Bethany Lutheran Church gets a preview of the Choir’s Homecoming Concert

Schola Cantorum singing In the Tender Compassion. Photo by Nathaniel Taylor

By Nathaniel Taylor

The Waldorf Choir and Schola Cantorum performed part of what will be the homecoming concert this year on Sunday, September 27 at Bethany Lutheran Church in Thompson, Iowa. The groups have grown tremendously in size, and had their first performance since the school year started.

Between the two groups, a total of five pieces were sung, including “If Ye Love Me” by Tallis, and “In the Tender Compassion” by Nancy Farndale sung by Schola Cantorum, and “Stay with Us” by Egil Hovland, “Baba Yetu” by Christopher Tin, and the traditional “Beautiful Savior” by F.M. Christiansen, were sung by The Waldorf Choir.

Stay With Us was a song the Waldorf Choir emphasized during the week of Music Camp, and “Baba Yetu”, a piece sung in Swahili, is one of the newer pieces the choir has been working on for the last few weeks. Beautiful Savior is the final piece at almost every concert the Waldorf Choir has been a part of since the Choir started in 1916.

They performed during mass, and were able to talk to the congregation over lunch in the reception room.

Dr. Larry Hill, who is a professor at Waldorf College, invited the Choir to mass. He told the Choir, after they were done singing, he was very glad he did so, and many members of the congregation agreed, telling them they were welcome back any time. A few of the members of the two Choir’s were welcomed back to the church after singing there three years ago.

Senior Haley Rubin sang a solo during “Beautiful Savior,” and Senior Phil Detrick and Sophomore Karsen Houck sang solos during “Baba Yetu.”

The next time the Choirs will perform is at the Homecoming Concert at 7:30 on Saturday, October 10.