UST's Liturgical Choir will present its annual benefit concert April 25 in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas.
The University of St. Thomas welcomes the public to the music performances listed below. All will be held on the university’s St. Paul campus unless noted otherwise. Admission is free. For more information, call the St. Thomas Music Department, (651) 962-5850.
April performances:
- 11:30 a.m. Sunday, April 18, in Brady Educational Center auditorium: Stephanie Nichols, clarinet, presents a student recital.
- 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 21, in Brady Educational Center auditorium: St. Thomas’ African Music Ensemble, directed by Sowah Mensah, presents a spring concert.
- 3 p.m. Sunday, April 25, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas: “‘How Can I Sing That Majesty?’: Lessons and Carols for Eastertide” is the theme of this year’s annual benefit concert by the 60-member St. Thomas Liturgical Choir. Founding director Robert Strusinski conducts and organist Andrew Hackett, a 2001 St. Thomas alumnus, accompanies the internationally renowned choir.
- The concert, which will feature the premiere of “How Can I Sing That Majesty?” a new hymn by Dr. James Callahan, professor emeritus of music at St. Thomas. The program also includes works by Palestrina, Joan Szymko, Richard Proulx and David Haas. Soloists include liturgical music students Megan Pleviak, organ, and Mark Thomas, tenor.
- A free-will offering will be taken at the concert to support Hope Medical Clinics, community-based clinics working with the Catholic Church in Kasubi and Ndejje, Uganda. The clinics provide affordable medical care to people who otherwise might not have access to it.
- The Liturgical Choir’s annual benefit concerts – given since 2005 – have raised $10,000 for a variety of educational programs and human services organizations throughout the world. Last year the concert benefited the music school at Jesuscristo Resucitado (Risen Christ), a parish in San Felix, Venezuela, supported as a mission of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Other beneficiaries over the years have included the Music Department of Xavier University in New Orleans, which suffered major damage from Hurricane Katrina; the Genocide Intervention Network for its Darfur relief program; and Open Arms of Minnesota, an organization that prepares and delivers free meals to people living with serious and life-threatening diseases such as HIV/AIDS, ALS and breast cancer.
