North Iowa musicians to host Festival of Hymns Feb. 11

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

Northern Iowa organists are inviting community members to the 2018 Festival of Hymns, Feb. 11 in Mason City.

The free event invites local and regional musicians to showcase traditional hymns for an evening, said Christopher Arp, sub-dean of the North Iowa Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

The night showcases two featured organists, David Sims and Nathan Proctor, and two choirs beginning at 4 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church in Mason City. In case of inclement weather, the event has a snow date scheduled for Feb. 18.

The theme is “Christ Through the Year.”

“This is the first time that we have sponsored the hymn festival that I’m aware of,” Arp, an organist at Messiah Lutheran Church in Charles City, said. “We’re inviting people from all over the region to come and sing, because it’s going to be first-class church music.”

Between 40 to 50 musicians will be leading the festival, with two guest choirs.

Nordkor is a children’s choir with about 20 singers, directed by Melissa Shallberg and based in Clear Lake.

Una Vocis Choral Ensemble in a local group directed by Dennis Lee that was founded in March 2005, and currently has 48 members. The group released the 16-song album “Adveni” in 2013, which was named as one of Iowa Public Radio’s top 10 classical releases in that year.

Sims and Proctor are both guest organists to northern Iowa. Sims is the director of Worship, Music and Arts at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Northfield, Minn.; Proctor is the Music Development Manager for Augsburg Fortress at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minn.

“It’s outreach for us. We want to encourage church music at the highest level, at the highest quality, and we want people to connect with the rich tradition of church music that is out there,” Arp said. “We hope to open it up to a wide variety of people interested in coming to sing that afternoon.”

The North Iowa chapter also hosts the yearly Brown Bag Bach events, scheduled this year on Feb. 21 (David Lim), Feb. 28 (Arp), March 7 (Nathan Elsbernd), March 14 (Marilyn Schempp) and March 21 (Ryan Hulshizer).

The series takes place through the season of Lent from 12:15-12:45 p.m. at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Mason City, and features one local musician or regional guest.