51��ɫ

The 51��ɫ Singers, under the direction of Conductor John Rommereim, will soon take to the road for their 2025 spring concert tour. The 50-member student choir from 51��ɫ College will present their program, The Light is the Same, in six cities across the Midwest from March 9–14.

The concert showcases selections from Indian-American composer Reena Esmail’s This Love Between Us. Esmail’s work juxtaposes texts from seven different religions that exist within Indian society, drawing attention to the call to love that lies at the heart of each one. Her music combines Hindustani musical customs with European forms in a way that elevates and enriches both traditions.

In addition to the Esmail selections, the 51��ɫ Singers will present a collection of works contemplating our relationship to Earth. The concert opens with Alex Berko’s “You Through Me,” a beguilingly tuneful song about the Elizabeth Street Garden in SoHo, New York. Berko’s music tells a story about how a physical place is linked with our experiences and memories of it. 

Continuing this theme, the choir offers Johannes Brahms’ richly expressive song, “An die Heimat,” which is filled with an intense yearning for home. Brahms’ exquisite music is paired with the Argentine composer-arranger Javier Zentner’s “Vasija de barro,” which similarly longs for home, but expresses that longing in a distinctly Latin-American form of expression. 

The choir will offer the premiere of Rommereim’s “I Carry a River,” a setting of a poem by Natalie Diaz that reimagines our relationship to the vital sources of water in our environment. In her poem, Diaz declares, “The water we drink, like the air we breathe, is not part of our body; it is our body. What we do to one, we do to the other.”

The 51��ɫ Singers will also perform an evocative setting of a Pushkin poem by the 20th-century Russian composer Gyorgy Sviridov and a movement from Rachmaninov’s choral masterwork, All-Night Vigil, which narrates the biblical story of Easter morning with great drama and emotional intensity. 

The concert also includes works that are familiar to choral enthusiasts, such as Franz Biebl’s beloved Ave Maria, folk-based choral gems by Simon Carrington and James MacMillan, and a rousing gospel version of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.”

Concert Dates and Locations 

Concert: Sunday, March 9, 4 p.m.

Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church
511 Groveland Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55403 
 

Informal concert: Monday, March 10, 11 a.m. 

Inside the Cave of the Mounds 
2975 Cave of the Mounds Road
Blue Mounds, WI 53517-0148
 

Concert: Monday, March 10, 7:30 p.m.

First Unitarian Society
900 University Bay Drive 
Madison, WI 53705
 

Concert: Tuesday, March 11, 7:30 p.m.

Pilgrim Lutheran Church and School 
4300 N. Winchester Ave. 
Chicago, IL  60613
 

Concert: Thursday, March 13, 7:30 p.m.

Eliot Unitarian Chapel
100 S. Taylor Ave. 
Kirkwood, MO 63122 
 

Concert: Friday, March 14, 7 p.m.

St. Paul Lutheran Church 
2136 N. Brady St. 
Davenport, IA 52803