Shepherd of the Bay Ratchets Up Annual Memorial Day Service

Samantha Phillips and Kim Craig, both seniors at Gibraltar High School and members of the Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church youth group, will play with their flute teacher Mary Bell of Lawrence University in the small orchestra performing the Bach Cantata Worship at Shepherd of the Bay on May 26 with members of the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Born into a musical family in the German town of Eisenach, the place where Martin Luther hid out while translating the New Testament into German, little Johann Sebastian Bach grew into a musical genius and, as ChristianHistory.net calls him, “a theologian who just happened to work with a keyboard.”

When Bach wrote music to the glory of God, he meant it.

“Bach, unlike a lot of hired gun musicians of his day, was deeply involved theologically in his community,” said Pastor Bruce Foster of Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church in Ellison Bay, who says he cut his teeth on Bach as a teenager in Milwaukee. “He was a very sincere and dedicated Christian. And so he took this as more than an artistic gig but a real ministry, which makes for a very powerful statement.”

You can bear witness to that powerful statement in the 8:30 am service at Shepherd of the Bay on May 26 when, in what has become an annual Memorial Day weekend tradition, three members of the Lyric Opera of Chicago join the church’s Kleinen Chor (Little Choir) and, for the first time, a small orchestra in performing Bach’s Cantata BWV 184, Erwünschtes Freudenlicht [Long Desired Light of Joy].

“Our congregation has had a tradition of a good music program, certainly as long as I’ve been here, which is 24 years,” Foster said. “Gladys Austgen, who has been our director of music for nearly 20 years, has really built up our choir. We have 40 to 45 people at the height of the year, and we sing all year round, which is very unusual for a volunteer chorus. We get people walking in off the street on a Sunday morning, saying, ‘Hey, can I sing with you?’”

Also on board is professional pianist Judith Jackson, who served as principal pianist of the Chicago Opera Theater before she and her piano-playing husband, Carl, moved to Door County in 1990.

“They’ve added a whole other dimension to our program with the piano,” Foster said. “The other piece of the puzzle came when Naomi Rowley became our organ director [in October 2007].”

It was Judy Jackson’s ties to the operatic community that nine years ago began an annual Memorial Day tradition between the church and members of the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

“Four friends from the Lyric Opera chorus always had a women’s weekend, without spouses and children and, basically, without anything to do professionally,” Jackson said. “So they were looking for a place to go.”

She invited them to Door County and suggested they sing something at the church as a way to write off expenses.

“That’s how it started,” she said, adding that the group of singers would do a free concert on Saturday and then sing at Sunday morning’s service.

“That weekend kind of got me hooked and I’ve been back every year,” said mezzo-soprano Pamela Williams. “The family there at Shepherd of the Bay is so amazing. It’s a beautiful thing. We’ve really enjoyed the collaboration between Judy and the church.”

Williams promises a fun program for the Saturday evening concert.

“Last spring Desiree [Hassler, soprano] and I started talking about the program and thought how much fun it would be to do all of the hits people know, and then we also looked at our schedule for performing during the upcoming year. This was definitely a good year to do a little bit lighter vocal program because all of us have been very busy this year. We’ve picked a bunch of really familiar American songs, some early American music like Stephen Foster songs, then to the Gershwin/Cole Porter/Jerome Kern era, some Rogers & Hammerstein, some contemporary American music and then some very silly, fun American songs. There is always an element of silliness and there are always props involved.”

Six years ago, Bach came into the picture.

“There’s a tradition in the Lutheran church that Bach is the central aspect musically,” Jackson said. “We started dreaming dreams. Bach wrote 200 cantatas. Surely we could put on something.

Not a performance. It’s worship. I asked my singers here at church as well as in the community ‘Would you like to sing some Bach?’ ‘Absolutely!’ ‘We’re going to sing it in German.’ ‘Oy!’”

Potter Thor Thoreson of Gills Rock Stoneware was one of the last to sign on to sing this year.

“I hadn’t done any classical music in years. I had some friends who were doing it and it sort of intrigued me, so I asked if I could come on board,” he said.

