Laura Dahl Popkes of Grand Marais will join the Weston Noble Alumni Choir in Decorah for its ninth and final reunion concert.
The choir, representing Luther classes from 1949 to 2013, will meet for five days of intense rehearsals starting July 26 and culminating in the final reunion concert that features a performance by award-winning tenor Eric Cutler, Luther class of 1999.
The performance took place July 31 in the Center for Faith and Life Main Hall on the Luther College campus in Decorah.
Weston Noble, Johnson Professor Emeritus of Music at Luther had a 57-year tenure in conducting and teaching at Luther. Noble, along with Luther Assistant Professor of Music Andrew Last, conducted the final reunion concert.
Music and family walk in lockstep throughout Luther’s history. Alumni Choir member Marilyn Fritz Shardlow, Luther class of 1972, notes that her grandfather Charles Fritz was the college’s valedictorian in 1911. Fritz, a religion major, was an active participant in music at Luther and went on to become a lifelong singer, instrumentalist and composer.
The extended family that has become the Weston Noble Alumni Choir formed in the summer of 2006. Myron Heaton, a 1968 Luther graduate and director of the Myron Heaton Chorale of Las Vegas, invited Noble to serve as guest conductor for his group’s concert tour of Europe. To augment Heaton’s ensemble, the two conductors invited Luther College Nordic Choir alumni to join the tour. The Luther singers returned with a pledge to organize a larger alumni event, which has taken place each summer since 2007, including a return to Europe in 2010 and a California tour in 2012.
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