Minnesota Center Chorale 2008/2009 Season Concert Schedule

In honor of Minnesota's sesquicentennial celebration, each MCC concert will include works by Minnesota composers and focus on Minnesota themes.

November 2, 2008                                                     Home in a New Land

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                              Cabaret 2008: A Minnesota Winter

6:30 p.m.                                                         Holiday Music ~ Gourmet Dinner

                         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                                                          Minnesota Legend and Lore

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 17, 2009                                                             Returning Home

3:00 p.m.                                                                     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.  Mary McAuliffe's An American Odyssey is about creating a new home in the U.S. after emigrating from Ireland.  Yung-wha Son's Song of Diaspora was commissioned and premiered by MCC in May 2006.  As

Dr. Son said at the premiere:  "Whether voluntarily chosen or not, displaced lives everywhere live with the longing

for the homeland left behind. Yet, they are also preoccupied with the possibilities of new beginnings. Longing and

nostalgia mixed with the hope of finding new beginnings and new connections are the symbolic expression of this

work.  Completing the program are works by Minnesota composers: "Coming of Spring" by Gao Hong and

"The Road Home" by Stephen Paulus.