The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology presents the thirty-third annual Holiday Cathedral Choral Concert

Concert Choir University Choir Master Chorale directed by James D. Feiszli

An evening of carols

Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Rapid City, SD December 5 & 6, 2015, 7:30pm Carols evolved from folkdance traditions. Sung at winter and spring solstice celebrations, carols existed before pre- Christian times. The early church overlaid pre-Christian celebrations with Christian holidays (“holy-days”), but the elements of boisterous joy and dance remained in the songs that became popular with the uneducated populace of Western Europe. Since the general populace did not speak, read, or write Latin, macaronic carols (songs using both Latin and the local language) arose. Nativity plays in the Middle Ages frequently used carols to teach biblical doctrine to the illiterate. This development is partially responsible for the spread of the carol through Europe.

As Europe emerged from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the influence of the Church waned – particularly after the Reformation and the secularism of the Enlightenment. Holiday celebrations became associated with other ancient traditions which, in turn, led to a re-birth of carols as Christian musicians and clergy sought to reclaim the awe and joy of the Christmas season. The four-part hymn-like carols of the nineteenth century became what most of us think about when we hear the term.

Tonight we present an entire concert of carols both old and modern from Europe and the U.S.

I – Candlelight Carols Jesus Christ the Apple Tree ……………….….. Elizabeth Poston Infant Holy, Infant Lowly ………………………… David Willcocks Carol of the Drum ………………..…………… Katherine K. Davis We Three Kings ….. Stephen Hopkins, arr. Darmon Meader II – University Choir Pat-a-Pan …………………………….……………………… David Conte Good King Wenceslas ………….. Robert Shaw / Alice Parker Still, Still, Still ……………………………..…………… Norman Luboff Ding Dong Merrily on High …………………..…. James D. Feiszli III – Master Chorale The Hills are Bare at Bethlehem …………..…… Ralph Johnson Fum Fum Fum …………………………………. Joaquin Nin-Culmell Maria Walks Amid the Thorn ……………….………… Ron Jeffers Riu, riu, chiu …………………….…………………… Noah Greenberg IV - Concert Choir Wassail Song………….…………………. Ralph Vaughan Williams Es ist ein Ros entsprungen ………………… Michael Praetorius Es ist ein Ros entsprungen ………………………..…. Hugo Distler Wexford Carol ……………………………………………… John Rutter V – Combined Choirs In dulci jubilo …………………………………… Michael Praetorius Night of Silence …………………………………………. Daniel Kantor I – Candlelight Carols Jesus Christ the Apple Tree Banks Music / Hal Leonard, 1967 Elizabeth Poston; a highly regarded English composer, musicologist, and music director for the British Broadcasting Company; was an authority on carols and folk-music. Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree, included in her Cambridge Hymnal (1967), is an original composition paired with the words found in the collection Divine Hymns or Spiritual Songs (1784) by Joshua Smith of New Hampshire. Poston gives the text a folksong-like sound, setting the verses in a variety of voices – unison women, four-part women, mixed chorus, and finishing in unison on the dominant tone (fifth note of the scale). This gives a feeling of haunting incompleteness that is both mystical and ethereal. Hannah Covey, soloist

Infant Holy Infant Lowly Oxford University Press, 1961 This traditional Polish carol is a lullaby, but not one being sung to baby Jesus, but rather about him. Willcocks, famed director of the Cambridge Kings College Choir for decades and co-editor with John Rutter (see below) of the well-known Carols for Choir series, set this carol for SATB choir, giving the sopranos the melody line. The altos, tenors and basses sing in what seems to be an ordinary hymn-like harmony but as the arrangement progresses, each individual part becomes its own line of melody. This sequence begins with the tenors followed by the other parts.

