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Choir Notes Newsletter

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2024 All State Chorus Results

Each year, approximately 3,000 of the best high school musicians in the state audition for the Nebraska All-State Band, Chorus, Jazz Band and Orchestra which are sponsored by the Nebraska Music Education Association. Selection as a member of one of these groups is one of the highest music honors attainable in Nebraska. Mrs. Michaela Babic, Director of Choral Affairs for the Nebraska Music Education Association, is pleased to announce that Lucy Hascall, Erin Kalamaja, James Kalamaja, Andrew Storm, and Benjamin Storm will be among the 440 students selected to be a part of the 2024 All-State Chorus. Guest conductor for the group will be Dr. Derrick Fox.

Chamber Choir and Concert Choir Score Competition Success

The 2017-2018 school year marks the second time in at least a decade when the Concert Choir and Chamber Choir have competed in festivals beyond Nebraska's District Music Contest. In March the ensembles competed at the Sioux City East Sing All About It. Chamber Choir performed Robert Pearsall's Lay a Garland and Caldwell and Ivory's Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down, complete with sign language. They were awarded 1st Runner-Up. Concert Choir placed sixth runner-up overall, competing as the only non-auditioned ensemble that day. Both choirs were amazing representatives of the Skutt Catholic community throughout this school year.

2016 Concert Choir Tour to Washington DC and New York City

When the Skutt Catholic choirs were invited to sing as part of the National Memorial Day Choral Festival in Washington D.C., it was certainly a no-brainer to get involved. This opportunity meant our singers would perform in the Concert Hall at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts under the direction of Retired Air Force Colonel, Craig Jessop, who is also the former music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. In the spring, 28 members of the Skutt Catholic Concert Choir participated in the festival with choirs from across the US. In addition to a great deal of sight-seeing, the chorus of over 250 singers rehearsed together under the leadership of Colonel Jessop for three days. All of our work culminated in a spectacular performance on the Kennedy Center Stage accompanied by the US Airforce Symphony and the Air Force Singing Sergeants. The singers were also part of the opening ceremonies of the National Memorial Day Parade, singing America the Beautiful with Irish Tenor, Anthony Kearns singing the lead, as we saluted our veterans.

Our tour started off on Friday, May 27, as we flew from Omaha to Washington D.C. We met our D.C. tour manager at the airport and checked in at our hotel. After a welcome dinner, we headed directly into rehearsal. It was great to finally hear what the other choirs sounded like, especially the Texas Children’s Choir, who were a feature ensemble for the main concert performance.

The choir members spent Saturday afternoon touring the National Mall. The Festival Chorus members participated in a wreath laying ceremony at the World War II Memorial. They were also able to sing The Star-Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, and Mr. Storm led the ensemble, including chaperones and support staff, in singing God Bless America. Our guide, David, was extremely knowledgeable and led us on an outside tour of the Washington Monument, Martin Luther King, Jr., Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Korean War, Abraham Lincoln, and Vietnam War Memorials. The students finished their afternoon at Georgetown University and an evening rehearsal.

The Concert Choir members and their chaperones were treated to Mass on Sunday morning at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, which is just up the street from Ford’s Theatre and the Peterson House - the sites of President Lincoln’s assassination and death. Dress rehearsal with the Festival Chorus, Air Force Symphony and Singing Sergeants at the Kennedy Center took place on Sunday morning in final preparations for a sold-out concert that afternoon. We also worked under guest conductors, Colonel Larry H. Lang and Colonel Arnald D. Gabriel. The concert went as expected, but I don’t know that the singers were prepared for how moving it would be to sing the Armed Forces Salute in front of an audience including over 500 veterans who each stood for their branch’s fight song. It was certainly a moving experience, bringing many of the singers to tears, as they were able to put faces to the songs they were singing. We celebrated our performance at Bertucci’s Italian Restaurant and did some additional bus tours of the Iwo Jima Memorial, Arlington Cemetery, the White House, and the Capital Building.

Memorial Day was another hectic day filled with morning tours of the Navy Memorial and some additional time on the National Mall before our Parade Pre-Production Television dress rehearsal in front of the National Archives. We were able to quickly incorporate the flags of all 50 states and our territories, as well as approximately 100 US flags, banners and streamers. After rehearsal, we were able to eat lunch on the Mall and mingle with some of the marching bands, including the band from Alliance, Nebraska. We took a quick tour of the Smithsonian Museum of Modern Art and then we were off to start the parade. Another spectacular performance and it was live-streamed around the world, thanks to the American Veterans Center. If you search for the parade on YouTube, you will find the National Broadcast showing the first 90 minutes of the parade, including our students in the first two minutes.

