The show starts at 7 p.m. Friday, May 10.

• The High 48s is a traditional bluegrass band from the Twin Cities and winner of the RockyGrass Bluegrass Band Competition.
• The Roe Family Singers is described as a good-time, old-time hillbilly band from the Mississippi-headwaters community of Kirkwood Hollow, Minn. The band blends old-time sound with a rock-and-roll influence.
• Becky Schlegel grew up in little Kimball, S.D., and followed a career in music rather than ranching.  She’s a veteran of The Prairie Home Companion and winner of the Old Time-Bluegrass Artist of the Year Award from the Minnesota Music Academy.

Tickets for the pre-Mother’s Day show are $12 for adults and $8 for moms and students. Kids are free. There are no advance sales.

The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity Chorale, directed by David Jenkins, will sing. Michelle Plombon is organist. A reception will follow.

The event is free and open to the public. St. Mary’s Chapel is on the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity campus at the western end of Summit Avenue. For more information visit the seminary’s website or call (651) 962-5050.

Over the past 30 years, Giovanni’s outspokenness, in her writing and in lectures, has brought the eyes of the world upon her. She prides herself on being “a Black American, a daughter, a mother, a professor of English.” Giovanni remains as determined and committed as ever to the fight for civil rights and equality. Her focus is on the individual, specifically, on the power one has to make a difference in oneself, and thus, in the lives of others.

Born in Knoxville, Tenn., Giovanni grew up in Lincoln Heights, an all-black suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. She and her sister spent their summers with their grandparents in Knoxville, and she graduated with honors from Fisk University, her grandfather’s alma mater, in 1968; after graduating from Fisk, she attended the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. She published her first book of poetry, Black Feeling Black Talk, in 1968, and within the next year published a second book, thus launching her career as a writer.

The author of some 30 books for both adults and children, Nikki Giovanni is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Q&A with Nikki Giovanni

You are known for being outspoken and you like to push for the edge. Can you explain why that is important to you?

Because it’s fun to see where the edge is. If you’re not pushing yourself, you are holding yourself back, don’t you think? Life is a really good idea and since we are here, why not live it?

Are there some topics you keep coming back to in your poetry, writings and spoken-word performances? Why?

Mostly I come back to people and their motivations, as I understand them. I’m a big fan of courage and daring. I am always looking for that.

Many people fear mistakes and failure, but you don’t. Why?

Mistakes and failures are a fact of life. How else would we, can we progress? We need to learn from what works and what does not work. And we can never be afraid of being laughed at or put down. We just need to keep finding people who believe in us and our dreams.

Your first book of poetry, Black Feeling Black Talk, was published in 1968 during the Civil Rights Movement. As a civil rights activist, what advice do you have for young people who seek social justice?

I shy away from advice because each generation has its own set of particulars with which to live. I do know that Occupy [movement] would have been better served with less leadership rather than more. The greatest movement in America was never a movement: the Great Migration of African-Americans bleeding out of the South to the factories and freedoms of the North. Millions participated and it could not be stopped because there was no head to cut off, no body to shoot down.

When you were interviewed for the University of Virginia’s Public Institute of History, you said that you’re “always hesitant when people talk about role models because most of life is not about what you see, but what you dream.” Could you please elaborate?

I really hate the idea of a role model. All the good things in life, as far as I can see, come from someone creating something, not someone following something. Life is not about the practicalities, but the possibilities. Many of us will not see our dreams come to fruition but we are the better for dreaming. I think it is so unfair and stupid for other people to tell you what you can’t do because they don’t have either courage or vision. You must create and then re-create yourself.

You come from a long line of storytellers. Who were those storytellers and what kinds of stories still intrigue you?

The storytellers of my life were, first and foremost, my grandfather. Grandpapa was a Latin scholar with a great love of Greek and Roman myth. He would tell us, the other grands (grandchildren) and me, stories of the stars. I will always remember him pointing out Orion’s belt and the north star, and all the stories. I disagreed with him about “The Grasshopper and the Ant” and finally wrote a book with my version. I also think Sisyphus was not being punished but challenged.

My mother was a dreamer. She would play the “what I am eating and where I am going” game with my sister and me. I saw the whole world sitting at the dining room table with mommy. We only played that when our father was not at dinner. He tended to focus on “eat your food” kinds of things. I still would prefer conversation to food in good company around a warm table.

What values did you learn from the other people in your life – your father and grandmother?

