Bill Beckstrand
A composition by Bill Beckstrand of Cook County will be featured during the National Lutheran Choir’s All Saints Concert in the Twin Cities.
The National Lutheran Choir, under the direction of David Cherwien, will perform the annual All Saints concert, Kyrie: Journey to Light, at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5 in Christ Chapel on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter.
Following its tradition, the choir’s All Saints program honors those people “who have gone before us, those with whom we journey now in our lifetime, and those who will follow.”
Surrounded by candles, the choir and audience journey together—towards the light—with deep music, hymns sung by all and spirituals. Along this “journey” will be well-known spirituals in settings by Undine Smith Moore, J. Melvin Butler, Paul Caldwell/ Sean Ivory, and Harry T. Burleigh. The choir will also sing music of Rutter, Tarik O’Regan and Stephen Paulus. Of special note will be Ola Gjeilo’s mystical setting of the St. John of the Cross poem Dark Night of the Soul for string quartet, piano and choir. Also performed will be Paul John Rudoi’s setting of Amazing Grace and Beckstrand’s hauntingly beautiful O Happy Tears.
The National Lutheran Choir’s mission is to seek to strengthen, renew and preserve the Lutheran heritage of choral music through the highest standards of performance and literature. Its rich and diverse repertoire ranges from early chant to new compositions and from simple folk anthems to complex orchestral masterworks.
Members of the National Lutheran Choir are drawn from the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area and beyond. The ensemble presents a wide range of choral works in concert and worship settings, leads workshops in choral techniques, hymnody and liturgy, commissions and publishes new compositions, and broadcasts and records extensively.
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