Latest / The UNWavering Podcast / Christmas at Northwestern Preview | Tim Sawyer, Dr. Cassie Bechard, and David Kozamchak

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Christmas at Northwestern Preview | Tim Sawyer, Dr. Cassie Bechard, and David Kozamchak · The UNWavering Podcast

0:28
SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, this is Monty.
0:31
SPEAKER_05: And Cassie.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: And welcome to another episode of the Unwavering Podcast.
0:36
SPEAKER_05: Today we are joined by three familiar faces from the University of Northwestern's music department.
0:40
SPEAKER_05: Tim Sawyer directs the Northwestern choir, Cassie Breshard leads bands, and David Kazemchek conducts the Northwestern Orchestra.
0:48
SPEAKER_05: Together, along with others, they help shape one of Northwestern's most beloved traditions, Christmas at Northwestern, which is taking place this year from December 4th to the 6th.
0:57
SPEAKER_05: And every year they collaborate to create a program that points audiences to the hope of Christ.
1:01
SPEAKER_05: And today they're giving us a behind-the-scenes look at this year's production.
1:05
SPEAKER_05: Welcome to the podcast.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: Welcome everybody.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: This is historic for the Unwavering Podcast.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: This is the most people we've ever had in the studio at one time.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: So it's five of us, so this is gonna be a blast.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: I do think we need to clarify one thing as we start.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: We have, of course, Cassie, your co-host of the Unwavering Podcast, but we also have a Dr.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: Cassie in in the studio today.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: So maybe we'll go with that for now.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we'll go with uh Cassie and Dr.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: Cassie.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: David, maybe Coach Kay has uh some lingering memories for alumni.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: And then uh we have, of course, Tim Sawyer, the bald eagle, T Saw, the man of many names, and no introduction needed.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: So T Saw, before we start, if if you get a little wordy with us today, maybe we can use that little hand motion that we all conductors use to like you know wrap it up essentially.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, does that work for you?
1:51
SPEAKER_00: Great idea.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: But no, please, we do want to.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm usually not short on words.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: We'll take them.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: We like your words.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's dive in, shall we?
1:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh let's start with some introductions.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: So, for those who may not know you, tell us who you are and what you do at Northwestern and what you love most about serving here.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: And let's start with the bald eagle and then we'll make our way across the room.
2:12
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's a tough question.
2:14
SPEAKER_02: But what I do at Northwestern is what a lot of us do way more than was on my job description originally, but a lot of things actually.
2:22
SPEAKER_02: Northwestern choir, canbrio men's chorus, and the festival choir, which is a combination of all of the choirs together at Christmas at Northwestern.
2:30
SPEAKER_02: And then I get the privilege of kind of visioning what the theme will be for Christmas at Northwestern every year, and working with these amazing people and our incredible students, and putting together a concert of worship that just makes us able to celebrate Christmas in the right way.
2:47
SPEAKER_02: What I love about Northwestern is the opportunity to collaborate like this.
2:51
SPEAKER_02: In some places, there's I think more silos and people stay away from each other.
2:55
SPEAKER_02: And we're just small enough that we really can't do that.
2:58
SPEAKER_02: So it's it's fun to collaborate.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Are you allowed to pick favorites among all the different things that you direct?
3:05
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you mean the things I do here?
3:07
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a favorite thing?
3:08
SPEAKER_02: There's no way.
3:09
SPEAKER_02: There's no way.
3:10
SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, like you have kids, which is your favorite?
3:13
SPEAKER_02: They're all special in their own way.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: No favorites.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: I will say for you listening as well, we have a past episode with Tim Sawyer as well.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: If you want to get to know a little bit more about his heart for the choir program, and it'll talk about spiritual resonance.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: It's a fantastic conversation.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: So we'll link that in the description as well.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: But how about you, Coach Kay?
3:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: Probably most people know me from conducting the orchestra.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: Kind of my outfacing audience would know me from concerts.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: And if you come to any of our musicals, I'm the music director for all of our theater musicals.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: And what people might not know is I also teach one-on-one lessons.
3:50
SPEAKER_01: I teach violin lessons and conducting lessons, and I coordinate our chamber music program.
3:56
SPEAKER_01: And I love teaching theater-related things as well.
4:00
SPEAKER_01: I collaborate and team teach our music theater class, and I also teach a class called American Music.
4:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm super excited to start a new class in the spring.
4:10
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be called film music.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: I think I'm going to have a lot of interest from the students, both in the communications area and across the campus, to take film music.