The only thing I really learned from my father was to gently take care of the folks you love. He was fierce in his emotions, and I still fear strong emotions. I am also way more patient than my father. (Though he had pretty legs and a beautifully shaped skull, which, when my sister was being treated for a brain tumor – which eventually cost her her life – I shaved my hair down to in order to help my sister not feel bad about her hair falling out from her treatments. The three of us had great heads! So he had a purpose.) Plus, mommy liked him. I think he and I never got on the same track.

Grandmother was a fighter. She would go toe-to-toe with anyone who she thought needed to either be corrected or stood up for. I like to think I am a stand-up person. I don’t laugh at stupid jokes; I don’t join in when someone’s feelings are being hurt. I have said and I believe I live the creed that I’d always rather be with the person running than the mob chasing. That can be scary but whatever makes us brave is also what makes us human.

You have a good sense of humor, so what kinds of things make you laugh?

If life is not funny, then, to quote Little Willie John, “grits ain’t groceries.” If we can’t laugh at ourselves then what on earth are we doing? The whole human experiment makes me laugh.

What are you working on now? What’s next for you?

My forthcoming book is titled Chasing Utopia, which is actually a hybrid – poetry and prose. Utopia is [the name of a] beer and my mother was a beer drinker, so that’s how it started.  … It was fun to write, and I am enjoying reading it. The publication date is fall 2013.

Friday’s event was sponsored by the Black Empowerment Student Alliance, STAR, University Lectures Committee, the Office of Institutional Diversity, Student Diversity and Inclusion Services, the Luann Dummer Center for Women, the UST English Department, the American Culture and Difference program, and the UST Justice and Peace Studies Department.

Free and open to the public, the concert is part of Library Week events at the university. Refreshments will be served.

Thomas Schönberg and Christopher Kachian.

The duo will perform the “French Suite No. 6 in E” by J.S. Bach, “Chinese Suite” arranged by Schönberg, “Duo for Guitar and Cello” by W. A. Mozart and jazz duets by Joe Pass and Herb Ellis.

The evening’s program is the same one the duo will perform on a concert tour throughout China later this year.

This marks the first time the library’s Great Hall, noted for its stained-glass windows and vaulted ceiling, will be used for a concert. Kachian did a sound check there recently and said the acoustics are excellent.

Schönberg and Kachian, who are educators as well as performers, formed the Arpeggione Duo after meeting at the Guitar Festival of Sollentuna, Sweden, in 2004. They tour annually and have recorded three albums. Samples can be heard here.

Schönberg is a native of Sweden and was accepted to the Royal Music Academy of Stockholm at age 13. He received his doctorate at the University of Hartford, Conn., and is dean of the Lidingo School of Music in Sweden. He performs throughout Europe, Asia and the United States on a Giovanni Grancino cello built in 1704.

The Arpeggione Duo.

Kachian, whose doctorate is from the University of Minnesota, heads the Guitar Studies Program at St. Thomas and in 2011 was inducted into the renowned Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity. A champion of new music, he has commissioned and premiered more than 30 works for guitar. He has given more than 500 performances in Japan, China, Africa, Cuba, Costa Rica, Peru and throughout Europe and North America.

Kachian is a founding member of the Society for the Affectation of Baroque Music and also plays the blues harmonica.

The duo’s name reflects the musicians’ blend of guitar and cello. Invented in 1823 by Viennese guitar maker Johann Stauffer, the arpeggione has six strings and frets like a guitar, but it is similar in size to a cello and played with a bow. Only one major work was written for the instrument, the “Sonata in A Minor for Arpeggione and Piano” by Franz Schubert.

For more information call (651) 962-5014. More details about the program can be found on the library’s website here.

A concert that features new and traditional music from the Indian, Persian and Sephardic-Jewish traditions will be performed this spring in Maple Grove, Minneapolis and Rochester.

Commissioned by the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning, “Embracing the Beloved” was created by Minnesota musicians Nirmala Rajasekar, Maryam Yusefzadeh and David Jordan Harris to explore the shared human values and spiritual aspirations of their three musical traditions.

Each of the musicians will perform with an ensemble specializing in the music of her or his tradition. Voices of Sepharad will perform the Sephardic (Judeo-Spanish) works. Robayat will perform the Persian works. A group that includes some of Minnesota’s most-accomplished performers of music of the Middle East and India will perform the Carnatic (south Indian) works.

In addition to Rajasekar, Yusefzadeh and Harris, the concert will feature percussionists Mick LaBriola, Sriram Natarajan, Balaji Chandran and Tim O’Keefe; violinist David Stenshoel; oud player David Burk; and a choir of Indian vocalists.

