RiverChor Community Choir is pleased to present their 20th Anniversary concert on Sunday, November 17 at 2:00pm at Zion Lutheran Church, 439 3rd Ave S in Clinton. Admission to the concert is free, offerings are welcome and appreciated.
The choir was founded in 2004 by a group of dedicated “Messiah” singers to fill an empty spot on the Zion Concert Series. The current 50 member group is proud to celebrate twenty years of presenting quality choral music to the Gateway area.
As in that first concert, the traditional hymn “Come Ye That Love the Lord”, arranged by Parker/Shaw, will welcome the audience as the choir ‘joins in a song of sweet accord’, and asks that ‘the sorrows of the mind be banished from this place’. Dutch organist and composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck’s “Cantate Domino” is a late Renaissance piece that weaves five lines together into a lilting fugue set to Psalm 96.
The Ola Gjello arrangement of “Ubi Caritas” has been a favorite across the years; Christine Holmer will be featured on this piece in a new adaptation of Gjello’s piano improvisation. The choir will round out the first half of the concert with two new pieces. “O Love” by Elaine Hagenberg is set to a poem by George Matheson in 1882. The hopeful, yet at times dissonant, musical lines explore the beauty and heartache of a lost love, enhanced by cellist Mia Wright. Karl Wolf will be featured in “Ain’t Got Time to Die”, a rousing syncopated spiritual by Hall Johnson.
Founding director Dr. Robert Engelson will return to direct the second half, as the choir is joined by alumni. “Song of Triumph” by Dale Grotenhuis is another favorite opener, with a crisp multimeter fanfare, rich chant, and soaring alleluias. Charles Villar Stanford’s “Beati Quorum Via” breaks into gorgeous six part harmonies. RiverChor’s ladies are honored to present Dr. Thea Engelson’s adaptation of “Er, der Herrlichste von Allen” by Robert Schumann. The men will follow up with a toe-tapping rendition of Pepper Choplin’s “Lay Up Your Treasures in Heaven” featuring bass James Schnitzmeyer.
“The Awakening” by Joseph M. Martin recounts a dream of a silent and melancholy world without music, yet it cannot be contained as the choir calls all to “Awake! Let music live!”.
“The Road Home” by Stephen Paulus is a fitting conclusion binding all who have been touched by the choir over the past twenty years. Invoking the wistfulness of a prodigal traveler, the closing line calls to us: ‘There is no such beauty as where you belong, rise up, follow me, I will lead you home’.
RiverChor was established in February 2004 and draws its singers from many communities in eastern Iowa and western Illinois. The group is under the direction of Karl Wolf, Christine Holmer serves as pianist. Concerts are presented every spring and fall. RiverChor has been the core group for the annual Messiah concerts and has been featured in concerts with the Clinton and Muscatine Symphony Orchestras. For more information you are invited to visit https://RiverChor.org