The Year of Celebration Continues …
The Singers
February 26, 4 PM – The Singers Concert commemorates the life of Ben Larson (The son of Pastors April Ulring Larson & Judd Larson) who died in the Haiti earthquake.
The Singers, a professional 44-voice chamber choir from Minneapolis will present a program entitled “Mid-Winter Journey-Songs of Love, Loss, and Healing “in First Lutheran Church in Duluth on February 26, 2012 at 4.00pm. The program includes a new work composed by Joshua Shank in memory of Ben Larson who during his senior year at Wartburg seminary went to Haiti to teach theology to pastors of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti. Ben was serving in Haiti in January 2010, when the earthquake struck.
The Singers led by artistic director Matthew Culloton gave an educational performance in Duluth in 2008. This year, The Singers organization has a deeply personal connection with the First Lutheran Church. Ben Larson’s parents are the Rev. April Ulring Larson, senior pastor of First Lutheran Church (FLC), Duluth and former ELCA bishop, and the Rev. Judd Larson, associate pastor of FLC. In early 2010, the FLC pastors’ son, Ben Larson, died in the Haiti earthquake. Ben was on the trip with his wife Renee and cousin Jonathan (all students at Wartburg seminary). After the earthquake, Renee, heard Ben singing, not unusual for Ben who loved music. “Ben spent his last breath singing.” Ben was a graduate of Luther College as well as a prolific musician, and several of The Singers were classmates with Ben at Luther. A relative of one of these classmates and choir members commissioned a new choral work in Ben’s memory from Singers composer-in-residence Joshua Shank. Other programming for this concert features a variety of contemplative choral masterpieces from Morten Lauridsen, Ysaye Barnwell and Johannes Brahms.
Founded in 2004, The Singers organization is dedicated to giving world-class performances of the finest choral literature. The Singers exists to serve as artists, educators, and ambassadors of the choral art. The Singers has premiered and commissioned over fifty new works by composers Stephen Paulus, Abbie Betinis, Jocelyn Hagen and Craig Carnahan. In March 2011, The Singers performed at the National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association in Chicago. This Duluth performance is funded, in part, by the Minnesota State Arts Board through the arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the Legacy Amendment vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.
TICKETS: $10 adults/$5 students (218) 728-1484 EXT.212
MORE INFO: www.singersmca.org and www.flcduluth.org
Matthew Culloton, Founding Artistic Director
Sunday, Mar. 4, 4:00 p.m : Solo organ recital by Internationally-Acclaimed Organist Dr. Charles Sundquist
Duluth native and internationally-acclaimed organist Dr. Charles Sundquist will present an organ recital featuring the music of J.S. Bach, J. P. Sweelinck, Helmut Walcha, Dietrich Buxtehude, Johannes Brahms, César Franck and Max Reger. Free admission.
Dr. Charles Sundquist, a native of Duluth, Minnesota, is the choral director at Mountain Lakes High School in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey. Previously he was Director of Choirs at Princeton High School for 15 years. His choirs have sung for ACDA Conventions, NYC, the White House, and his choirs have toured to London, Paris, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Leipzig, Eisenach, Berlin, Budapest, Vienna, Dresden, Prague and Stockholm. He is a graduate of UMD, a students of the late Ronald Gauger, and received his Doctorate in Organ Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music, a student of David Craighead.
He won a Prix d’Excellence from the Conservatoire de Région de Ruiel-Malmaison in France, a student of Marie-Claire Alain. While in Paris, he was Associate Choirmaster at the American Episcopal Cathedral, accompanist for a Paris ballet school, and coach/accompanist for members of the Paris Opera Chorus. Dr. Sundquist was finalist in the Clarence Mader Competition, numerous AGO Regional competitions and recitalist for the AGO Regional Convention in Pasadena, CA. He has held posts as Organist/Choirmaster at First Presbyterian of Santa Ana, CA, Associate organist Pasadena Presbyterian Church, Organ Scholar at Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York City, and associate organist at St. Clement’s, Philadelphia. He is also currently Musical Director for McCarter Theater in Princeton, and was Associate Musical Director and pianist for their production of My Fair Lady, in conjunction with the Shakespeare Theater of Chicago.