A highlight will be the participation of all the musicians in new arrangements and compositions that were created for the concert.

“Embracing the Beloved” will be performed at:

• 6 p.m. Saturday, April 20, at Minnesota Hindu Temple, 10530 Troy Lane North, Maple Grove. Admission is $25 and includes a post-show vegetarian dinner. Tickets are available by calling the temple, (763) 425-9449.
• 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 1, at Sabes Jewish Community Center, 4330 Cedar Lake Road S., Minneapolis. Admission is $15 and tickets are available by calling the center, (952) 381-3499.
• 12:10 p.m. Monday, May 13, as part of the Harmony for Mayo concert series in the Barbara Woodward Lips Atrium of the Charlton building at the Mayo Clinic, 200 First St. Southwest, Rochester. This concert is free and open to the public.

“Embracing the Beloved” is structured around the sun’s passage from dawn to nightfall. Starting from the anticipation of dawn and new beginnings, it moves into the heat of the day with afternoon study and storytelling, then to music of the night and the heart, and finally to gratitude. Audiences will hear nearly a dozen languages, including Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Frasi, Kurdish, Azari, Hebrew and Judeo-Spanish.

Harris is co-founder and artistic director of Voices of Sepharad and is executive director of Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council. A composer and playwright, he has studied and performed Sephardic music throughout the world.

Rajasekar teaches the art of Carnatic music and is artistic director at the Naadha Rasa Center of Music in Plymouth. She has performed around the world and with musicians from western classical, Chinese, Indonesian gamelan and jazz traditions.

Yusefzadeh is a co-founder and performer with the world music quartet Robayat. She is involved with Persian, classical, jazz and world music as a vocalist, arranger, composer, percussionist and educator.

While each of their musical traditions has emerged from different historical circumstances and speaks in its own musical vocabulary, the artists aim to open a door for audiences into their cultures through the language of music.

Yusefzadeh’s repertoire mirrors the complex history of Persia, embracing pre-Islamic Zoroastrian chant, folk and ethnic tribal music, and the classical music of Iran. Rajasekar brings into the collaboration her research into the ancient roots of Indian music – melodies as old as 2,000 years – which create a historical backdrop for the growth of Indian music into the 21st century. Harris brings a tapestry of Sephardic music that stretches over the many lands where Jews resettled after their expulsion from Spain in 1492 – Morocco, Bosnia, Turkey and even into India.

The concert is co-sponsored by the Hindu Temple of Minnesota, Sabes Jewish Community Center and the Harmony for Mayo Program. The Jay Phillips Center is a joint enterprise of the University of St. Thomas and St. John’s University, Collegeville.

Information about the concert is available on the Jay Phillips website and from David Jordan Harris, (651) 227-2583.

The festival, which began at St. Thomas in 1980, traditionally presents a broad range of artistic forms. All of this year’s events are free and open to the public and will be held on the university’s St. Paul campus. They are:

Robin Hemley

Robin Hemley will give a lecture on his book Nola: A Memoir of Faith, Art, and Madness at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 11, in the auditorium of O’Shaughnessy Educational Center.

Nola recounts the life of the author’s sister, who died at age 25 after several years of treatment for schizophrenia.

Winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Hemley has published seven books; his stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and many literary magazines and anthologies. He is the editor of Defunct magazine.

Quvenzhane Wallis

Beasts of the Southern Wild, nominated for four Academy Awards and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, will be shown from 8 to 11 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, in Scooter’s, located on the first floor of Anderson Student Center.

The film, a drama with fantasy elements, is set in the Louisiana bayou and stars 6-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis. The film will be introduced by Dr. David Penchansky of the St. Thomas Theology Department. More information about the film can be found here.

St. Thomas Alumni Choir, a mixed vocal ensemble of young and old alumni, will present a concert from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, April 21, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas.

The choir is directed by alumni Sean Barker, Josh Bauder and Casey Johnson.

The choir will perform sacred and secular music by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Elizabeth Alexander, Josh Bauder, Jonathan Tschiggfrie, Stephen Paulus, Felix Mendelssohn, Alice Parker, Z. Randall Stroope and Keith Hampton.

The Gabriel Kney organ.

An Organ and Choir Concert, part of a series marking the 25^th anniversary of the dedication of the university’s Gabriel Kney organ, will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 28, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas. Host will be Merritt Nequette, retired professor and former chair on the St. Thomas Music Department.