4:18
SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of them are already excited and already asking me about it.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: Where my head goes with that is immediately to a candlelight thing in NAS Chapel with Lord of the Rings or Pirates of the Caribbean or something like that.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm sure I'm not the only one that would just delight in that.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: But that's really exciting.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: Coach Kay, it's it's fun.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: And the longer I've been here, it's fun to see the insight you bring into what you do and then intentionality that you do.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: And getting to hear you on mic in front of the songs that you perform is also one of my favorite parts of each concert.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: So well, I love history.
4:49
SPEAKER_01: I love music history and talking about it.
4:51
SPEAKER_01: So thank you.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: And thank you for joining us today.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, Dr.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: Cassie.
4:55
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
4:55
SPEAKER_04: So what I do at Northwestern is I conduct the symphonic band.
5:00
SPEAKER_04: I also work with the jazz ensemble.
5:02
SPEAKER_04: I wouldn't call it so much conducting as kind of coaching them in a way.
5:06
SPEAKER_04: And then some of the classes that I teach on campus, I teach some conducting classes and private conducting lessons.
5:14
SPEAKER_04: But some things that people may not know I do is I also teach in the music education area.
5:19
SPEAKER_04: So I teach our Woodwind Techniques class, which is when all of our music educators or future music educators get to learn how to play every single woodwind instrument.
5:28
SPEAKER_04: So that's really fun.
5:29
SPEAKER_04: When you get like a brass or percussion student, that's their primary instrument.
5:34
SPEAKER_04: And then they get to learn how to play my instrument, the bassoon.
5:38
SPEAKER_04: That's a good time.
5:39
SPEAKER_04: I love teaching that class.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: Do you do you like dream that night of just squeaking instruments?
5:45
SPEAKER_04: No, probably not any more than my husband does as a middle school, high school band tractor.
5:51
SPEAKER_04: But yeah, yeah, it's really fun.
5:52
SPEAKER_04: I love teaching those courses.
5:53
SPEAKER_05: That's awesome.
5:54
SPEAKER_05: Thank you so much.
5:54
SPEAKER_05: Well, thank you, Dr.
5:55
SPEAKER_05: Cassie.
5:56
SPEAKER_05: This is super regular, Cassie taking the mic here.
5:59
SPEAKER_05: Very excited about what you're doing here, and we're glad you're all here.
6:02
SPEAKER_05: So I want to shift to talking about Christmas at Northwestern, which is one of my personal favorites.
6:06
SPEAKER_05: If I could pick a favorite, and I will.
6:08
SPEAKER_05: Christmas at Northwestern is one of my faves.
6:10
SPEAKER_05: And it's one of our signature events of the year here at Northwestern.
6:13
SPEAKER_05: So for someone who has never experienced Christmas at Northwestern, what makes it so special?
6:19
SPEAKER_02: Well, I think the main thing is that in a world where most of our churches do contemporary music and have gone pretty much contemporary in terms of their worship music, we want to present something a little more traditional.
6:31
SPEAKER_02: And I think that at Christmas time, people like to kind of give up a lot of their predisposed ideas about what is, you know, appropriate and what is not.
6:39
SPEAKER_02: And I think people do love traditional music at Christmas time.
6:42
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, of course, we have a great orchestra and we have this amazing band, and you know, a choir of anywhere from 160 to 190, depending on who all comes this fall, you know.
6:51
SPEAKER_02: And it's just awesome to be able to lead people in worship.
6:54
SPEAKER_02: So we call it a concert of worship.
6:56
SPEAKER_02: It's really not a concert.
6:57
SPEAKER_02: It is a concert because we present music in a concert format, but it's a time of worship, and we we want people to go deep and worship the true reason for the season, which is Jesus.
7:07
SPEAKER_05: Well, and you do bring the audience in to help you sing some songs, which is yes, they get to sing as well.
7:14
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that's always good.
7:14
SPEAKER_05: And stand, which is nice.
7:16
SPEAKER_05: A little sit-stand situation during a longer concert, which is awesome.
7:20
SPEAKER_05: So as you prepare, you're preparing for a long time, but is there a moment during Christmas at Northwestern?
7:26
SPEAKER_05: Maybe the audience doesn't notice, but it's something that means a lot to you every year.
7:29
SPEAKER_05: Do you have those moments?
7:30
SPEAKER_01: For me personally, I think it's from it's the moments that the audience doesn't see.
7:34
SPEAKER_01: It's actually before the concert.
7:35
SPEAKER_01: Each of the ensembles meets together.
7:38
SPEAKER_01: We meet 45 minutes before every performance.
