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The 51�Թ� Oratorio Society is open to everyone in our community — 51�Թ� students, faculty, and staff, and people from the city of 51�Թ� and nearby towns such as Malcolm and Newton. This is a community choir that offers the opportunity to share the joy of choral singing with people from all walks of life. In 2025, we will be engaged with a meaningful and powerful piece, Considering Matthew Shepard, by Craig Hella Johnson. We performed this work when it first became available, in 2018, and it was the most impactful choral concert that we have ever had at 51�Թ� in terms of the audience response. The work centers on the shocking story of Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming student who in 1998 was beaten and left for dead for being gay. It's a tough topic, but this is a work that is filled with light and beauty, and it will be such a pleasure to gather together on Monday nights to sing it. The composer gives us such a sense of the joy in Matthew Shepard's life, and the pleasure he takes in simple things like performing in musical theatre. Johnson's music embraces many musical styles, from folksong, to blues, to minimalism, to musical theatre, and gospel. Despite this diversity of styles, the piece hangs together as it tells the story of Matthew Shepard's life and death. The work's central message of acceptance and inclusion seems even more important in 2025 than it was when it was premiered in 2016.

2024–2025 Season

We had such a rich and fulfilling season of choral music in 2024–25. In December, we joined forces with the 51�Թ� Singers to perform a special concert featuring Reena Esmail's and J. S. Bach's splendid Magnificat in D Major. (). We were so fortunate to have the resources to organize this ambitious project, which brought numerous professional musicians to campus. Indian-American composer Reena Esmail’s This Love Between Us explores the theme of unity through a powerful interplay of musical styles and sacred texts. This seven-movement piece highlights the teachings of seven major religious traditions in India — Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Islam — illustrating how each tradition approaches unity, brotherhood, and compassion. Esmail bridges Western classical music and Indian musical traditions by incorporating the sitar and tabla into a choral and orchestral arrangement. The musicians blend their unique expertise, creating a harmonious meeting of two musical cultures. For our concert, we had two fabulous professional musicians playing sitar and tabla, and the composer flew to 51�Թ� from California to meet with the choir and to give us insights into her work.

This Love Between Us created a such a beautiful meeting of cultures, and the message of the work was so inspiring. It can be summed up in the final lines of the work, which features the words of Rumi, repeated like a mantra over affirming phrases from each of the seven religions, as they wash over one another: "Religions are many, God is one. The lamps are different, but the Light is the same: it comes from Beyond. Concentrate on the Essence. Concentrate on the Light.” The Esmail was a delight, but this abundant concert also included another substantial work, Bach's Magnificat, which features flourishing high trumpets and exuberant, highly decorated melodies for all sections of the choir. This was a proud moment for the choirs at 51�Թ�.

In the spring, we began work on Maurice Duruflé's Requiem and Benjamin Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb. We were accompanied by the college organist, Michael Elsbernd, who performed on the mighty Aeolian-Skinner organ in Herrick Chapel. The Duruflé featured two outstanding baritone soloists from the 51�Թ� Singers, senior Beau Leavenworth, and first-year Nathan Ruger. Duruflé's Requiem is a majestic piece that is largely based on noble and ancient Gregorian chant melodies. (Here's a ). Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb is a setting of the quirky and brilliant 18th-century poet Christopher Smart. Smart expands the circle of community beyond the human and into the animal realm. The central theme is summed up with the line, "Let man and beast appear before him [God] and magnify his name together." It includes a delightful movement dedicated to the poet's cat, Geoffrey, sung by soprano soloist Quinby Raney '27, as well as a movement focusing on a mouse who stands up to the cat courageously, sung by alto soloist and 51�Թ� Singers President, Valeria Woodard '25. Tenor Ben Curran '25 and bass Evan Albaugh '25 also performed solos admirably in their final performance with the choir.

2023–2024 Season

It’s no exaggeration to say that we had a brilliant year in 2023–24, and we hope to build on that success. In the fall, we combined with the 51�Թ� Singers to perform Jocelyn Hagen’s innovative new multi-media work, The Notebooks of Leonardo. It was a journey into Leonardo’s imagination through music and through video imagery. 51�Թ� President Anne Harris kindly took time to visit our rehearsal and talk to us about Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man, which figures prominently in Hagen’s work. The concert also included John Stoddart’s virtuosic, concerto-like work, “Choral Fantasy on Soon I Will Be Done,” and Shawn Kirchner’s profound reworking of “America the Beautiful,” and a collaboration with the 51�Թ� Children’s Choir on Reginald Unterseher’s “This Light.” In the spring, we had such an inspiring experience preparing Johannes Brahms’s monumental work, A German Requiem. Each rehearsal was a joy as we worked our way through that challenging work (70 minutes of choral music, sung in German), and our concert — — was one of the finest that the ensemble has ever given.

