November 2, 2008 

3:00 p.m. 

St. John's University Great Hall,  Collegeville

This concert focuses on the largest immigrant population that calls Minnesota home and features works drawn from Minnesota's rich German heritage, including J.S. Bach's Magnificat.  To connect Minnesota's past and present immigrants, Somali students from Technical High School in St. Cloud will perform cultural dances.  Several choral works with dance roots will be performed:  "The Promise of Living" and "Stomp Your Foot" from Aaron Copland's The Tender Land along with Libby Larsen's The Settling Years, which sets pioneer texts and offers a barn dance.  Liebeslieder Polkas by P.D.Q. Bach, Johann Sebastian's "last and least offspring," gathers together the various threads of this program and adds a touch of humor. 

December 12 & 13, 2008                     

St. John's University: Great Hall, Collegeville

A multi-course gourmet dinner and an array of lively holiday music performed in the resplendently bedecked

Great Hall makes this annual series a favorite seasonal celebration.  An opportunity to hear a wide variety of

music by Minnesota composers.

March 22, 2009   3:00 p.m.                      

Bethlehem Lutheran Church, St. Cloud

Minnesota is a land of legend and lore. The music of this concert will tell of these legends, from folk songs to selections from Benjamin Britten's Paul Bunyan. This concert will include songs from Minnesota's French Canadian connections, e.g., voyageurs, logging, canoeing, and fur trapping.  Guest:  Native American storyteller.  Collaboration with St. John's Boys' Choir, André-Louis Heywood (artistic director).

May 17th,  2009                                                                                                                            3:00pm                                                                   Salem Lutheran Church, St. Cloud

Home is a word that resonates with meaning, and the music of this concert expresses home and its varied impact in our lives. We sing about experiences by Irish and Swedish immigrants, a set of American ballads and songs about home, and works by Minnesota composers, including “The Road Home” by Stephen Paulus. Hear works by Minnesota composers of Chinese heritage and our special guest, The Minhua Chorus, an ensemble from the Twin Cities whose mission is to maintain and enhance the cultural heritage and identity of the Chinese community and to promote cultural exchange and understanding between people of different ethnic backgrounds. Minhua Chorus and a pipa performer (Chinese lute) perform “Coming of Spring” by Gao Hong. MCC presents “A Spring Morning” by Zhang Ying, who will perform with the chorale and as a soloist on hulusi (Chinese wind instrument). The Choruses join together in a performance of a familiar Chinese folksong, "Jasmine Flower" (Mo Li Hua) sung in English translation.