Carol of the Drum Mills Music / Alfred Music, 1941 Katherine K. Davis wrote her first composition at the age of 15. A native of Missouri, she studied music at the all-female Wellesley College in Massachusetts (1910-1914). After graduation, Davis remained an assistant in the music department while pursuing a graduate degree at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Carol of the Drum was composed in 1941. Davis never identified the original source, but her original manuscript reads, “Czech carol freely transcribed.”

Originally recorded in 1955 by the Trapp Family Singers, Carol of the Drum was recorded again in 1957 after Henry Onorati re-arranged it for the Jack Halloran Singers. In 1958, Onorati introduced the music to his friend Harry Simeone, a conductor and arranger who worked as the music director for a television show called The Firestone Hour. Simeone re-arranged it again and re-titled it The Little Drummer Boy. His recording was a huge success, scoring on the U.S. music charts from 1958 to 1962. Tonight we perform Davis’ original setting in which the sopranos have the melody overlaid with alto harmony, while tenor and bass voices produce a drum-like rhythm.

We Three Kings Carl Fischer, 2004 J. H. Hopkins was an ordained minister and amateur musician who wrote both the lyrics and the music for this traditional Christmas hymn. The piece, composed around 1857, was written for a Christmas pageant that took place while Hopkins was serving as the music director of the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York City. It was first printed in Hopkins’ Carols, Hymns and Songs (1863). Set in a minor key to capture an “Oriental” feel, Hopkins’ carol has become a classic part of the Christmas season.

This arrangement is by one of the premier vocalists and arrangers in the jazz vocal and instrumental world today, Darmon Meader. As founder, member, and music director of the New York Voices, he has performed and recorded with artists such as George Benson, Bernadette Peters, and the Count Basie Orchestra. II – University Choir

Pat-a-Pan E. C. Schirmer, 2015 Originally titled Guillô, Pran Ton Tamborin (Willie, Take Your Little Drum) Pat-a-pan was written in 1720 by a French lawyer turned poet, Bernard de La Monnoye. Pat-a-pan is told from the perspective of shepherds playing flutes and drums. Throughout the piece singers repeat the phrase “pan pat a pan.” This is meant to mimic the sound of shepherds playing their drums. Likewise, the phrase “tu la ru la ru” is meant to mimic the sound of a flute.

Traditionally, Pat-a-pan has three verses, but David Conte, an American composer, repeats the first verse after the second and third verses of the original carol (ABACA style). In the first, fourth, and fifth verses, the women have the melody while the men sing an onomatopoetic drum beat. In the second verse, the men have the melody and the women sing the drum beat. The sopranos lead the melody echoed by the basses in the third verse while the tenors and altos sing the drum beat. Still, Still, Still Walton Music, 1958 Still, Still, Still is both a lullaby and a Weihnachtslieder (Christmas song). It conveys the joy of Mary at her newborn son and savior, as well as creates a sonic image of Mary gently sending Jesus off to sleep. This message is conveyed through simplicity in the harmony, melody, and lyrics. Throughout the piece, there is a gentle sequential rise and fall of notes which is meant mimic the motion of a cradle. In verses one and two, sopranos sing the melody while the other three parts sing harmony. In the third verse, sopranos retain the melody, but the harmony changes as the basses drop down an octave, and the tenors and altos also sing in lower registers.

The words of Still, Still, Still are attributed to G. Götsch and appeared in 1865. The tune of this Austrian carol, however, is from a collection of folk songs by Maria Vinzenz Süß, the founder of the Salzburg Museum in Austria. Norman Luboff, a twentieth century American music arranger, publisher, and choir director, introduced much non-U.S. music to American audiences and this arrangement is one of his best-known.