Even though he took German 40 years ago, Thoreson said singing in German is difficult.

“The pronunciation is coming back, but I don’t know what I’m singing about it,” he said, adding that Judy Jackson’s enthusiasm helps.

“She is an amazing person to work with,” Thoreson said. “She’s really a perfectionist, and she’s really inspiring. She gets everybody cranked up and really wanting to do it. It’s a difficult piece yet it’s already at a much higher level than I thought it would reach.”

“These cantatas were written by Bach as one of his major responsibilities at the church where he was music director. He wrote one of these every week,” Foster said. “He would take the text for the Sunday and write a piece of music around it, so it really becomes a profound commentary on the Biblical text written for that Sunday. Since we were going to do this, we then tried to put together bits and pieces of the service from that time. On occasion – haven’t decided yet for this year – I wear the ruffled full collar of the period. We describe this as contemporary worship, 1750.”

This year’s Memorial Day weekend concert will feature Jackson on piano with three members of the Lyric Opera performing from the American songbook on Saturday evening, and Bach’s Cantata 184 with the three singers, choir and, for the first time, a small orchestra.

“This pastor has always asked me at the end of every Bach service, ‘Judy, when are we going to have an orchestra?’ I say, ‘We’re working on it. It’s harder than you think’,” Jackson said. “I made a few calls to friends at Peninsula Music Festival and the Fox Valley and Green Bay symphonies. They all said yes. It blew me away.”

The small orchestra includes four string players with organ continuo and two flutes.

“One of the joys of our community, we have, the principal flutist, Mary Bell, who lives in Baileys Harbor but works at Lawrence (University in Appleton),” Jackson said. “She said, ‘I’ll recruit two of my students.’”

The two flute students are both seniors at Gibraltar High and members of Shepherd of the Bay’s youth group, Kimberly Craig and Samantha Phillips.

“It’s a nice way to bring multi-generational aspects to our orchestra,” Jackson said.

“The response to this has been outstanding,” said Pastor Foster. “The Memorial Day weekend we get more people in church than either Easter or Christmas. It’s a destination. People want to be here for it.”

Have there been converts because of the music?

“I have felt that our musical outreach has been a very integral part of our overall ministry,” Foster said. “People come for the music and stay for the message. Every church needs to find a niche. In that regard, we have through very fortuitous circumstances, found it in music. I sometimes say that I aspire to be a pastor worthy of my music program. It is a wonderful adjunct. I know that on any given Sunday morning if I’m not in top form – I always try to be – the music will be.”

Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church is located at 11836 Highway 42 in Ellison Bay. For more information call 920.854.2988 or visit http://www.shepherdofthebay.org.

Music at Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran Church

• An American Songbook, Saturday, May 25, 7 pm.

Featuring soprano Desiree Hassler, mezzo-soprano Pamela Williams and tenor John Concepcion with pianist Judith Jackson in a program of songs by American composers, from Stephen Foster to George Gershwin to Leonard Bernstein to Jeanine Tesori. A reception follows the concert.

• Annual Bach Worship Service: J. S. Bach’s Cantata BWV 184, Erwünschtes Freudenlicht (Longed-for Light of Joy), Sunday, May 26, 8:30 am.

Featuring John Concepcion, Pamela Williams and Desiree Hassler of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Kleinen Chor directed by Judith Jackson, and a small orchestra comprised of Janet Sutter and Donna Russell on violin; Lolly Lebovic, viola; Lori Meyer, cello; Naomi Rowley, organ continuo; Mary Ball, Samantha Phillips and Kimberly Craig, flute.

• Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, Sunday, June 9, 8:30 and 10:30 am.

• Erik Suter, organist at Washington National Cathedral, guest organist at morning worship, June 23, 8:30 am; organ concert, 7 pm.

• Marilyn Keiser, Chancellor’s Professor of Music Emeritus at Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, Bloomington, organ concert, July 21, 7 pm.

• Judith & Carl Jackson Two Piano Benefit Concert, Sept. 15, 7 pm.

• Naomi Rowley Organ Pops Concert, Oct. 12, 7 pm.