A Brief Narrative History of Music at Concordia University

Compiled by Helen Hollenbeck

1944-45
An annual Christmas Concert was presented at Concordia Academy. Walter Wangerin Jr., Director
1946-51
Martin Doberful serves as choral director.
1951
Arthur Wahlers becomes director of the 23 voice Concordia Men’s Chorus. Wahlers presents a Christmas Concert modeled after a program he was involved in while in St. Louis, Missouri. The program consisted of a candlelight processional, a dialog about Christmas, and music.
1952
Emmanuel Hospital Nursing School Choir joins the all-male Concordia chorus forming the first mixed choir at Concordia College.
1953-55
Karl Keller, Dean of Students, serves as director of the Concordia College Choir.
1956
George Weller becomes director of the Concordia Choir. Hans Spalteholz directs the Christmas drama.
1957
John Scheck joins the Concordia faculty and becomes the director of the Concordia High School Choir.
1959
John Scheck composes a hymn-text for the choir which was later adapted as the Concordia School Hymn entitled Out of Darkness. George Weller arranges the hymn-tune entitled Ebenezer for male chorus.
1963
Dale Fisk is called to be director of the Concordia Jr. College Choir. Fisk develops the Christmas Chorale program from the historic English service of Lessons and Carols and introduces the carol processional Once in Royal David’s City which became the signature processional piece of The Concordia Christmas Chorale. Fisk also arranges the Concordia school hymn for mixed choir. Dale Fisk served as the Choral Director at Concordia University until 1990.
1969
Dale Fisk develops The Christi Crux Chorale, a twelve-voice mixed ensemble.
1973
The Christi Crux Chorale takes a Summer Tour to Washington and British Columbia. Dale Fisk is the director.
1975
Concordia purchases its first set of English Handbells from Malmark Co. The bells are used for curriculum purposes.
1975-76
Christi Crux Chorale, directed by Dale Fisk, travels on a year-long tour. Members were Marty Sippy, Gary Magnuson, Debbie Gosswein, Larry Gross, Jane Rudnick, Cindy Krause, Jim McCrum, Joel Keller, Becky Gieschen, and Debbie Licht.
1977
The Concordia High School moves to its new location on SE Division, but the High School Choir, directed by Richard Wrye, continued to participate in the annual Concordia Christmas Chorale.
1979
The Concordia Handbell Ensemble is formed with Nancy Nickel as the director. Together with Dale Fisk, Nancy and husband Tim comprise the music department at Concordia.
1983
Professor Ray Sievert becomes Concordia’s Handbell director, Band director, and develops a brass ensemble. Jointly with Dale Fisk, Sievert develops the Men’s Chorus and the Women’s Chorus. The Handbell Ensemble becomes more involved in the Christmas Chorale. The number of hand-bells is eventually expanded to four octaves and a two-octave set of Malmark hand-chimes is obtained.
1990-92
Stephen Galvan serves as the interim director of the Concordia Choir.
1991
The Concordia Choir, directed by Stephen Galvan and The Handbell Ensemble, directed by Ray Sievert tour together for the first time. The ensembles travel to So. Oregon, N. California, Nevada, and Hawaii.
1992
Helen Hollenbeck becomes Concordia Handbell ensemble director. Over the next few years, the set of hand-bells is increased to five octaves and the set of hand-chimes is increased to three octaves. Hollenbeck develops an additional handbell ensemble to fill the need to have both a beginning and an advanced ensemble
1993
Dr. Walter E. Krueger joins the faculty and becomes the director of the Concordia College Choir.
1998
The Concordia University Choir, directed by Dr. Krueger and the Concordia University Concert Handbells, directed by Helen Hollenbeck take first European tour to Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and the Slovak Republic.
Dale Fisk returns to Concordia University to direct the Concordia Alumni Choir in a mid-October Concordia Alumni-Weekend.
Helen Hollenbeck serves as interim director of the Concordia Choir.
1999
Kurt Berentsen is called to Concordia University - Portland as Director of Choral Music and Worship. Berentsen becomes the director of the Concordia University Choir and the Christi Crux Vocal Ensemble.
The Christi Crux Vocal Ensemble, directed by Kurt Berentsen, begins an ongoing music ministry in collaboration with the university’s foundation. These presentations known as “C.U. Sundays” create a university outreach to N.W. area Lutheran churches and the ensemble is scheduled for over 20 presentations in each school year. The ensemble size is gradually expanded to twenty-eight members in the Fall semester of 2005.
2001
The Concordia University Concert Choir, directed by Kurt Berentsen, performs as a featured choral ensemble at the American Choral Director Association’s Oregon Collegiate Choral Festival. This continues as a yearly event for this ensemble.
Separate tours are scheduled for the Concordia University Choral and Handbell ensembles. In 2001, the choral ensembles tour in Missouri & Kansas and the handbell ensembles tour in N.W. Washington and British Columbia, Canada. This arrangement provides more exposure of the music ministry at the Concordia University to Lutheran congregations.
2002
The Concordia University Concert Choir under the direction of Kurt Berentsen, presents Requiem & Cantique de Jean Racine by G. Fauré with an orchestra made up of members of the Oregon Symphony. This is part of a Lenten Service which also includes musical selections by the handbell ensembles.
2003
The Concordia University Choir, directed by Kurt Berentsen and the Concordia University Concert Handbells, directed by Helen Hollenbeck take a second European tour; this year to Poland and Germany.
The Concordia University Concert Choir establishes a yearly tradition of a Fall choir retreat held at and sponsored by St. Peter the Fisherman Lutheran Church in Lincoln City, Oregon.
2005
The Concordia University Concert Choir, under the direction of Kurt Berentsen, presents Requiem by Mozart along with an orchestra made up of members of the Oregon Symphony. This is part of a Lenten Service which also includes musical selections by the handbell ensembles.
The Christi Crux Vocal Ensemble, directed by Kurt Berentsen, tours in Alaska.

References: Erhardt P. Weber, Arthur Wahlers, Mark Wahlers, John Scheck, Larry Gross, Hans Spalteholz, Gerda Keller, Dale Fisk, Ray Sievert, Nancy Nickel, Walter Krueger, Helen Hollenbeck and Kurt Berentsen.

Please note: The time line, representing the history of music at Concordia, Portland, is not yet a complete story, but an ongoing effort to write down the events as best can be gathered at this point in time. If anyone has information that should be included, or has any corrections to the aforementioned information, they are encouraged to contact Helen Hollenbeck at Concordia University.