Good King Wenceslas G. Schirmer, 1953 Good King Wenceslas is not a traditional carol in either origin of tune or subject matter. Published in 1853 by English clergyman John Mason Neale, it is one of many pieces that Neale created from various sources. Based on a thirteenth- century song about spring, Tempus Adest Floridum, the text is a translation of a poem by a Czech poet. While it conveys messages of kindness and selflessness that exemplify the Christmas season, it has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus. The story is of a good king braving a winter storm to bring aid to a peasant on the Feast of Stephen (Dec. 26). However, Wenceslas was not actually a king. Wenceslas was the duke of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) from 921-935. He was known as a charitable man, but there is nothing to indicate that the events of Good King Wenceslas actually happened. This arrangement is one of 223 choral arrangements produced by Robert Shaw and Alice Parker for Shaw’s professional choir. They divided Good King Wenceslas is into five verses. All singers sing in a homophonic manner in the first and last verses. In the second, third, and fourth verses, male and female voices sing the dialog between King Wenceslas and his page.

Male semi-chorus: Adrian Epp, Nick Kenaston, Mathew Volkmer

Female semi-chorus : , Antoinette Brumbaugh, Rachel Lere, Katie O’Rourke, Nishanthi Perera, Elizabeth Pierce Ding Dong Merrily On High Musikhaus Publications, 2015 Ding! Dong! Merrily on High! is another non-traditional carol. The tune is Branle de L'Official, found in Jehan Tabourot’s Orchésographie (1589), a book of sixteenth century French dances. English composer George Ratcliffe Woodward, an Anglican priest, helped create the St Barnabas Choral Society and published Hymns and Carols for Christmas-tide (1924) in which Ding! Dong! Merrily on High! first appeared with this text and tune combined. Perhaps the most notable part of Ding! Dong! Merrily on High! is its melismatic melodic sequence, or elongation of a single syllable through many notes, in the refrain “Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!”(“Glory, Hosanna in the highest.”). This arrangement is by SDSM&T Director of Music James D. Feiszli.

III – Master Chorale

The Hills are Bare at Bethlehem Earthsongs, 1995 Singing schools and shape-note singing flourished 1700-1900 as a popular form of recreation in the United States. It is still practiced today, by a small, but dedicated group of enthusiasts. Many songbooks were published to cater to this activity, including Kentucky Harmony (1816), Missouri Harmony (1820), Southern Harmony (1835), and The Sacred Harp (1844). The melody of The Hills are Bare was published in Southern Harmony under the title Prospect. It was not joined to this text until Royce Scharf, a Lutheran pastor, crafted a poem to fit to Prospect for the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship. Ralph Johnson has arranged the hymn for vocal ensemble. It begins with unaccompanied soprano solo. The men take the melody in the second verse and the altos in the third.

solo: Alexa Worley

Fum, fum, fum Rongwen Music / Broude Brothers, 1959 This carol, of 16th century Catalan folk origin, was made popular by the Robert Shaw Chorale (see Good King Wenceslas below). The English text is recent, and bears little resemblance to the original Catalonian text. The words "Fum, fum, fum", imitate the sound of the Orchésographie by Jehan Tabourot, a type of folk drum; closely associated with the flamenco tradition. Joaquin Nin-Culmell was born in Berlin of two Cuban musicians, raised in New York City, educated in Paris, studied with the Spanish composer Manuel da Falla, and spent most of his professional life in the United States as a professor of composition, lastly at the University of California-Berkeley.

Maria Walks Amid the Thorn Earthsongs, 1987 Maria durch ein'n Dornwald ging (“Mary through a thorn-wood goes”) is a 16th-century German song traditionally sung during the Advent season. The first appearance of lyrics and music together was in the Andernach Gesangbuch (1608). The use of kyrie eleison from the Ordinary of the Mass with a vernacular text indicates that the song dates back to the Middle Ages. The lyrics tell of Mary’s pregnancy and her role as mother of Jesus, associating the Blessed Virgin Mary and the “spotless Rose”– a traditional image in German culture (as heard later in the Praetorius and Distler settings of Es ist ein Ros entsprungen). This setting is by American Ron Jeffers, who uses the English translation by Henry S. Drinker.