7:41
SPEAKER_01: And we we use that time to pray together.
7:43
SPEAKER_01: But for me personally, I love getting feedback from the students because a lot of them are sharing stories of family members who are coming to the concert, maybe neighbors, people who wouldn't necessarily go to church, but they would come to a concert or a Christmas concert, and how God speaks to them through the narration, through something that the band played, something that the orchestra played.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing how God works in each person in the audience individually.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: And personally, I wouldn't, I know none of us would ever know about that unless the students and their friends or family told us about it.
8:18
SPEAKER_01: Usually we hear those stories the the day after the previous concert.
8:21
SPEAKER_01: So for for me, that's super special.
8:59
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you can pray over those guests in the audience.
9:02
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
9:02
SPEAKER_01: And and we do.
9:03
SPEAKER_01: We we do that deliberately before every person.
9:06
SPEAKER_02: We also ask the choir when they come in to sit in their chairs as they sometimes the curtain is closed, sometimes it's not, but just to literally pray for the people who are in the audience because you just never know.
9:17
SPEAKER_02: You don't know who's there, and you know a lot of people.
9:20
SPEAKER_02: But you know, these students also have roommates and friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, people who probably wouldn't come to maybe one of our concerts, but they'll come to hear Christmas music.
9:30
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's great.
9:31
SPEAKER_02: It's not exactly a captive audience because they get to choose to come and they'd get a ticket.
9:36
SPEAKER_02: But one of my favorite things is the student chapel that we do on Friday morning.
9:40
SPEAKER_02: So we take over the chapel time and we do just a little bit of snippets of what we're going to do later in the evening, and that's always really fun because a lot of those students don't end up coming to the performance, but they love that Christmas at Northwestern Preview Chapel.
9:55
SPEAKER_05: Mm-hmm.
9:55
SPEAKER_05: And you've been doing that a long time.
9:57
SPEAKER_05: I was a student one million years ago, and that was happening too.
10:00
SPEAKER_05: It was one of my favorite chapels.
10:01
SPEAKER_05: So I'm glad you still do that because I know I remember it well, and I know that they will too.
10:06
SPEAKER_05: So I just appreciate all the intentionality that goes into this concert.
10:09
SPEAKER_05: Well, every year there's a theme.
10:11
SPEAKER_05: Have you landed on a theme, and how do you come up with a theme every year?
10:15
SPEAKER_02: That is a really good question.
10:16
SPEAKER_02: And people think that we sort of start this all when school starts in September, but it really doesn't.
10:21
SPEAKER_02: For this year, it started on Easter Sunday morning for me, and I was sitting in church and I was pondering the visit of King Charles to the United States and the big deal that it was to have him here.
10:35
SPEAKER_02: I think the last time, a visit from I think his mother was visited that when she was queen, but a long, long time ago.
10:41
SPEAKER_02: And all of a sudden I realized, you know what, we have a king, and we need to make a bigger deal of him, right?
10:47
SPEAKER_02: Because he will come back and he will eclipse all of the earthly kingdoms.
10:51
SPEAKER_02: And we were singing this piece on Easter Sunday morning, and the phrase that kept coming back is worthy the lamb, worthy the lamb, worthy the lamb.
10:59
SPEAKER_02: And this piece was called To the Lamb Upon the Throne, basically.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: So I thought, okay, this is it.
11:04
SPEAKER_02: This is the finale of Christmas at Northwestern.
11:07
SPEAKER_02: And that just kind of started to, you know, spiral, and all of a sudden music started to come out of that.
11:13
SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I love all things British too.
11:15
SPEAKER_02: So I'm I love England and we're going to Ireland next May.
11:19
SPEAKER_02: And so it just seemed right.
11:22
SPEAKER_02: And the more music I picked, the more it seemed even more right because things just started to eclipse one after the other, and all of this music just kind of fell into place.
11:33
SPEAKER_02: So it's that's pretty cool actually to be able to do that.
11:35
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's a God thing.
11:37
SPEAKER_02: I mean, God enters into the process of this program creation.
11:41
SPEAKER_02: And I was just swept away on Easter Sunday morning.
11:44
SPEAKER_02: And it's kind of cool on Easter Sunday morning to be thinking about Christmas.
11:48
SPEAKER_02: And it's also really important at Christmas time to be thinking about Good Friday and Easter and all of the the uh the holy week uh observations that we have in the church because they're so tied together.
12:00
SPEAKER_02: So that was that was a real gift, and that was at the end of March, so we got an early start this year.
