In anticipation of this coming weekend's Christmas Festival at Carthage, I'm going to post a couple of my own favorite moments. This one comes from December 1999 - which is back in the days when applause was allowed. This is how the concert began- with the men of the Carthage Choir singing from the
My song "Mercy and Love" springs from the Bible story of Jesus healing the ten lepers- only one of whom thought to return the Jesus to offer Him thanks. I composed this song back in 2004 for a former voice student of mine named Trevor Parker, inspired both by the beauty of his voice and
Nothing like a Christmas song on a snowy day like today. This is my arrangement of the carol "Shepherds, Shake Off Your Drowsy Sleep" for treble voices - and this was a performance of it by Musici Amici ("Musical Friends"), all alums of the Carthage Chamber Singers, as sung for a concert at Holy
Here is the final movement of my "Short Requiem." Almost the entire work is in the uncommon time signature of 5/4. I did that because the work was composed tin memory of someone who had been tragically killed in a motorcycle accident- and I thought the asymmetry of the 5/4 meter could help convey the
Here's another movement from my Short Requiem, commissioned several years ago by the Waterford High School Choirs and their director, Derek Machan. To set this text, I envisioned the liturgical chants- one might almost call them cries - that might be intoned from the top of a tall tower. That is the image
Here is the opening movement of my Short Requiem, as performed at my 25th anniversary concert "Streams of Mercy Never Ceasing" at Holy Communion Lutheran Church. This piece was sung by the combined forces of my senior choir and the Lincoln Chamber Singers, with Laura Wangaard playing clarinet. Laura Jansen, a soprano in
Several years ago, Derek Machan, the choral director at Waterford High School, commissioned me to compose a new requiem in memory of his good friend Kris Noveaus, the choir director at Union Grove High School, who had been tragically killed (along with her husband) in a motorcycle accident. I ended up composing a Short Requiem
My song "Pace" (which is Italian for "peace") tries to describe the Perfect Peace that was part of the first Christmas night. This particular recording is of the Lincoln Chamber Singers, and I appreciate how warmly they embraced this piece and sang it so beautifully. The Chamber Singers have sung it on several different
This is a song that I have only performed once in my entire life, because it was written for a very specific occasion - for a very special group of guys. The occasion was the final concert of the Church Singers, a men's choir conducted by my father-in-law, Robert Gall, for 33 years. They
This is a song I composed in honor of a Carthage graduate named Laura Kaeppler- who also happens to be a former Miss America! Towards the end of her time as Miss America, she returned to Kenosha to receive a special Kenoshan-of-the-year Award - and the organizers of the event were anxious for Carthage