The program will feature the university’s Liturgical Choir and guest alumni singers directed by Aaron Brown and retired Liturgical Choir founder Robert Strusinski; Orchestra directed by Matthew George; and organists James Callahan, David Jenkins, Kevin Seal and Robert Vickery.

They will perform Noel Goemanne’s “Song of Praise” for choir and organ, which was commissioned for the Gabriel Kney organ dedication in 1987; the Franz Schubert Mass in G; the Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani by Francis Poulenc; and the new Concerto for Organ, Strings and Percussion, featuring its composer, organist and professor emeritus of music James Callahan.

Joyce Lyon

The art exhibit “Passaggio/Passage,” featuring works by Joyce Lyon, is on permanent display on the Campus Way, located on the second floor of the Anderson Student Center.

An associate professor of art at the University of Minnesota, Lyon’s works are in public and private collections nationally, including Georgetown University Law Library, the Florida Holocaust Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Walker Art Center and the Weisman Art Museum.

Her work focuses on the intersections of place and memory. “I work from observation with an acute sense of the layering of time,” she said. “In ‘Passagio/Passage,’ I consider pilgrimage as it relates to a physical and spiritual journey and as a meditation on here and there and the passages in between.”

“Passaggio/Passage” by Joyce Lyon

A schedule of this year’s Sacred Arts Festival events can be found here.

The program, free and open to the public, is the fourth in a series of five recitals and concerts marking the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the Kney organ. The Sunday afternoon recitals are co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ Music Department and Campus Ministry. A reception will follow.

Michel Bouvard

One of today’s leading French concert organists, Bouvard will perform works by Johan Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, Alexandre Pierre Francois Boely, Louis Vierne and Michel Bouvard’s grandfather, composer and organist Jean Bouvard.

Bouvard serves as professor of organ at the Paris Conservatory and as organist titulaire of the historic Cavaillé-Coll organ at the Basilique Saint-Sernin, in the city of Toulouse where he lives and teaches.  He also has served as one of four organists of the Royal Chapel at the Palace of Versailles since 2010.  This spring he is visiting professor of organ at the Eastman School of Music.

St. Thomas’ chapel organ was installed in 1987 thanks to a donation from alumnus Robert Asmuth. Built by Gabriel Kney of London, Ontario, the organ is a three-manual instrument with 41 stops of 56 ranks, with a total of 2,787 pipes. It is used for worship, teaching and concerts. Its dedicatory recital was played by Swedish organist Hans Fagius on Sept. 20, 1987.

Since then, the university’s Organ Artist Recital Series has become one of the premier pipe-organ concert series in the Twin Cities.

The list of recitalists includes international artists Ulrich Böhme, Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet, László Fassang, Jean Gillou, Martin Haselböck, Nicholas Kynaston, Olivier Latry, Peter Planyovsky and Dong-il Shin. American artists in the series have included Diane Bish, James David Christie, Robert Glasgow, Gerre Hancock, David Hurd and Joan Lippincott.

These concert performances have been featured on the “Pipedreams” radio program from American Public Media, and the instrument has been showcased at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists.

The final program in the 25th anniversary series will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 28. That program, which is also part of the university’s Sacred Arts Festival, will feature the university’s Liturgical Choir directed by Aaron Brown, Orchestra directed by Matthew George, and organists James Callahan, David Jenkins, Kevin Seal and Robert Vickery.

Music that day will include the Schubert Mass in G, the Concerto for strings and orchestra by Francis Poulenc, and a new concerto for organ, strings and percussion by Callahan.

The Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas is located on the eastern side of the university’s campus, near the intersection of Cleveland and Laurel avenues.

For more information about the Gabriel Kney instrument, visit this Music Department website. For more information about the series call (651) 962-5050.

The Gabriel Kney pipe organ in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Nordtorp-Madson and Kachian have been performing full-length concerts together for 10 years, and the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library is thrilled to announce this new series. The campus community is invited to enjoy their unique style and humor, along with beautiful, satisfying, yet “unstuffy” presentations of their art.

All of the presentations are from noon to 1 p.m. in the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library.

Schedule for noonartsound

Tuesday, March 5 –  O’Shaughnessy Room (108)
“parlor 1590-1890”
Features the design, art and music – in what we call the living room, or the parlor.

Tuesday, April 2  –  Great Hall, north end, second floor
“queens prefer”
Highlights the sights and sounds of England in the late 16th century.

Tuesday, May 7 –  Great Hall, north end, second floor; or Room 108 (TBD)
“invierno”
Spotlights the look, feel and touch of the Latin American world.