12:06
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
12:07
SPEAKER_05: Oh my goodness, I'm super excited about that.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: So, Tisa, I know you started thinking about this in March, April, somewhere at Easter time.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: Is that true of you guys too?
12:15
SPEAKER_00: Dr.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: Cassie and and Coach K?
12:17
SPEAKER_01: I would say of the three of us, I'm usually the last one to program music for concerts.
12:22
SPEAKER_01: The orchestra tends to be tricky to program music for because I don't know exactly what instruments I'm gonna have from year to year.
12:30
SPEAKER_01: The woodwind and brass section, especially, there's one student on every individual part, and there can be turnover from year to year.
12:38
SPEAKER_01: So, for instance, if I don't have any obos or if I if I don't have any bassoons, it's really hard to program for an orchestra and have all these holes.
12:45
SPEAKER_01: So I'm usually the last one to program, but I wait to get T Saw's program because the first thing he does is he comes up with the theme and then he puts in choruses to connect that.
12:58
SPEAKER_01: And then I research those choral pieces and I see what the orchestration is, and I see how many orchestrations the orchestra needs to play with the choir, how difficult they are, what is the instrumentation, and then I'll balance that then with programming my pieces.
13:14
SPEAKER_01: And usually I'll program one or two orchestra pieces depending on lots of factors I just mentioned.
13:21
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
13:22
SPEAKER_04: And sometimes David and I end up deciding to do a band and orchestra combined piece.
13:26
SPEAKER_04: And sometimes we don't.
13:28
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
13:28
SPEAKER_04: So we don't decide on that till September.
13:31
SPEAKER_04: So because we both have to just kind of get to know our ensembles before we know completely or commit completely to pieces that we program.
13:38
SPEAKER_02: So to clarify, I mean, I I send out I make kind of a prospectus.
13:42
SPEAKER_02: So I get the theme, you know, sometimes pretty early in the year, but then in early July is when I send them a kind of a synopsis of what I'm thinking about and the pieces that their ensembles are going to be participating with.
13:55
SPEAKER_02: And then they usually each do a couple of pieces, so solo pieces, because people love to hear our ensembles.
14:00
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
14:00
SPEAKER_02: But I think at Christmas time also, they love familiarity, they love the words that they have heard for their whole lives.
14:07
SPEAKER_02: And there's some amazing, I mean, I say this every year, but man, this there's some amazing music in this program.
14:13
SPEAKER_02: And one of the cool things is we're gonna bring back the hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah, but we're gonna do it in a little different way because we're gonna have the whole band play with us on that.
14:23
SPEAKER_02: And I think we throw in some orchestra instruments as well.
14:27
SPEAKER_02: We do it in a key that even people in the audience can sing along.
14:30
SPEAKER_02: But they have to pick the right key that we're in.
14:32
SPEAKER_05: I'll have you know, I cry twice a year.
14:34
SPEAKER_05: One for something serious and one for something silly.
14:36
SPEAKER_05: But the Hallelujah chorus brings it out of me every time, so I will be openly with you.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: It's coming.
14:41
SPEAKER_05: I'm excited, and we'll we'll stand and we'll cry.
14:45
SPEAKER_05: Because you stand during the Hallelujah chorus.
14:47
SPEAKER_02: And it's not for we're not doing it for a standing ovation.
14:49
SPEAKER_02: It's just that that long tradition, we might actually open with it.
14:53
SPEAKER_02: It might be the first piece on the program.
14:54
SPEAKER_02: I'm not exactly sure yet.
14:55
SPEAKER_05: Okay, so I'm gonna cry the whole night.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: That's we're getting there, we're getting close.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna be there with a camera ready to take a photo of that.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: So if I'm hearing this right, and something, Tisa, I really appreciate about you, is you really do dive into the topic of themes and meaning and purpose.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: And it just really sounds like this has become a tradition, not just at Northwestern, but in your heart, in the way that the Lord wakes up your heart and your soul, and he opens you up and you're sensitive to a theme that is maybe a word that the Northwestern community needs to hear and guests and stuff.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: And that happens.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: And I imagine you're not silent about it until the summer.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: I have a hunch that as soon as you're starting to get excited about it, it's already heading over to the rest of the team.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: So this theme is in your percolator, already starting to just awaken what's going on in your heart, and then the logistics start to come together throughout the summer and into the fall.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
15:47
SPEAKER_00: That really is how it works.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: So, from the perspective of somebody who attends, like I know that there's all these different processes and the different groups, different instruments, different people.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it really does feel like one unified program and service.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: So, how does the collaboration process?
