voice.”
“The voice is a primary means of communicating our relationship with God, in both song and speech,” Vogel said. “The texts of the songs divide into three modes of communication: praise, prayer and proclamation. Each song is either a setting of scripture or a personal expression of relationship with God.”
The choir’s repertoire spans the gamut of sacred choral music, from Renaissance, Baroque and Classical motets, to contemporary sacred choral music by British, Australian, French and American composers.
A variety of accompaniment instruments will be featured in each concert, including piano, oboe, trumpet and a string quartet. Student instrumental performers include Zach Neumann, Janelle Rust and Megan Wiebe on piano, Benjamin Wiens on oboe, Matthew Wiebe on trumpet, and a string quartet of Ryan Loewen and Cheyenne Derksen on violin, Rachael Wedel on viola and Natalie Wiens on cello.
Noted for the vitality of its singing and clarity of expression, the Concert Choir has been selected to perform for the Kansas Music Educators Association State Convention five times under Vogel’s direction. It has been a guest choir twice on the Wichita State University campus, as well as selected to sing for the inauguration of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback.
Vogel notes the focus of the concert as a “sermon in choral music.”
“The repertoire begins with proclaiming the goodness of God and calling people to respond with praise,” he said. “God’s grace and faithfulness is noted in the songs of prayer, and the final section—a collection of spirituals—proclaim the greatness of God and call us to commitment to Him.”