Tuesday, Oct. 1 –  Great Hall, north end, second floor
“don’t mean a thing”
Brings you the art and music of the Jazz Era.

About the artists

Dr. Chris Kachian

A guitarist and professor of music at the University of St. Thomas, Kachian has performed throughout Europe, the Americas, South and Central America and the Far East as a recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist.

His American performances have included a significant number of works written in the past 25 years, many of them commissions. These include more than 30 works for guitar, including 20 concerti.

Your hosts for noonartsound: Shelly Nordtorp-Madson and Chris Kachian.

He has written Composer’s Desk Reference for the Classic Guitar in consultation with more than 25 composers, published by Mel Bay Publications. He has been heard on Minnesota Public Radio, National Public Radio and American Public Media, including several appearances on “A Prairie Home Companion.”

Since 1984 Kachian has directed one of the largest guitar programs in the United States at the University of St Thomas. He has lectured in music of Europe, the Americas, the 20th century, the world, the United States, film, protest, mathematics, and guitar pedagogy and guitar literature.

He is the founder of St. Thomas’ music business, recording arts and popular music degrees. From 2001 to 2005 he served as director of guitar studies for the Minnesota Music Teachers Association, for whom he led, wrote and edited the nation’s first comprehensive, multigenre guitar pedagogy syllabus.

In 2011 he wrote the film score for “Per Bianca,” which won Best Film at the Minnesota 48-Hour Film Festival and won a screening at the Cannes Film Festival.

Recent notable American premiere performances are Astor Piazzolla’s “Double Concerto” and Franz Schubert’s “Arpeggione Sonata.” An ongoing series of baroque concerts, with keyboardist David Jenkins, with the Society for the Doctrinal Affectation of Baroque Music, an early music ensemble, and the Arpeggione Duo, a Stockholm-based cello and guitar duo specializing in new folk music, round out his concert career.

In 2012 he received national recognition from the Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity as a national arts associate and distinguished member.

Dr. Shelly Nordtorp-Madson

Nordtorp-Madson is the chief curator and a member of the clinical faculty in the Department of Art History. She holds an M.A. in medieval art history, a Ph.D. in design histor, and a technical diploma in dress design and draping. At St. Thomas she designs and mounts exhibits in O’Shaughnessy Educational Center and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in medieval art and dress history.

After spending four years on a nine-month language immersion program in Denmark, she moved to Minnesota, where she wandered around accumulating degrees and returning to Scandinavia whenever possible. Having worked at St. Thomas in a possibly record-setting number of positions, she now (in addition to curatorial work and teaching) presents papers annually on medieval dress and her most recent obsession: shape-shifting in the medieval period, particularly relating to otters.

The program, free and open to the public, is the next in a series of five recitals and concerts marking the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the Kney organ. The Sunday afternoon recitals are co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ Music Department and Campus Ministry. A reception will follow.

Han, a native of Seoul, Korea, has performed throughout the United States, Asia and Europe. David Jenkins, organ instructor at St. Thomas and liturgical music director at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, described her as an imaginative and powerful performer.

Han will perform works by Carl Maria von Weber, J.S. Bach, Sigfrid Karg-Elert, Thomas Heywood, Camille Saint-Saens, Louis Vierne, Guy Bovet and Max Reger.

Han’s family immigrated to Atlanta when she was 16. She earned a bachelor’s in organ from Westminster Choir College, a diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music and a master’s from Yale School of Music. She is principal organist and artist-in-residence at First Presbyterian Church in Davenport, Iowa, and teaches organ at Iowa State University.

Han was a featured soloist last year at the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in Nashville.

St. Thomas’ chapel organ was installed in 1987 thanks to a donation from alumnus Robert Asmuth. Built by Gabriel Kney of London, Ontario, the organ is a three-manual instrument with 41 stops of 56 ranks, with a total of 2,787 pipes. It is used for worship, teaching and concerts. Its dedicatory recital was played by Swedish organist Hans Fagius on Sept. 20, 1987.

Since then, the university’s Organ Artist Recital Series has become one of the premier pipe-organ concert series in the Twin Cities.

The list of recitalists includes international artists Ulrich Böhme, Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet, László Fassang, Jean Gillou, Martin Haselböck, Nicholas Kynaston, Olivier Latry, Peter Planyovsky and Dong-il Shin. American artists in the series have included Diane Bish, James David Christie, Robert Glasgow, Gerre Hancock, David Hurd and Joan Lippincott.

