MOORHEAD, Minn. — Fans of both football and music can rest easy — Concordia College’s Tactus concert starts at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11, at Sts. Anne & Joachim Catholic Church, Fargo, North Dakota, leaving plenty of time to get home and catch the big game.
Tactus is a student-led, chamber vocal ensemble of eight singers that got started about 15 years ago, when a group of friends wanted to do some extra singing outside Concordia’s concert choirs. Instead, the students worked together to learn choral music on their own, as a smaller group.
Numbers vary, with the current roster including eight singers across the vocal range, and while they do happen to be music majors, that isn’t necessarily always the case. Because the group rehearses only twice a week, they do audition for strong, confident singers, said tenor Oliver Knudson, its current leader.
As far as the group’s repertoire goes, it ranges from arrangements of classic Beatles tunes to classic 16th-century Italian madrigals and contemporary arrangements of familiar tunes from Knudson and fellow Concordia student Benjamin Archuleta.
“It’s an opportunity for us to explore different things,” Knudson said of Tactus. “There’s a lot more independence, making artistic choices. It’s collaborative.”
Current members of the group are sopranos Ava Pfeifer and Megan Gunnerson, altos Margrethe Hawthorne and Greta Johnson, tenors Parker Degerness and Oliver Knudson, and basses Martan Gregoire and Dylan Pringle.
More information about Tactus is available @tactus on Facebook.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Candace Harmon, director of communications and media relations