A Timeless Holiday

November 19, 2023

The Master Singers of Milwaukee kick off their 50th anniversary season with a performance inspired by both the holiday season and by a look back at their 50-year legacy of music-making. The concert features two pieces honoring the group’s founding. MSM was originally known as the Schütz Choir, so Heinrich Schütz’s hauntingly beautiful Selig sind die Toten will be performed followed by a newly commissioned work for MSM on the same text by Wisconsin composer Zachary Moore honoring MSM’s founder Marlys Greinke. The performance opens with John Rutter’s brilliant three-movement Gloria for choir and brass. This is followed by a variety of contemporary and historical holiday selections including a movement from composer Ariel Ramirez’s Navidad Nuestra and a stark reworking of Away in a Manger wrestling with the tragic consequences of modern-day refugee crises. Recent works by composers Andrea Ramsey, Reena Esmail, and Adrian Dunn appear on the second half of the program. Area church choirs are invited to join this event performing two large-group pieces part of a festival church choir and joining the MSM for their closing piece.

Special Guest: Church Choir Invitational, Child Soloists – Owen McNamee and Will Perkins

  • Annika Nelson – Guitar
Annika Nelson is a second-year undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee studying under Cuban guitar virtuoso Rene Izquierdo. Coming from Plymouth, Wisconsin, she was active in the band program and played in the Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band, German Band, Musical Pit Band, and Show Choir Combo. In 2022, she was the recipient of the Ruth DeYoung Kohler Scholarship for Artistic Excellence. Her aspiration is to be a professor of guitar and have the opportunities to perform, compete, and teach at the collegiate level.
  • Yeng Thao – Cello
Yeng Thao currently free-lances on violin, viola, and cello around the Milwaukee area. He is a member of the Kettle Moraine Symphony, and is also a woodworker. Thao can be seen in different pit orchestras for various musicals, accompanying community choirs and church services, or sometimes just playing at a small park on a sunny day. He went to school at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he studied music performance and education. Some of his teachers include: cello with Roza Borisova and Dr. Stefan Kartman; voice with Evan Bravos and Dr. Colleen Brooks; conducting with Dr. Mark Norman and Dr. Zachary Durlam. Highlighted performances include: music direction for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Billy Elliot, Thoroughly Modern Millie (Waukesha civic Theater); cello for 1776 (Milwaukee Opera Theater), and Parade (Lake Country Playhouse); and a special appearance in the New York International Music Festival at Carnegie Hall.
  • Lindsay M. Stevens – Movement Artist

Lindsay M. Stevens is a dance artist and educator based in Milwaukee, WI. A University of Minnesota alumni, Lindsay studied Graham, Horton, and Limón techniques and had the opportunity to perform with members of the Trisha Brown Dance Company and Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Over the last decade, she has enjoyed presenting original work at dance festivals and events in Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Phoenix, and New York City. Currently, she teaches class and sets original choreography for the competitive company at Studio One Dance Company in Wales, WI.

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