Riu riu chiu Associated Music Publishers, 1950 This 16th-century villancico (dance carol), from the Catalan region between Spain and France displays folkdance origins by its tuneful melody, and use of the vernacular, rather than the “high” language of Latin. It is known from a single source, the Cancionero de Uppsala, published in 1556 in Venice. The nonsense syllables ríu ríu chíu are heard as the predator call of a kingfisher.

Riu, riu, chiu, The river bank is protected God has kept the wolf from our ewe lamb The rabid wolf wanted to bite her But Almighty God knew how to defend her He willed to make her unable to sin Even original sin this virgin did not have The one who is born is the Great Monarch Christ the patriarch Clothed in flesh He has redeemed us by making himself small Though he was infinite He became finite He comes to give life to the dead He comes to repair the fall of all mankind This Child is the light of day He is the Lamb of whom St. John spoke I saw a thousand angels who were singing Flying around chanting in a thousand voices Saying to the shepherds “Glory in Heaven, And peace on earth for Jesus is born.” Now we have what we desire Let us go together to present him gifts Let us all give him our will For he came as our equal

IV – Concert Choir

Wassail Song Stainer & Bell, 1913 “Wassail” derives from the Old Norse “ves heil” which became the old English “was hál” (“be healthy”). Wassail is a beverage of hot mulled cider, traditionally drunk while “wassailing”, a Medieval English drinking ritual intended to ensure a good harvest the following year. In small communities, village “waits” went from farm to farm, bringing good luck with their singing—for which they were rewarded with food and drink. There are many wassail songs in England and most adopt the title of the region in which they were sung. This Gloucestershire wassail is believed to date to the Middle Ages. The carol was first published in the Oxford Book of Carols in 1928. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was one of a handful of British composers at the turn of the 20 th-century who drew on the rich treasury of English folk song. His arrangement of this carol is a vocal tour-de-force, set in a quick triple meter, depicting a group of carolers approaching a manor house and toasting the occupants.

Es ist ein Ros entsprungen E. C. Schirmer, Music, 1921 Concordia Publishing, 1967 This melody and text first appeared in print together in the Speierisches Gesangbuch (1599). The text comes from the book of Isaiah the eleventh chapter, first verse. “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” Neither the composer of the tune nor author of the text is known.

A more complete biography of Praetorius is found near the end of this concert program. Praetorius took the original melody - full of syncopated rhythms – and simplified those intricacies into a more metrical tune with a 4-part harmony. It remains one of his most widely-known works.

Hugo Distler (1908-1942) was a brilliant young composer whose fiercely held religious convictions led to him committing suicide rather than joining the Nazi Germany Army. He left behind a body of work that is a microcosm of early twentieth- century compositional techniques, nearly all of it sacred music. His setting of the same melody that Praetorius set shows a sensitivity to the text and yet is far more rhythmically intricate.

Wexford Carol Oxford University Press, 1978 Wexford Carol is probably the best-known Irish carol. William Grattan Ford (1859-1928), organist and music director at St. Aidan's Cathedral in Enniscorthy, Ireland, transcribed this carol from a local singer, and had it published in the Oxford book of Carols (1928). John Rutter, one of the most prominent choral composers of the twentieth-century, served as director of music at Clare College from 1975 to 1979 and led the choir to international prominence. He and David Willcocks were co- editors of the Carols for Choirs books used by choirs around the world.

Opening with a baritone solo, Rutter’s setting is lush and complex with the entire choir singing the words only in the fourth verse. The second and third verses feature a small group of female and male soloists respectively while the rest of the choir paints a sonic background to the words. The arrangement concludes with the solo.