We remained at the parade to cheer on each branch of the military and our new friends from Alliance, and then we were back on our bus and off to New York City. We spent two and a half days getting to know the city that never sleeps. The students toured Central Park, St. John the Devine, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 5th Avenue, The Trump Tower, Rockefeller Center, and Times Square, among other sites. On Tuesday evening, we were treated to dinner at Hard Rock Café and a performance of Something Rotten at the St. James Theatre on Broadway. I was able to make connections with some cast members through a friend, and our Skutt Catholic students were able to meet several of the original cast members, including Heidi Blickenstaff, Brad Oscar, and Matt Wall.

We spent our final day in New York City taking a Zephyr tour of New York Harbor and getting up close with the Statue of Liberty. We also toured through Lower Manhattan, seeing Wall Street and the financial district, Federal Hall where George Washington was sworn into office, including the bible he swore his inaugural oath on, St. Paul’s Chapel, Trinity Church, the 9/11 Memorial, and Chinatown. It was a whirlwind of a tour, but the students and chaperones were able to experience just enough of so many places and things that hopefully they will be drawn back in the future to explore even more.

2014 Concert Choir Tour to Rome

It took a leap of faith, and 18 months of fund-raising and planning, but taking 49 choir students and parents to Rome for a week was definitely worth the effort. This summer, members of the Skutt Catholic Concert Choir participated in the 2014 International Choral Festival in Rome. The 28 singers combined with choirs from Santa Barbara, California, Dearborn, Michigan, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Stillwater, Minnesota to form the 2014 Festival Chorus. In addition to a great deal of sight-seeing, the chorus of over 120 singers rehearsed together under the leadership of Dr. Z. Randall Stroope for three days. All culminating in a performance at the Basilica Santa Maria sopra Minerva, as well as singing for the Feast of St. John the Baptist at the Basilica of St. Peter.

Our tour started off on Friday, June 20, as we flew from Omaha to Minneapolis, through Amsterdam and finally arriving in Rome on Saturday. We met our tour manager at the airport and checked in at our hotel. Before our evening dinner with the combined choirs, we bussed to Parroccchia Sacra Famiglia and attended the Saturday Mass. This was the students’ first immersion experience, but is got them quickly acclimated to the culture, and what to expect during their Sunday afternoon Angelus and Papal Blessing on St. Peter’s Square.

“Going to Rome and singing in some of the oldest, holiest churches in the world has been a life changing experience,” said SC senior Rachel Podraza. The Concert Choir members spent Sunday afternoon touring Ancient Ostia, a coastal trade city and military colony founded in the 7th century BC and only re-discovered in 1850. They were able to see the apartment building, bath houses, taverns, grocery shops and holy spaces built and used more than two centuries ago by more than 100,000 citizens. The city used to be at the mouth of the Tiber river, but due to silting and flooding, it is now more than two miles from the coast.

Rehearsals with the Festival Chorus continued on Sunday evening and Monday morning. On Monday afternoon, the students were treated to guided tours of Religious Rome, including the Vatican Museum, Vatican City, St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. Junior Matthew Pohlman said, “being in the Sistine Chapel, where so many Popes were seen for their first time in the papacies, was so amazing, it gave me chills.” This was not an uncommon sentiment among our students and their families. It was truly amazing to be in places that hold so much significance in the history and future of the Catholic Church. There was even a little extra time in the day, so we squeezed in a short trip for Gelato at the Piazza Navona, where we were also able to take in the Four Rivers Fountain, and a little shopping.

Tuesday was our busiest day filled with a concert dress rehearsal, Mass in the Vatican and the final International Choral Festival Concert. We started our day with a guided tour of the Coliseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, the Pantheon, and Baths of Caracalla. The singers worked hard during their dress rehearsal and all the details came together with the addition of the Basilica organ and string ensemble. Following the rehearsal we headed back to Vatican City to take our places for the 5 p.m. Mass at the Basilica of St. Peter. Many of the students commented that, even after seeing Pope Francis on Sunday, this Mass was the highlight of their tour, and truly life-changing. Recent graduate Zachary Pohlman said, “Although I did not understand the Latin, I knew I was participating in the fundamental act of Catholicism in its holiest place. I broke down and cried tears of thanksgiving.”

Our final concert on Tuesday evening was the ultimate culmination of the students’ work through the year, and even through the past five years that I have been teaching at Skutt Catholic. When asked by Dr. Stroope for our choir to join the festival, I was humbled. I now share a feeling of great joy because I was able to help open up the eyes of our students to the world around them. Senior Lauren Gehrki stated “this trip is something I will never forget. Everything was just so unreal. I had to keep reminding myself that it was actually happening.” “It was more than just a trip, it was a life changer,” added senior Grace Tritsch.

I would like to offer a heart-felt thank you to everyone who participated in our fund-raising through the past 18 months to make this tour a reality. It doesn’t matter if you contributed a little or a lot, or even just offered up prayers for our singers and families, it has meant the world to me and to these students. They truly have encountered a life changing experience.