These concert performances have been featured on the “Pipedreams” radio program from American Public Media, and the instrument has been showcased at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists.

Remaining programs in the 25th anniversary series include:

• 3 p.m. Sunday, March 17 – French organist Michel Bouvard, professor of organ at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Music in Paris, will perform a solo recital.
• 3 p.m. Sunday April 28 – St. Thomas organists will present a concert with the university’s Liturgical Choir, directed by Aaron Brown.

The Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas is located on the eastern side of the university’s campus, near the intersection of Cleveland and Laurel avenues.

More information about the Gabriel Kney instrument can be seen here. For more information about the series, call (651) 962-5050.

Archlutist Timothy Burris.

The concert features archlutist Timothy Burris as guest artist. Burris, who holds a Ph.D. from Duke University and a soloist’s diploma from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, taught lute for six years at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp and now teaches in Maine at Colby College and the Portland Conservatory.  He has performed, and has been recorded, throughout Europe and the United States.

Burris will be joined by St. Thomas professors and members of the Society for the Doctrinal Affectation of Baroque Music: organist and harpsichordist David Jenkins and guitarist Christopher Kachian.

A third society member, St. Thomas art historian Michelle Nordtorp-Madson, will present two minilectures, with slides, about art from the Baroque period in Europe.

Selections for the evening include the J.S. Bach French Suite for Guitar and Lute; Vivaldi Concerto for Guitar; C.P.E. Bach Sonata for Organ; and a selection of archlute solos, from the early to middle Baroque period, by Zamboni, Galilei and Frescobaldi.

The society’s program notes explain that it “is dedicated to stylish performances of early musical artifacts with nonconventional instrumentation. The society’s artistic mission is to arouse the elevated passions of modern audiences through elegant interpretations informed by the latest in historical discovery.”

More information about the society is available at (651) 962-5858.

He will be joined by St. Thomas’ Schola Cantorum, directed by Aaron Brown.

Kraig Windschitl

The program, free and open to the public, is the second in a series of five recitals and concerts marking the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the Kney organ. The Sunday afternoon recitals are co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ Music Department and Campus Ministry. A reception will follow.

The program will include settings by Bach of the chorales “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” (three settings), “Meine Seele erhebet den Herren” (two settings) and “Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit.” The Schola will sing the Latin chants upon which the chorales are based.

Windschitl earned his bachelor’s from St. John’s University in Collegeville with majors in organ performance and theology. His graduate study was at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he earned a master’s in organ performance with a cognate in sacred music.

He currently serves as co-principal organist at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis and Victoria. With more than 13,000 members, Mount Olivet is the largest Lutheran congregation in North America. Most recently, Windschitl accepted the position of chapel organist and carillonneur at Breck School in Minneapolis. He is a member of the North American Guild of Carillonneurs and serves on the Program Committee of the Twin Cities chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Brown is director of liturgy and chapel music in St. Thomas’ Campus Ministry Department and directs the university’s Liturgical Choir and Schola Cantorum. His graduate degree is in liturgical music from St. John’s University.

The Gabriel Kney pipe organ in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas.

St. Thomas’ chapel organ was installed in 1987 thanks to a donation from alumnus Robert Asmuth. Built by Gabriel Kney of London, Ontario, the organ is a three-manual instrument with 41 stops of 56 ranks, with a total of 2,787 pipes. It is used for worship, teaching and concerts. Its dedicatory recital was played by Swedish organist Hans Fagius on Sept. 20, 1987.

Since then, the university’s Organ Artist Recital Series has become one of the premier pipe-organ concert series in the Twin Cities.

The list of recitalists includes international artists Ulrich Böhme, Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet, László Fassang, Jean Gillou, Martin Haselböck, Nicholas Kynaston, Olivier Latry, Peter Planyovsky and Dong-il Shin. American artists in the series have included Diane Bish, James David Christie, Robert Glasgow, Gerre Hancock, David Hurd and Joan Lippincott.

These concert performances have been featured many times on the “Pipedreams” radio program from American Public Media, and the instrument has been showcased at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists.

Remaining programs in the 25th anniversary series include:

• 3 p.m. Sunday, March 17, 2013, French organist Michel Bouvard, professor of organ at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Music in Paris, will perform a solo recital.
• 3 p.m. Sunday April 28, 2013, St. Thomas organists will present a concert with the university’s Liturgical Choir, directed by Aaron Brown.

For more information about the Gabriel Kney instrument, visit here. For more information about the series, call (651) 962-5050.

