It is that time of year when Northwestern College’s A capella Choir heads out on their annual tour. This year the choir plans to stay relatively local by going to area schools and churches in Orange City, Sheldon, Sioux Falls Christian and other places as well. The tour will only last a few days over the weekend, April 8-11, but it is packed full of concerts and other activities.
This year COVID-19 made it so the tour will not have any overnight stays off campus. They will head out in the morning to their location and come back when they are finished at the end of the day. They will wear masks except when they’re performing, similar to their previous concerts.
The choir performed on Thursday, April 8 at First Reformed Church in Hull, Iowa. They will also perform at Sheldon High School, Unity Christian and Rock Rapids First Reformed Church over this weekend.
When a choir member Katie Struck was asked for her thoughts she said that she was excited to be spending an extended period of time with her choir family and building stronger bonds among the choir while making a lot of great memories. To continue ptomoting this bonding, the choir is planning to have time to hang out together getting ice cream and even going bowling.
One tradition of this community is the song that the choir will end with. The song is “Beautiful Savior” and they allow alumni to join them in their singing as well. It just proves how close knit the choir family is and the connections that they still have.
As Katie said, “It takes a lot of work but is a lot of fun.” She expressed that she thinks this is when the choir grows the most as they are able to spend so much time together.
The choir’s repertoire, a little longer than usual, is a list containing a variety of songs. Some of the songs are new that the choir is excited to share mixed with a few older ones. They will sing “It Is Well With My Soul”, “William Tell Overture”, “Dawn and Dusk” among others.
There are themes of the presence of God expressed with and without words. Director Thomas Holm took on the challenge of singing songs not only without words to convey the theme of the tour, but also incorporated songs in other languages, such as Taiwanese. There is also a variety of soloists that will perform over the course of the tour as well.
As the choir tours the local area, they will be ambassadors for not only Northwestern but also the music department. During and after their concerts they will have a chance to show how Raiders stand out, showing God’s light throughout whatever environment they are in.
While most of their tour will be happening away from the college, they will have a homecoming concert in Christ Chapel on April 16 at 7:30 p.m. to wrap up their tour experience. This is a chance for campus as well as others from the community to come and experience the songs that they shared while on tour. 
