The CSB/SJU Chamber Choir is the select mixed-voice touring ensemble at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University. The Chamber Choir is directed by Dr. Axel Theimer, DMA.

NEW CD RELEASES
The CSB/SJU Music Department released 2 new CD albums by the Chamber Choir in January 2008. These CDs, recordings of the 2004 and 2007 concert programs, are available through the CSB/SJU Bookstore for $15. 






A HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL ORATORIO
The CSB/SJU Music Department, in partnership with the St. Cloud State University Department of Music, The Cantabile Girls Choir, St. John's Boy Choir, and the SCSU Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies will present Minnesota composer Stephen Paulus' and librettist Michael Dennis Browne's Holocaust memorial oratorio To Be Certain of the Dawn.

The work will be presented free to the central Minnesota community on Apr. 25, 2008 on the St. Cloud State University campus and on Apr. 26, 2008 on the campus of Saint John's University.  These two performances are the result of the generous support of the SCSU Jewish Studies Program, Joseph Edelheit, Director, and the General Mills Foundation of Minneapolis, Minn.  Soloists include Dr. Catherine Verrilli, soprano; Dr. Carolyn Finley, mezzo-soprano; Tom Speckhard, tenor; and Dr. Axel Theimer, baritone.

The work was commissioned in 2001 by Rev. Michael J. O'Connell, rector of the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis, and celebrates two important anniversaries - the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the death camps at the end of World War II and the 40th anniversary of the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate (Latin for "In Our Times"), which condemned blaming Jews for the death of Christ.  Rooted in themes and subjects of mutual interest to the Jewish and Christian faith communities, the 2005 world premiere was within one week of the annual commemoration of Kristallnacht, the beginning of open hostility to Jews in Germany.  The oratorio pays tribute to those who lost their lives and honors Holocaust survivors and their descendants.