The free program, followed by a reception, begins at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2, in St. Mary’s Chapel at the seminary, 2260 Summit Ave.

Joining the chorale and schola that afternoon will be organist Michelle Plombon, guitarist Chris Kachian and flutist Wendy Barton-Silhavy.

The program includes carols and hymns for the season, with music by J. Michael Thompson, Andre Thomas, Alan Smith and Kevin Vogt.

For more information, call (651) 962-5050.

Listeners may come and go as needed, and refreshments will be served at these informal performances:

• Tuesday, Nov. 20
  3:30-4:30 p.m. in the library coffee shop lobby: Guitarist Joan Griffith, UST Music Department, and Twin Cities pianist Laura Caviani will perform an acoustical concert of jazz and Latin music.

• Wednesday, Nov. 28
  1:45-2:30 p.m. in the O’Shaughnessy (“leather”) Room (108): The UST Guitar Ensemble, under the direction of Joan Griffith, will play an informal concert of guitar music. Selections will include classical music, jazz, Latin and original works.

• Tuesday, Dec. 4
  Noon-12:30 p.m. in the library rotunda: The UST Women’s Choir, under the direction of Dr. Robert Vickery, will sing holiday music (an annual St. Thomas tradition). The concert will include some audience singalongs.

• Thursday, Dec. 6
  2-3 p.m. in the O’Shaughnessy (“leather”) Room (108): The UST String Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Matthew George, returns to the library for a concert of classical music. Selections will be chosen from: “Sinfonia in G-dur,” Albinoni; “Hungarian Dances from the 17th Century,” Ference; “Capriol,” Warlock; “Sinfonietta,” Genzmer; and “Mourão,” Guerra-Peixe.

St. Thomas will present its 25th annual Christmas concert, Venite Adoremus, at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2. This year’s theme is taken from “O Come All Ye Faithful,” which has been sung at each concert by the audience and student ensembles.

Tickets are available online through the Minnesota Orchestra Box Office or by phone at (612) 371-5656. All seats are $15 plus a nominal Orchestra Hall transaction fee. There is no limit to the number of tickets that may be purchased. Please note: The concert is open to adults and children over 6.

A total of 200 $5-tickets, courtesy of STAR, will be available to undergraduate students at Tommie Central, located on the first floor of Anderson Student Center. Free bus transportation for undergraduate students also will be provided to the Minneapolis Convention Center by Undergraduate Student Government.

The concert, with a program of choral and instrumental music for the Advent and Christmas seasons, features more than 300 student performers in eight of the university’s vocal and instrumental ensembles: Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, Festival Choir, Liturgical Choir, Women’s Choir, Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Brass Choir and Handbell Choir.

Dr. Angela Broeker, director of choral activities, noted a unique addition to this year’s concert: “Our choirs welcome Sowah Mensah, master drummer from Ghana, to our concert this year. Choirs will sing two of Sowah’s compositions as he and his students accompany us on indigenous instruments.”

Broeker said concert-goers also will be treated to the best in sacred music for the season, “including ‘Silent Night,’ ‘Lo’ How a Rose E’er Blooming,’ ‘In the Bleak Midwinter,’ ‘O Come All Ye Faithful,’ as well as new compositions for the Advent and Christmas season.”

All concert proceeds will benefit St. Thomas music ensembles’ international performance tours.

History of the concert: St. Thomas’ Christmas concert quickly became tradition after its first performance on Dec. 11, 1988, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas on the university’s main campus in St. Paul. St. Thomas’ president at the time, the late Monsignor Terrence Murphy, envisioned a campus concert of Christmas music featuring ensembles from the coordinate departments of music from St. Thomas and St. Catherine. By 1993 the growing Music Department at St. Thomas had become independent, and the university’s Alumni Association began to note the concert in its mailings. An extraordinary number of alumni and their families responded, necessitating an additional performance.

By 1997, four performances were held on campus, but still, some 2,000 ticket requests could not be honored. In 2007, the concert was moved to Orchestra Hall to accommodate the many for whom the concert has become a Christmas calendar fixture: university students, faculty, staff and alumni of St. Thomas and their families and friends. And the public is welcome, too.

This comical spoof of all those gothic novels – where the husband is brooding and the bride is unsuspecting – transports the audience to the gloomy Scottish moors where the Brackenloch Manor looms over the land. A murderer is on the loose, a secret lurks in the loch, and a deadly curse awaits any bride of Jabez Thorngall, Lord of Brackenloch Manor. Who will solve the mystery?

