St. Olaf Christmas Festival leaves lasting impressions

Information for the 2015 St. Olaf Christmas Festival "And On Earth Peace"

"It's a celebration, and just a chance to step back from our normal busy lives and share in those moments of music-making and beauty and connection."

So says Sarah Stevens, a soprano in the St. Olaf Choir. Stevens has been part of the group for three of her four years at St. Olaf College. Known affectionately as "the Ole Choir," the ensemble comprises 75 singers, performs most of its pieces a cappella, and is led by Anton Armstrong.

Like a good number of the student musicians you'll hear during the St. Olaf Christmas Festival concert this weekend, Sarah Stevens's passion is music. It's a passion that was nurtured when she was a kid and was taken year after year by her family to the St. Olaf Christmas Festival. "I got to see what it was like beforehand, from the audience perspective," Stevens says. "Now I've been in it myself for four years, and I'm excited to come back some time, having been in it, [to] see what it's like from the outside again."

With graduation looming, Stevens — who will graduate with a degree in economics — already imagines returning to the campus as an audience member in years to come. Like the Stevens family who nurtured young Sarah's love of music, many of those sitting in the audience are what you might call "repeaters" — people who have attended the St. Olaf Christmas Festival year after year. "I've gone every year almost since birth," says Martha Kunau (who is also an employee of Minnesota Public Radio). "I'm one of those people. … It's the chip — your parents plant it."

Kunau graduated from St. Olaf and sang all four years, including in the Christmas Festival. She says she returns annually because the experience is so important to her; she recalls being a first-year student and singing with the Manitou Singers, a choir composed of 93 first-year women, dressed in white on red, and led by Sigrid Johnson. Kunau says the bond forged during that first year is indelible. "Once you've been in the Manitou singers with Sigrid, you're always one of her girls," Kunau says. "I sing in a choir now where many of us had the experience [at St. Olaf], and when we saw [Johnson] recently at a concert, she said, 'Oh — my girls!' I think she knows what a special time that is … it's your first year on your own."

But Kunau thinks the experience of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival reaches far beyond those who are alumni of the college — even beyond those who embrace the full traditions the festival represents. "It's a place where [thousands of] people have gathered to experience something," Kunau says. "And I think you leave changed whether or not you've signed off on all the theological dogma. I think it's bigger than that. I think the message and the reach is much more universal."

Listen to the live broadcast of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival on Sunday, Dec. 7, starting at 3 p.m., on Classical MPR. Tune in for an encore broadcast on Thursday, Dec. 18, at 7 p.m.

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