Mitchell Kovash, soloist

Female semi-chorus: Kendra Deziel, Hannah Moen, Elizabeth Pierce, Madison Puntillo, Summer Rogers

Male semichorus: Mitchell Kovash, Alexander Schimbeno, Cole Steffen, Mark Undseth

A Merry Christmas Oxford University Press, 1935 In 1935, Arthur Warrell published this arrangement, describing the piece as a "traditional West Country carol". It was subsequently included in Carols for Choirs (1961). In the comprehensive New Oxford Book of Carols (1992), the carol is described as,"… much used by wassailers …" but no source or date is given. In the English tradition, wealthy people gave Christmas treats to carolers on Christmas Eve - a holdover from Medieval times when the landowner would host those that owed him fealty. Warrell’s arrangement captures the boisterousness of secular dance and the text certainly reflects the joy and spirit of original carols.

V – Combined Choirs

In dulci jubilo from Polyhymnia Caducaetrix (1619) transcribed and edited by James D. Feiszli

Musikhaus Publications, 2004 Michael Praetorius (1571-1621), whose Es ist ein Ros entsprungen was heard earlier, was one of the most versatile and prolific German composers of his time. Praetorius studied the new musical style emerging from Italy at the Basilica of San Marco in Venice – music by Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi. This compositional style placed consorts (choirs of like instruments or voices) in physically separated parts of the performance space. Each consort represented a differing tone color which echoed one another. This polychoral style in the construction of music drew more attention to harmony and dynamic levels than ever before while simultaneously demanding more solid rhythmic treatment to keep the scattered musical forces in sync.

Praetorius composed this setting of In Dulci Jubilo in 1619 as part of a large collection titled Polyhymnia Caduceatrix. The carol itself is thought to be one of the oldest German macaronic carols, with Latin and German used interchangeably throughout – often in the middle of a single phrase! The text is believed to have originated around 1328, written by Heinrich Suso, a German monk. The origin of the tune is unknown, but was already connected with Suso’s text in a 14 th century German music manuscript. English speakers will recognize the tune as that set to Good Christian Men, Rejoice by John Mason Neale.

Praetorius originally composed In Dulci Jubilo for four vocal choirs and a choir of clarini (valve-less trumpets). In general, the two smaller vocal groups sing in a higher range than the two large group choirs. The melody of In Dulci Jubilo bounces from choir to choir, at times creating an overlapping effect. The ensembles sing back and forth in various combinations, occasionally joining together for a massive sound. Throughout the performance, the glue of the piece is the basso continuo - usually keyboard and bass instrument, but in this case multiple bass instruments - on which the harmony is based.

Brass Choir

Travis Buse, trombone - CheE ’15 / Lennox, SD

Therese Frels, trumpet - Phys ‘17 / Guthrie Center, IA

Ezra Grothe, trumpet - EE ’19 / Thief River Falls, MN

Christopher Kolegraff, trumpet - CEng ‘18 / Jamal, CA

Basso continuo

Alana MacLachlan, violoncello - ABS ’17 / Rapid City, SD

Christopher Oran, doublebass - ME ’19 / Woodland Park, CO

Jacob Swanson, trombone - MET ‘17 / Milwaukee, WI

Solo Choir Elizabeth Pierce, Karen Kierstead, Thomas Hill, Shon Anderson

Balcony Choir

Grant Brewer, Emily Brossart, Tad DeVries, Michelle Feiszli,

Nicholas Johnson, Mitchell Kovash, Rachel Lere, Hannah Moen,

Amanda Penning, Katherine Ross, Christopher Shearer,

Melissa Shulte, Mathew Volkmer, Alexa Worley

With sweet rejoicing now sing and be glad! Our hearts’ delight is lying in a manger and shines forth like the sun on his mother’s lap. The Alpha and Omega.

O tiny baby Jesus, I so long for You! Comfort my soul, O peerless boy; through all your goodness, O Prince of Glory, Draw me to you!

O charity of the Father, O leniency of the birth! We were all lost because of our sins until You gained for us the joys of heaven O that we were there!

Joys are there as in no other place! There the angels sing a new song and the bells ring out in the court of the King. O that we were there!

