Cathedral Arts Guild and Heelan to sponsor vespers concert at Cathedral

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
February 12, 2004

The Cathedral Arts Guild and the Bishop Heelan High School Vocal Music Department are co-sponsoring an event featuring the Dakota Men's Ensemble.

The concert will be held at 8 p.m. on Feb. 20 at the Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City.

The group was started about four or five years ago as a student-run ensemble that came out of the SDSU men's chorus, The Statesmen. It was just a small group run by students and they sang all types of music through extra rehearsals in evenings and smaller performances.

"It has kind of evolved over the last couple of years. They have taken on non-profit status and they have become a community group that involves all sorts of college students and people in the community at large," said Chris Storm, assistant music director at Heelan High School.

The group is directed by SDSU alumnus Brian Schmidt. There are 13 singers in the group ranging in age from 21 to early 50s. The Brookings Art Council sponsors the ensemble.

"They come from all different walks of life," said Storm. "I believe there are three who make their living as musicians or as music teachers. The rest work in the private sector, engineers and other just general business in the Brookings area. They all combine for their love of singing. There are members from Brookings, SDSU and a few who travel from Sioux Falls and surrounding communities."

They are taking music, primarily from Russian composers and putting that together. It will be a meditative form of a sacred vespers service, so almost all of the portions of the vespers will be represented.

"They are going to sing music appropriate to vespers," said Sister Mary Day, OSF, a member of the Cathedral Arts Guild. "Vespers is the evening prayer of the church said by priests and religious. The type of music they will sing will work in the Cathedral very well."

The men's ensemble will sing both a cappella and accompanied sacred works.

The Cathedral Arts Guild heard about the ensemble, and that they were wanting to perform in the Siouxland area. This concert is part of a small tour they are doing over the weekend in Southeastern South Dakota and Northwestern Iowa. The arts guild looks for groups that fit their mission, which is to foster the historic role of a Cathedral as a diocesan and community center for prayer, hospitality and the arts. Sister Day explained that this would be a perfect type of presentation to have at the Cathedral.

"Our secular entertainment centers are not providing this," said Sister Day, also a professor in the music department at Briar Cliff University. "That is not their mission to do that, so it is our mission to provide types of situations that bring us to prayer or bring us to meditation - this concert will do that."

Tickets for the concert will be available at the door for a $5 donation. The concert will benefit the Cathedral Arts Guild and the Heelan High School vocal music department.

"The group has a lot of talent," said Storm. "They are all focused on keeping the men's music thriving and keeping it alive. It is a great room for them to sing in. The acoustics of the Cathedral are just phenomenal. I think the audience will just really enjoy what they hear that night."

All are encouraged to attend this event at the Cathedral. The doors will open for seating at 7:30 p.m.