LSM sponsors Inaugural Choral Festival for three Lutheran High Schools
Singers from three Lutheran High Schools in the greater Milwaukee area recently came together for the “ONE Choir,” an inaugural joint choir festival, hosted at Lake Country Lutheran High School, and sponsored in part by Lutheran Summer Music.
In attendance at this event were the Bel Canto Choir from Milwaukee Lutheran High School directed by Harold Simelton, the Concert Choir from Martin Luther High School directed by Ben Bedroske, and the Lake Country Lutheran Concert Choir directed by Angela Batterman – who also spearheaded the event.
Dr. David Mennicke (LSM Festival Choir Director 2001, 2003, 2005) served as a clinician for the day, working with students and directing students in joint rehearsals, all leading up to a performance the same evening, where each choir shared their own set of anthems, and all ensembles joined together for a mass choir performance – the “ONE Choir.”
The entire festival was sponsored as an opportunity to highlight and continue the Lutheran choral tradition, as well as give students an opportunity to come together with strangers to share in music, faith, and community – all values that are reflected during the annual Lutheran Summer Music Academy & Festival.
Students spent the day in warm-ups, choir rehearsal, sectionals – as well as in social time and devotionals for students to reflect on their shared music and time together. Mrs. Batterman shared,
“We were talking about what it meant to be one – the ONE choir. [One of our students] reflected on the Holy Trinity – three in one – and she went on to point out that we have three high schools, and we each have different styles and genres of music, but we are also going to sing pieces as ONE.”
Dr. David Mennicke (LSM Festival Choir Director 2001, 2003, 2005)
Their joint concert featured music of many genres, from choral standards, gospel music, praise songs, motets, and concluding with the ONE Choir singing the choral standard and traditional blessing, Peter Lutkin’s “The Lord Bless You and Keep You.”
During the concert, Dr. Mennicke shared,
“I’ve spent over 40 years of my life working with music and with wonderful people proclaiming our faith. What a wonderful gift that I’ve been given, what a wonderful gift that you are giving your children that they can participate in this. This is something of lasting value. Here we … can come together and create beauty, by collaborating, by joining together. And isn’t that something we need in our society: joining together, not dividing, but uniting. And what better thing to unite in: in music, in people, in faith.”
Congratulations to these singers and these high schools for this wonderful event, and we look forward to seeing some of these students at LSM 2024 at Valparaiso University!