Night of Silence G. I. A. Publications, 1984 Although Daniel Kantor has composed and published a number of compositions, Night of Silence is by far his most popular. Since its publication, this work has made its way into hymnals, concert settings and recordings all over the world. Placed squarely in the season of Advent, the text speaks of spiritual emptying, longing, and anticipation. The text of the song was inspired in part by the northwoods of Wisconsin and the sparkle of freshly fallen snow in the moonlight of a sub-zero winter’s night.

Hannah Covey, soloist

Michelle Feiszli, piano

Descant Group

Emily Brossart, Hannah Covey, Adelyn Crabtree, Kylie Johnson,

Elizabeth Pierce, Madison Puntillo, Gina Rossi, Alexa Worley Master Chorale * Hannah Covey / Civil ‘18 / Winner, SD Nicholas Johnson / CheE ‘17 / Pierre, SD * # Mitchell Kovash / ME ‘16 / Dickinson, ND Madison Puntillo / CheE ‘18 / Sioux City, IA Summer Rogers / ME ‘19 / Brandon, SD * Alexa Worley / Math-CSc ‘18 / Rapid City, SD

Concert Choir Soprano Vessa Bumgardner / ME ‘17 / Elbow Lake, MN Emily Brossart / CheE ‘18 / Inver Grove Heights, MN * # Adelyn Crabtree / CheE ‘16 / Pierre, SD Kendra Deziel / CSc ‘17 / Luck, WI Lynda Goldsmith / ME ‘17 / Mobridge, SD Kylie Johnson / CheE ‘18 / Montrose, SD Victoria Karnes / Geol ‘19 / Pella, IA Amanda Klein / CheE ‘18 / Rapid City, SD Heather Mathis / CEng ‘19 / Rapid City, SD Hannah Moen / MetE ‘19 / Avon, MN # Elizabeth Pierce / MS.ME ‘16 / Colorado Springs, CO Naomi Pulscher / ABS ‘18 / Vadnais Heights, MN Gina Rossi / CEE ‘16 / Pueblo, CO Alto Jessica Fabin / Geol ‘19 / Garden City, KS # Kristen Harders / GeoE ‘16 / Wood River, NE Brittany Hinkle / ‘Geol ‘19 / Highmore, SD Madison Puntillo / CheE ‘18 / Sioux City, IA Summer Rogers / ME ‘19 / Brandon, SD Erica Westerman / CheE ‘19 / Yankton, SD * Alexa Worley / Math-CSc ‘18 / Rapid City, SD Tenor Zakary Jewell / MinE ‘17 / Tomah, WI Nicholas Johnson / CheE ‘17 / Pierre, SD * # Mitchell Kovash / ME ‘16 / Dickinson , ND Isaac Pulscher / MetE ‘16 / Vadnais Heights, MN Logan Sievers / CSc ‘19 / Palmyra, WI Cole Steffen / ME ‘19 / Crofton, NE Bass Joshua Baumann / ME ‘19 / Chester, SD Brendon Cerveny / Pysc ‘17 / Sturgis, SD Cody Cooper / ME ‘17 / Brighton, CO Samuel Huntington / ME ‘17 / Sioux Falls, SD Dowain Kerner / CheE ‘19 / Gregory, SD Thomas LeVoir / CEng ‘18 / St. Anthony, MN Todd Podoll / CSc ‘17 / Sturgis, SD Daniel Seilkop / CheE ‘18 / Farmington, MN Nickolas Oster / ME ‘16 / Eureka, SD Matthew Schallenkamp / CSc ‘19 / Brookings, SD Alexander Schimbeno / CEng ‘19 / Lake City, MN Mark Undseth / IEEM ‘16 / Fergus Falls, MN Samuel Williams / CSc ‘19 / Woodland Park, CO

