During its tour of the Midwest, The Concordia Orchestra will bring its audience on a thrilling musical adventure of their own, starting with the breathtaking discoveries among the stars of the Andromeda Galaxy evoked in the state premiere of Lawren Brianna Ware’s “M31 (Messier 31).”
“I asked her, ‘Could you write another piece … a spitfire-style, exciting concert opener that immediately gets the people out of their seats and go nuts?’” said Dr. Kevin Sütterlin, associate professor of instrumental conducting at Concordia College and conductor of The Concordia Orchestra.
Ware, originally from Gadsden, Alabama, obliged with an imaginative composition about the Milky Way’s closest neighboring galaxy, Andromeda.
“Listen to the piece and decide for yourself the things you are discovering as you traverse Andromeda. Did a space monster attack your ship? Did you discover a planet where aliens play jazz on extraterrestrial instruments?” Ware wrote. “Did you narrowly survive a sudden meteor shower?”
The piece features every section in the orchestra by turns throughout its song of spacefaring, allowing all 92 student musicians to show their talent and skill.
Composer Ware, who earned her Doctor in Musical Arts degree in music composition from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, sat in on a rehearsal and spoke with Concordia students about the piece, composing, and music in general.
After the concert’s musical voyage to Andromeda, the journey continues with an imaginative fusion of traditional Mongolian songs with European aesthetics in Jamyangiin Chuluun’s “Variations on two Folksongs” and the breathtaking splendors of sightseeing in China in Bao Yuankai’s “Chinese Sights and Sounds.”
“In the educational setting, it’s important that my students get to play a bunch of different styles and music from other cultures that pushes them outside of the boundaries,” Sütterlin said. “It’s what Chinese music students or Mongolian music students experience when they have to learn Western music — something they didn’t grow up with at all — and now we have to learn a sound aesthetic that’s totally foreign to us.”
Along with the version The Concordia Orchestra will perform, “Chinese Sights and Sounds” also exists as a suite for traditional Chinese instruments, so the students were able to compare the two and bring some of the sound aesthetic to their own performances, Sütterlin said.
Those who enjoy more traditional drama in their symphonic travels will get to experience the elegance and virtuosity of the first movement of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61, as well as the bombastic angst of the first movement of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, “Tragic.”
“I can’t, in words, express how proud I am of them,” Sütterlin said of his students. “I’m just really proud of the growth, really proud of the product they’re about to present. They sound like a professional orchestra — they play with full commitment and dedication. I just feel so incredibly blessed to get to work with them every single day.”
He praised his students not only for their performance, but for their appreciation of each other, the community they build within the orchestra itself, and the way the students lift up each other’s voices and work.
The tour begins Friday, March 6, in Watertown, South Dakota, with a concert for Watertown High School students, followed by stops in Vermillion, South Dakota, Sioux City, Iowa, Council Bluffs, Iowa, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Wahpeton, North Dakota, with a final home concert at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 14, at Memorial Auditorium on Concordia’s campus in Moorhead, Minnesota. The tour also includes two residencies, one at the University of South Dakota and another at the University of Nebraska, Omaha.
Along with its slate of performances, The Concordia Orchestra’s tour also includes visits to local high schools so the musicians can perform with and serve as mentors to younger students. The Concordia students will also meet with a professor at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, to learn about music’s relationship with and contributions toward healing and mental health.
For more information about the tour, visit ConcordiaCollege.edu/OrchestraTour.
Tour Schedule
Watertown, South Dakota
Friday, March 6
School Day Concert for Students
Vermillion, South Dakota
7 p.m. Saturday, March 7
Aalfs Auditorium, University of South Dakota
Sioux City, Iowa
2 p.m. Sunday, March 8
Eppley Auditorium, Morningside University
Council Bluffs, Iowa
7 p.m. Tuesday, March 10
Abraham Lincoln High School
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
7 p.m. Thursday, March 12
Lincoln High School
Wahpeton, North Dakota
7 p.m. Friday, March 13
Harry Stern and Ella Stern Cultural Center
Moorhead, Minnesota
2 p.m. Saturday, March 14
Memorial Auditorium, Concordia College
More
- The Concordia Orchestra | 2026 Tour
- Study Music | Instrumental Conducting at Concordia
- Lawren Brianna Ware | Messier 31