Performances will be held in Frey Theater on the St. Catherine University campus, 2004 Randolph Ave., St. Paul.

Performance schedule

• 7 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 31-Nov. 3
• 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4

Tickets are $10 for general admission and free for all ACTC students, faculty and staff with a valid ACTC ID. To reserve tickets call (651) 690-6700.

The season opener is directed by Teresa Lyons-Hegdahl, St. Kate’s director of theater.

Cast and crew

• UST students – Mary Conway, Joe Feely, Lindy Fischer and Willie Hustead
• SCU students – Kelsey Barnhill, Olivia Hood, Emily Quanrud, Elora Riley and Heidi Robertson
• SCU staff member – Catherine Flowers
• Community member – Matthew Erickson

The troupe will perform during convo hour (noon to 1 p.m.) Tuesday, Oct. 16, on John P. Monahan Plaza. The performance is free, and food and prizes will be provided.

Kapulli KetzalCoatlicue conserves and shares the cultural teachings of its indigenous ancestors through dance and music from the sacred drum, conch shells, seeds and other instruments gifted by the natural environment.

In ancient tradition, the Aztec culture tied music and dance into its daily life and ceremonies. In modern times, these colorful yet meticulous traditional Aztec performances, like those shared by KetzalCoatlicue, inspire others to continue learning and participating in this revered tradition.

National Hispanic Heritage Month was designated as a time to celebrate and honor the rich Hispanic culture and the important contributions that Hispanics and Latinos have made to North America. The national celebration lasts from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15.

The Sunday afternoon recitals, free and open to the public, are co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ Music Department and Campus Ministry.

The first recital will feature David Jenkins at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16.  He will perform works of Nord Johnson, Rachel Laurin, Richard Voorhaar and the complete sixth organ symphony of Widor.

David Jenkins.

An organ instructor at St. Thomas, Jenkins earned the D.M.A. in organ performance and the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied organ with Russell Saunders and harpsichord with Arthur Haas. He also holds degrees from the University of Iowa and Oberlin Conservatory.

The organ was installed in 1987 thanks to a donation from St. Thomas alumnus Robert Asmuth. Built by Gabriel Kney of London, Ontario, the organ is a three-manual instrument with 41 stops of 56 ranks, with a total of 2,787 pipes. It is used for worship, teaching and concerts. Its dedicatory recital was played by Swedish organist Hans Fagius on Sept. 20, 1987.

Since then, the university’s Organ Artist Recital Series has become one of the premier pipe-organ concert series in the Twin Cities.

The list of recitalists includes international artists Ulrich Böhme, Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet, László Fassang, Jean Gillou, Martin Haselböck, Nicholas Kynaston, Olivier Latry, Peter Planyovsky and Dong-il Shin. American artists in the series have included Diane Bish, James David Christie, Robert Glasgow, Gerre Hancock, David Hurd and Joan Lippincott. These concert performances have been featured many times on the “Pipedreams” radio program from American Public Media, and the instrument has been showcased at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists.

The remaining four programs in the 25^th anniversary series are:

• 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14, German artist Almut Roessler of Düsseldorf will perform a solo recital.
• 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 9, organist Kraig Windschitl and the St. Thomas Schola Cantorum, directed by Aaron Brown, will perform organ music of J.S. Bach with Gregorian chant.
• 3 p.m. Sunday, March 17, 2013, French organist Michel Bouvard, professor of organ at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Music in Paris, will perform a solo recital.
• 3 p.m. Sunday April 28, 2013, St. Thomas organists will present a concert with the university’s Liturgical Choir, directed by Aaron Brown.

The Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas is located on the eastern side of the university’s campus, near the intersection of Cleveland and Laurel avenues.

For more information about the Gabriel Kney instrument, visit this website. For more information about the series, call (651) 962-5050.

The musical performance is free and open to the public and runs from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15, in Woulfe Alumni Hall in the Anderson Student Center on the university’s St. Paul campus.

The evening includes a 5:30 p.m. panel discussion on the early warning signs of mental illness, and a 6:30 p.m. reception with refreshments.

“Fidgety Fair Tales” will feature stories about Goldilocks (obsessive compulsive disorder); Boyd, Who Cried Wolf (Tourette syndrome); and CinderEdward (bipolar disorder).

“Fidgety Fairy Tales” is a project of the Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health. The program will be of interest to those connected with youth, mental health issues, and devoted to the education of children and adolescents.

More details are available by calling the School of Education, (651) 962-4441.