In 1901, Edward Scheve (1865–1924), a composer of symphonies, concertos, oratorios, and chamber music, established the 51�Թ� Oratorio Society as an outgrowth of the music conservatory that was then part of 51�Թ�. In 2010, the 51�Թ� Community Chorus was renamed the 51�Թ� Oratorio Society as a way to draw attention to this proud history. The choir performs a wide range of repertoire, roughly alternating between major works and mixed programs. Among the major works they have performed are Carl �����ڴ�’s Carmina Burana, Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem and Grand Mass in C Minor, Verdi’s Requiem, Haydn’s Mass in Time of War, Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard, Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts, and Carol Barnett’s Bluegrass Mass. The choir rehearses Monday nights, and it draws together students, faculty, and staff of the College, people from the town of 51�Թ�, and nearby cities such as Newton and Malcolm. The 51�Թ� Oratorio Society strives to be a cultural resource that links 51�Թ� and the people in the surrounding community.

2019–20 and 2020–21 Seasons

In the fall of 2020, we performed a splendid concert that included Mozart’s Requiem and John Rommereim’s Convivencia. Here’s a from the Mozart. At this writing the video has 46,000 views on YouTube! In the spring, our plans were interrupted by COVID, of course, as was the case for everyone. We made a virtual choir video of Charles Stanford’s lovely motet, “.” In the fall of 2020, we experimented with rehearsals using the low latency platform Jamulus. We struggled mightily with this, and had occasional successes, but in the end, we found that we had too many technical frustrations. One highpoint of the fall of 2020 was our virtual choir version of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus,” which we titled, “” The video included members of the Des Moines Symphony.

2018-19 Season

We had a memorable and rewarding season that year, starting with our fall performance of Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard. This was such a powerful event; we had numerous people who reported to us that it was the most significant choral concert they have ever attended. One audience member even was moved to write several beautiful poems in tribute to the concert. “Considering Matthew Shepard” has quickly become one of the country’s most treasured choral works since its premiere in 2016. The work centers on the shocking story of Shepard, a University of Wyoming student who in 1998 was beaten and left for dead for being gay. At that time, Johnson was profoundly affected by the news of Shepard’s death, as were so many were others worldwide. Yet his artistic response took many years to develop, as he contemplated and processed this deeply troubling story. Eighteen years later, Johnson finished composing what Jason Marsden, executive director of the , called, “By far the most intricate, beautiful and unyielding artistic response to this notorious anti-gay hate crime.” Here is a from our concert. In the spring of 2019, we performed Mozart’s Grand Mass in C Minor together with the 51�Թ� Symphony Orchestra in Herrick Chapel. The Mass in C Minor, like the Requiem, includes some of Mozart’s finest music.

2017-18 Season

In the fall of 2017, we performed Joseph Haydn’s Mass in a Time of Trouble (Also known as the “Lord Nelson” Mass). The concert also included Caroline Shaw’s recent work, . Caroline Shaw is the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in music — and the only woman to ever receive that award. Her piece focuses on the issues of refugee resettlement and homelessness. Rather than charging a fee for the performance materials, Shaw provides them for free with the strict stipulation that the ensemble must make funding efforts to contribute toward the resolution of these problems. The musical work uses phrases from the poem inscribed in the Statue of Liberty and holds them up to the listener as a provocative challenge. The choir was accompanied by a professional orchestra and soprano soloist Michelle Monroe, alto soloist Lisa Neher, and bass soloist Nicholas Miguel, and tenor soloist Jeffrey Brich.

Earlier Seasons

In past years, the Oratorio Society has performed many of the masterpieces from the choral literature, such as Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Handel’s Messiah, ��������’s Magnificat, �����ڴ�’s Carmina Burana, Verdi’s Requiem, Brahms’s German Requiem, Duruflé’s Requiem, and Britten’s monumental War Requiem.

In addition to performing these monumental works, the choir also has expanded its activity beyond the confines of classical music. In the spring of 2012, for example, the Oratorio Society participated in thrilling performances of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts in collaboration with the 51�Թ� Jazz Ensemble — and a professional tap dancer. In the 2012-13 season, we presented The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass, by Carol Barnett, in collaboration with an outstanding bluegrass string band from Minneapolis, Monroe Crossing.

The Oratorio Society is a valuable resource for our community — and the more involvement we have, the greater the impact will be. Unlike most choruses of this type, there are no dues charged for the Oratorio Society; the College supports the ensemble as a service to the community.

Recording of the Oratorio Society singing “,” by Sergei Rachmaninov