Madrigal Dinners 2011

This year, the Madrigal Dinner took place over a three-day span (Dec.9-11), bringing color and fanfare to both Peru State College and Nebraska City. As usual, on Friday and Saturday evenings, this annual and festive event took place in the Peru State College Student Center.

As this series of photographs from Friday indicate, I took photographs of the various entertainments and then after the show added a variety of set shots; these photographs include the Madrigal Singers' rite of passage for new members, the kissing of the pig.


Of course, some people simply enjoy putting a lip lock on a pig:






The second group of photographs includes both the Saturday dinner at the college and something new, a Sunday show in Nebraska City at Camp Catron hosted by the Nebraska City Apple Corps, a wonderful Barbershop Chorus that performed last month at Peru State College.


On all three nights, the Madrigal Singers entertained the audiences with both songs and opera.


Saturday, I filmed a couple selections from a popular opera from years past that the singers reprised, including The Geek Who Would Be King, Part One and Part Two.

In addition to videos from the opera, you can also enjoy three songs the Madrigal Singers offered, including the beautiful "Help Me to Say Amen" and a whimsical number about poison ivy.

The Madrigal Dinners bring to a close this year's blog entries for term at Peru State College.

More to follow, soon enough.

Fall 2011 Band Concert

On Sunday afternoon, December 4, the Peru State College Concert Band and the Hoyt Street Jazz Ensemble entertained an appreciative audience in the College Theater.


The Concert Band offered a challenging program, and you can enjoy one of the numbers on You Tube, "Fortress."


The difficulty of Saturday's program attests to how much this band has grown and improved over the past four years.


The Hoyt Street Jazz Ensemble continues to entertain throughout the school year.


The group offered an exciting selection of numbers that included "Hold On, I'm Coming," a song that featured the voice of Xavier Gibson.

I also recorded the group's final selection, "Chicken," which includes solos by pretty much everyone in the band.

Fall 2011 Choral Concert

On Sunday afternoon in the PSC College Theater, Dr. Tom Ediger directed the Fall Choirs in Concert.

The afternoon's entertainment got underway with the Concert Choir.

The concert's first number, Mozart's Regina Coeli, featured four soloists: Carmen Schweiger, Debbie Trecek, Dan Perkins and Xavier Gibson.

You can enjoy this inspiring song on You Tube, where I also uploaded the Concert Choir's production of Tom Ediger's Psalm 121.

The video of Psalm 121 also includes the Madrigal Singers opening number, Since First I Saw Your Face and Summer Is A-Coming In.

And the third video from the entertaining presentations includes the Madrigal Singers' About the Maypole and I Thought That Love Had Been a Boy.

This video also includes the Misty Blues' fun-filled rendition of Leslie Gore's You Don't Own Me.

My plans included two other numbers from the Misty Blues; however, my fingers managed to press the wrong button at the right time. But as the photographs from the concert suggest, all three groups performed with wonderful enthusiasm.

And the Misty Blues performers look wonderful in their new costumes.

St. Peter's Literature Festival

I had the pleasure to attend once again the St. Peter's School Literature Festival, Chapter Four, held at the school Sunday evening and all school day Monday, October 23 and 24.

Follow the links to Chapter Two and Chapter Three--alas, Chapter One took place before I started this blog.

Sadly, Bill Kloefkorn, who attended the first three of these exceptional events, passed away. I missed his presence, but both his wife and daughter attended.

And St. Peters school presented a new award named in honor of Bill Kloefkorn to a deserving teacher at the school, something that would have pleased the Nebraska State Poet.

Sunday evening featured an excellent talk by Nebraska author Jim Higley, whose new book, Bobblehead Dad, enjoys considerable success. Among other things, Jim also writes a column, Bobblehead Dad, for the Chicago Tribune's Triblocal.

I recorded for your enjoyment parts of Jim Higley's inspirational talk, Part One and Part Two.

As at the previous three festivals in which I took part, my schedule included four 50-minute sessions of Feathers, Petals and Verses (new title this time around because I added a section on Nebraska Wild Flowers).

I met with two groups each of enthusiastic fifth and six graders and enjoyed myself a great deal, as the photographs from the day suggest.


Chris Jacobsen's fifth graders sent me this beautiful poster filled with poems that hangs just now outside my office:

Thank you all the teachers and students with whom I worked for making Chapter Four such a special treat. I look forward to Chapter Five in 2013.

Choirs in Concert, 8 November

On Tuesday evening at 7:30, the Peru State College Theater hosted three choral groups, the Nebraska City Belles-A-Peelin' Women's Barbershop Chorus; the Nebraska City Apple Corps Men's Barbershop Chorus; and Peru State College's own Madrigal Singers.

I posted a series of photographs of the three groups over
the course of this show.

The Belles-A-Peelin' women began the night's fanfare with a series of patriotic songs, two of which I recorded and posted for your enjoyment: "Sentimental Journey" and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy."

The Peru State College Madrigal Singers followed Belles-A-Peelin', and you can enjoy three of their pieces, including "O Lord Increase My Faith," "I Thought That Love Had Been a Boy," and "All Ye Who Music Love."

Next, the Nebraska City Apple Corps took the stage, a group that includes a couple familiar faces to the Peru State College community, Jacob Buss and John Crook.

PSC Student directed the group's the first number, "Hello Mary Lou," and I recorded two others for your enjoyment, "Bring Him Home" and "I'll Walk with God," so enjoy the songs.

To conclude the evening's enjoyment, all three groups took the stage and sang "Exodus," conducted by Dr. Thomas Ediger.