Heidelberg University-Community Chorus Concert

Everyone is invited to join the Heidelberg University-Community Chorus for our Fall Concert. 

Featured selections will include:

• Allen Pote: Break Forth Into Song
• Andrea Ramsey: Sing to Me
• Susan LaBarr: For This Joy
• Camille Saint-Saëns: Gloria in altissimis Deo
• Philip Kern Down: by the Riverside
• Jake Runestad: Peace Flows Into Me
• Patsy Ford Simms: Amani utupe
• Glorraine B. Moone and Rev. Freddie Washington: Unity
• Old Irish Blessing: James Biery

Some thoughts from the director:

This evening’s program, A Joyful Noise / A Deeper Peace, invites you on a musical journey that includes both exuberant praise and quiet serenity.

We open with a trio of selections centered on the theme of creation. Allen Pote’s rousing setting of Psalm 98 opens the concert with a joyous, universal call to praise the Creator. The mood shifts inward with Andrea Ramsey’s Sing to Me, which uses the changing seasons as a metaphor for transformation—casting off the cares of winter to embrace the hope of spring. Building on this movement from darkness to light, Susan LaBarr’s For This Joy constitutes a warm song of gratitude for the natural world and the earth’s gifts that sustain and fulfill us. That spirit of celebration continues with “Gloria in altissimis Deo” from Camille Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio. Here, the joyful proclamation of the Savior's birth seamlessly introduces the theme of peace—a thread that weaves through the remainder of our program. The traditional spiritual Down by the Riverside draws on Isaiah 2:4, painting a powerful picture of a world where tools of war are reshaped into instruments of agriculture, and lasting peace reigns. In a quieter turn, Jake Runestad’s setting of Sara Teasdale’s Peace reflects the gentle serenity of surrendering self-exaltation to reflect a greater glory. We then expand to a global perspective with Amani utupe, a Swahili prayer for peace set to lively, vibrant echoes of African musical textures. Finally, we close the evening with Unity. Rooted in the gospel tradition and inspired by Psalm 133, this stirring finale reminds us of the power of putting differences aside to find common ground. May that shared harmony be the objective for all of us gathered here tonight.

If you have questions about the chorus or are interested in singing with us in future seasons, please reach out via email at gramsdel@heidelberg.edu or by phone at (419) 448-2154.

The concert is free, but a freewill offering will be received.

We hope to see you there!