Northwestern’s A Capella Choir is composed of 46 members of all grades who seek to glorify Christ through song. The director, Dr. Thomas Holm, has been leading the choir for many years, planning and executing domestic tours every year and even traveling internationally once every three years. His heart for Christ is more than evident through his love of discipline, the songs he chooses and the exhortations he provides for the encouragement of the ensemble. This year’s tour took place over the ten days of spring break and featured Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa, including the hometowns of various choir members. Mrs. Janelle Phinney, faculty in the music department, was the piano accompanist and “choir mom” on the trip, who not only provided beautiful music but priceless wisdom and encouragement.
On an average day, the choir would wake up early in the morning, drive to a local high school, and perform. While at the school, the choir would mingle with the students and promote NW. After the morning performance, the choir would eat lunch and drive to the next location. Upon arrival, the choir would have free time to explore the town or take a nap, after which would be rehearsal, a potluck dinner at the church and finally the performance. After the performance, the students would go home to the local host families to sleep before starting all over again the next day. Some of the most notable locations of the tour were Western Theological Seminary and the Mayo Clinic chapel in Rochester.
The religious repertoire included the hymns ‘Amazing Grace’ and the classic ‘Beautiful Savior,’ but also a baroque piece, ‘Crucifixus,’ and the South-African ‘Indodana,’ both of which display Christ’s sacrifice and passion. Alongside religious songs were also fun and upbeat ones like, ‘I’ll Tell My Ma,’ which is an Irish folk song, and ‘Since I Laid My Burden Down,’ which incorporates black gospel tunes. All the choir members thoroughly enjoyed singing these pieces.
A significant portion of Dr. Holm’s study is music from Taiwan. He has visited the country multiple times and has fallen in love with its music. The choir sang two songs from Taiwan, ‘Images of the Sea,’ which beautifully pictures the homesickness experienced by long-distance travelers, and ‘The Apple of Daddy’s Eye,’ which is about a Taiwanese official who was forced to flee his country amidst political trouble, tragically leaving his cherished son. In the song, the father lovingly beholds his son one last time. Because of the foreign language, this was the trickiest song for the choir to memorize, but also the most rewarding. Due to the choir’s struggles with Taiwanese, Dr. Holm, disappointed, was prepared to remove this song from the performance at Western Seminary. Senior choir member, Ben Geary, had this to say about that moment, “The choir became very disheartened, which was surprising to me…we wanted to see this piece being performed.” Ben Geary and Jacob Reitveld, as section leaders, proceeded to rehearse the lyrics with the choir during their free time. This was certainly a defining moment for the choir. According to Geary, “The choir had a passion for this, they get frustrated when they forget some things, but in the end…they are willing to put in extra work in the middle of a long tour. It was a really special moment.” The choir ended up performing ‘The Apple of Daddy’s Eye’ that night and every night following. This revived the spirit of the choir and showed Dr. Holm that they cared very much about what they were doing. Dr. Holm thinks highly of the ensemble, “Our students are the very best,” he said. “On the stage and off the stage…they are incredible representers of Christ.”
It was not all work and no play during the tour, either! The students had a two-day retreat at Camp Geneva in Holland, Michigan. During this break, the choir relaxed on the – albeit frozen – Lake Michigan beach, played dodgeball and volleyball, and assisted the camp with light groundskeeping. Freshman Hunter Johnson, when asked what his favorite part of the tour was, said, “…getting to know people. But specifically […] Camp Geneva when we had all that free time, being able to hang out with people I’ve never really talked to!”
By the end of the tour, the character of the choir had been tested (and proven), and new friendships had been forged. It was a beautiful, grueling, rewarding and sometimes hilarious experience for the choir.
To continue the music department’s string of tours, the NW symphonic band will depart this week with an ensemble of around sixty musicians. For four days, they will perform in various locations around Iowa. This concert features songs such as ‘Strange Humors,’ which incorporates a Middle Eastern sound, ‘Song of Solace,’ which is a tender yet powerful piece and ‘The Trombone King,’ which is as boisterous as it sounds. The band has been preparing for this tour for many weeks and is ready to share it with local high schools and churches. The band hopes and expects that it will be as fun and rewarding as the choir tour was!
THE NW SYMPHONIC BAND WILL ALSO BE TOURING