* - current scholarship recipient # - former scholarship recipient University Choir Soprano Tayla Bahr / community Kali Becket / community Mila Belakova / community Laura Clarke / M.S. Paleo ‘14 / Rapid City, SD Miranda Conklin / community * Hannah Covey / ABS ‘18 / Winner, SD Michelle Feiszli / community Jessica Hicks / IS ‘05 / Rapid City, SD Tara Huber / EE ‘09 / Rapid City, SD Katie O’Rourke / community Amanda Penning / IS-ATM ‘18 / Dell Rapids, SD Sylvia Iverson / CEE ‘16 / Spearfish, SD # Elizabeth Pierce / ME ‘15 / Colorado Springs, CO Ayla Rodriguez / Phys ‘19 / Rapid City, SD Melissa Schulte / community Shea Thorson / IS-Hlth ‘14 / Belle Fourche, SD Danietta Turpen / Chem ‘19 / Rapid City, SD Alto Deanna Becket / community Kathleen Brown / CSc ‘18 / Long Pine, NE Antoinette Brumbaugh / community Alaina Fike / Geol ‘13 / Alexandria, MN Tina Fletcher / community Julie Fisk / community Karen Kierstead / community Rashyll Leonard / Math ‘16 / Montrose, CO Rachel Lere / community Nishanthi Perera / GeoE ‘17 / Olympia, WA Katharine Ross / GeoE ‘18 / Dravosburg, PA Jessica Smith / community Tenor Ian Becket / community Russell Denke / community Tad DeVries / CSc ‘05 / Rapid City, SD Adrian Epp / ME ‘19 / Giltener, NE Thomas Hill / EE ‘88 / Rapid City, SD Jordan Kirschenheiter / GeoE ‘15 / Taylor, ND Felix Rafal / community Nicholas Roggow / CEng ‘18 / Fairmont, MN Evan Tellinghuisen / EE ‘18 / Brandon, SD Bass Shon Anderson / ME ‘92 / Rapid City, SD Daniel Andrus / CSc ‘16 / Los Angeles, CA Grant Brewer / ABS ‘17 / Mobridge, SD Bob Case / EE ‘75 / Rapid City, SD Tuff Dykstra / ME ‘18 / Stickney, SD Jon Eizinger / community Karl Keller / MetE ‘19 / Faribault, MN Nick Kenaston / community Trevor Larson / MetE ‘13 / Becker, MN Cody Lere / IS ‘15 / Rapid City, SD Christopher Navarro / CSc-Math ‘18 / Sammamish, WA Andrew Norman / MetE ‘19 / Conifer, CO Chris Shearer / faculty Mathew Volkmer / MetE ‘18 / Plainfield, IL James D. Feiszli In his thirty-third year as Director of Music Activities and Professor of Humanities, Dr. Feiszli holds a B.M.E. from the University of Mount Union, a M.M. from the University of Akron, and the D.M.A. degree from Arizona State University. He created and established the music curriculum at SDSM&T and continues to guide its path. Ensembles under Dr. Feiszli’s direction have won awards and accolades in their performances at professional music conferences, competitions, and concerts throughout the U.S and Europe.

Listed in the International Who’s Who in Choral Music, Dr. Feiszli is the founder and former executive director of ChoralNet, a global network of choral musicians which is now the communications arm of the American Choral Directors Association. He directed ChoralNet and ACDA’s technology efforts for nineteen years and also established ACDA’s International Choral Exchange Program. He has been an advisor to the International Federation for Choral Music, the European Association of Choirs, and Musica International. Dr. Feiszli is a recognized authority on the music of Heinrich Isaac, one of the foremost composers of the early Renaissance.

Dr. Feiszli is the recipient of SDSM&T’s Presidential Award for Outstanding Professor, Virginia Simpson Award for Community Service, the Rushmore Honors Award by the Rapid City Area Chamber of Commerce, the Lifetime Achievement Award from South Dakota ACDA, and was named the 2013 Professor of the Year for South Dakota by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.