School Spotlight: Austin High School Concert Choir

In this week's School Spotlight, we will revisit the Austin High School Concert Choir from Austin, Minn.

Feature Audio

• 7:15 a.m. — Moses Hogan: I'm Gonna Sing 'Til the Spirit Moves in My Heart

1. 7:15 p.m. — Eliza Gilkyson arr. Craig Hella Johnson: Requiem

1. Web only — Abel Pacheco, arr. Rolando Brenes: Congori Shango

Since 1933, the Austin High School (AHS) Concert Choir has been maintaining a tradition of excellence. During winter 2014, the AHS Concert Choir performed at the Minnesota Music Educators Association mid-winter clinic in February and traveled to new Orleans in March to perform at Tulane University and at Trinity Episcopal Church.

This auditioned ensemble of more than 100 students meets every day for 50 minutes, spending this time learning prestigious choral literature. Examples of pieces the choir has performed include Morten Lauridsen's Sure on this Shining Night, Eric Whitacre's Sleep and Waternight, and Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. The latter is an anti-war piece structured like a Catholic mass, but featuring text not only from the Bible, but also a Muslim call to prayer; the Mahabharata (a Sanskrit epic poem about war); L'homme armé (a fifteeth-century French folk song that this choir has also studied); and poetry by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Rudyard Kipling, and Japanese writer Sankichi Toge. The AHS Concert Choir performed Jenkins' The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace last March with the Austin Symphony Orchestra.

As The Armed Man illustrates, the AHS Concert Choir has a habit of studying works with significant meaning. One of today's audio features, Requiem, was composed by American folk musician Eliza Gilkyson as an expression of grief at the December 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean. It is a track on her album Paradise, the release of which happened to coincide with Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. This song, since arranged for choir by American choral director and founder of the Texas-based ensemble Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson, has become standard choral repertoire, and is considered by listeners to give a cathartic sense of prayer and comfort.

Speaking of comfort and catharsis, AHS Concert Choir director, Brian Johnson, recognizes the positive impact that participating in a music ensemble can have on students, particularly for those whom high school presents more than the usual struggles. His favorite story is that of a young man, recently graduated from AHS who came back to visit the choir room. His time in high school had been difficult both emotionally and academically, and this had manifested in substance abuse issues from which he was recently recovering. He did however manage to graduate on time and come out on the other side. He had returned to tell Mr. Johnson how "choir was the one oasis he had during school, the one place where he felt safe and connected". To this Mr. Johnson says:

I have had many, many students come into our choir room through the years, but his testimony struck a powerful chord. This really is a place where students (of many different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences) can come together for 50 minutes a day and be a part of something bigger than themselves, and feel a connection that is impossible to get any other way. Music changes lives one moment at a time, for the performer and the listener, I feel fortunate that my life as a choral teacher has included countless moments of wonder that students create every single day. It is a priceless gift we give to these kids and they give to us — we shouldn't take for granted music education in our schools.

Future Concerts

As part of its regular annual concert series, the AHS Concert Choir will be performing March 3 and May 19 at the Austin High School. They will also sing at the Big Nine Music Festival on May 1, 2015, at Mankato West High School.

Listen to Classical MPR in Austin, Minn., on KLSE 103.3 FM.

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