Chapel Choir Home Concert Review

Amber Kavie

The Chapel Choir has a great reputation around Concordia and the state of Minnesota.

They are known for their excellent musicianship, outreach, and commitment to excellence. They

are a great symbol of the choirs at Concordia. On March 24th, the choir returned back to

Moorhead after an efficient 4-day tour around the state of Minnesota. Here, the choral fans in the

Fargo-Moorhead area had the opportunity to listen to an hour and a half of wonderful repertoire

selected and prepared by their conductor, Dr. Michael Culloton. Overall, I found the concert

moving, exciting, mellow, and enjoyable, however, I did find certain aspects of the performance

and conducting still have some room for growth. Here, I will explain what I think Dr. Culloton

and the Chapel Choir accomplished beautifully, and I will discuss what I think could be

improved.

One aspect of the concert that I thoroughly enjoyed was the wonderful programming. I

believe that there was an excellent variety of mood, texture, and compositional style. However,

most of the music was from the 20th century and beyond. I believe this worked for the specific

group, but in the future, Dr. Culloton might consider more variety in stylistic period for his

repertoire choices. Unfortunately, two Brahms and Bruckner motets don’t give an accurate

representation to the centuries of excellent choral music found from the Renaissance to modern

day. This being said, I actively enjoyed listening to each piece. There was not a point in the

concert that I was bored or checked my watch. The pacing was well timed and executed well.

The last thing that I will mention about the programming is the mystery of the first two sets.

Both were essentially two songs long, since in the second set the choir sang What is This Place
with the audience. It seemed like there was not much to distinguish between the two sets, so I

believe that it would better serve as one longer set.

I thought that the execution of the music by the choir was done with grace and showed

extended preparation. I thought that the third, fourth and fifth sets of the concert seemed to sit

better in the singer’s voices than the first two sets. The opening piece, Song of Triumph, was

pleasant to listen to, but seemed a little choppy, and the intonation at the end of the piece,

specifically in the high sopranos suffered a bit. Additionally, the German was generally good in

the Brahms, but the vowel [y] on the word “Güte” was closer to an [u] than to a more accurate

[i]. However, when contrasted with Steal Away in the fifth set, every word was understood

perfectly and accurately. Overall, most songs were executed with vocal maturity and vocal

health, but with a little extra attention to the explicitly vocally or dialectally challenging works,

this could be improved to all pieces on the program.

The only thing that left a little to be desired in some aspects was the conducting by Dr.

Culloton. He is a very talented musician and clearly knows how to lead a choir and develop their

sound into a truly enjoyable product. However, I would like more variety in his conducting

pattern. He never stood out in terms of poor conducting or standing in the way of appreciating

the choir, but I felt that from song to song, the same pattern was used even if the mood or style of

the piece was completely different. The pattern was generally large and wide, hinged from the

shoulders. In some of the more tender pieces, I would have appreciated a smaller, more

contained pattern that looked less academic and more sincere. This being said, I believe that the

choir was prepared well and did not necessarily reflect the negative aspects of Dr. Culloton’s

conducting as I have mentioned. It was still effective and kept the choir together – the main goal

of an ensemble.
 In conclusion, I would go again to another Chapel Choir concert. The music was

enjoyable, the singers were well prepared and expressive, and the pacing of the concert made for

a delightful afternoon. Even with my critiques, I still believe the Chapel Choir to be a great

symbol of the music making capable at Concordia. I look forward to hearing the group in the

future.