What's Happening at Immanuel?

Prof. Schaller here with another musical journey taken by one of our students. On Saturday, April 26, the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists hosted an "organ crawl" in the St. Cloud, MN area. Organ student Anthony Garibay and I took the day to go to the event which included visiting five historic pipe organs and touring a builder's shop. We toured the shop of organ builder Martin Pasi at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville. Pasi builds pipe organs from the ground up, woodwork, keyboards, pipes, and all. We saw the pipe casting room, assembly hall, and many other aspects of the organ building process. Pasi himself showed us around and then there was an opportunity to hear and play the large organ he had built in the Abbey church next door to the shop. It was a great day for great music. Six hours in the car listening to organ music then another six visiting the instruments and listening to more. The next day we did it again on a smaller scale, going to...

Prof. Schaller here. Interesting things can happen on the weekends at Immanuel. This past Saturday night I was participating in the Dunn County Northern Lights Chorus Annual Barbershop Show. I talked with college junior Joel Bernthal about the event and it went something like this:   Me:   Joel, do you want to go to a barbershop show tonight? Joel:   Alright. So we went. The first half of the show featured the chorus that I sing in doing songs about the old west:  Home on the Range, Don't Fence Me In,  etc. The second half of the program featured two professional barbershop quartets from Minnesota, Kordal Kombat and Tonality. After the show Joel and I went to the "afterglow" at the Whitetail Golf Course in Colfax. An afterglow is the barbershop equivalent of a cast party. Anyone is invited and there's food and drink and lots of singing until the building closes. The cool thing about the afterglow is that you get to rub shoulders with the guest artists. Before th...

This year's Tour Choir members were asked to share what Tour means to them, and, although we can't fit all the responses here, they all had a similar tone. Some thoughts may remind you of your time in the Tour Choir. Feel free to share your thoughts. "Tour Choir is such a blessing. It is one of my favorite things I've done at Immanuel and is something I love looking forward too. I have made so many memories and I look forward to this as a trip of Christian fellowship and to help grow in my faith while worshipping with others. It is so special to be able to share the Word of God in such a way, and seeing how incredibly special this is to the congregations we visit." "Tour choir is an opportunity to personally grow in my faith as well as ministering to those who are in fellowship with us that we don't often get to see. Not only is it spiritually uplifting, but it is incredibly fun." "Tour Choir is easily the most meaningful experience I've had...