16:05
SPEAKER_00: I know you started talking about that a little bit, but how does it really work when you sit down and be like, how can we intentionally take our audience on a journey through this evening?
16:14
SPEAKER_02: Well, I I mean, for me, I have records of what we've done for the past 35 years or so.
16:19
SPEAKER_02: And I think it's important to make sure that there's enough familiar music that people go, oh, I love that.
16:26
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I love that, you know, the Hallelujah chorus or whatever, or the first Noel, or let me sing my favorite carol, you know.
16:32
SPEAKER_02: But then now and then it's really good to have some new music that kind of takes people in a different direction and and surprises them a little bit and gives them something that they wouldn't maybe normally hear at Christmas time.
16:43
SPEAKER_02: And the fact that there's what, almost like 250, 260 people involved in this that you see, not to mention all the people that are, you know, running things in the dark and you know, in other rooms somewhere.
16:55
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's pretty amazing, actually.
16:57
SPEAKER_02: And I think that that's uh that's a really important feature to provide people with a way of looking at and thinking about what Christmas is about in a new way and also in a very traditional context.
17:10
SPEAKER_02: It's sort of what we would call a lessons in carols format.
17:13
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, you sing something, they play something, there's a reading, there's a narration to kind of keep your mind in engaged.
17:20
SPEAKER_02: And we don't want people to clap until the very end because we don't want them to kind of get into that.
17:24
SPEAKER_02: I'm at a concert, I hear a piece, I clap, next piece, clap, next piece, clap.
17:29
SPEAKER_02: We want them to stay in the worshipful atmosphere of the program.
17:33
SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of people, it's not just older people, but I think a lot of people, even the younger folks, really tend to like that because it's not what they normally experience.
17:42
SPEAKER_02: So there it is.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: No, that's really good.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: And I personally enjoy really like reading along with the lyrics as it as they're being sung too, to continue to have the intentionality that's been put into all these.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: So, Dr.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: Cassie, without giving away too many surprises, are there any songs or moments in this year's program that you're especially excited about or even annual moments that just you just enjoy so much?
18:04
SPEAKER_04: I think if we're talking about annual moments, I love all the audience carols.
18:10
SPEAKER_04: I really like seeing the audience get engaged with the whole program and that it's like T Saw and Coach Kay have been saying, that it's not just a concert, but that it's uh everybody in the whole space together.
18:21
SPEAKER_04: So look out for those audience carols this year.
18:24
SPEAKER_04: I think they're gonna be wonderful.
18:25
SPEAKER_04: I mean, we gave away one of them already, but we won't give away any more.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: What does it feel like for you to turn around from directing the whole group and to face the audience?
18:34
SPEAKER_00: Like what is that like?
18:36
SPEAKER_04: The first year it was terrifying, but only in the fact that I was worried I would forget what I was conducting because I I worked a lot with marching bands before coming here.
18:45
SPEAKER_04: So it's kind of you're used to looking at the audience quite a bit when you work with marching bands and doing all those things.
18:52
SPEAKER_04: So I just was hoping I wouldn't kind of go into a different zone instead of where I was supposed to be.
18:57
SPEAKER_04: But now when I turn around, I like to try to find people in the audience and smile at them that I know.
19:02
SPEAKER_04: I know I've done that to you, Mati.
19:04
SPEAKER_04: So uh yeah, I like to find people I know.
19:06
SPEAKER_04: It's it's a fun thing.
19:07
SPEAKER_04: And you feel like you get to connect with the audience, and that's different than our regular concerts, too.
19:12
SPEAKER_04: Even though we'll give program notes from the stage, we're not at least I don't feel like I'm actively looking for people that I'm talking to.
19:19
SPEAKER_04: I'm giving that kind of like lecture experience before my piece.
19:23
SPEAKER_04: But I think that's what's different about you know the audience, Carols.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: Well, it is very fun that to I mean, you're just so filled with joy in that moment.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: It's very inspiring and fun to watch, and your joy is contagious in that.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Coach Kay, anything you're especially excited about?
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Any surprises or secrets coming up for this?
19:38
SPEAKER_01: Well, as soon as I saw I saw Tim's list of music for the program, I'm not gonna give any spoilers away, but there's certain composers.
19:47
SPEAKER_01: I know orchestrally, if I see a composer already, I know I'm gonna like the piece because I like everything about that composer and the choices that that Tim made chorally, even before I listened to each piece, I knew I was gonna like them.
19:59
SPEAKER_01: And sure enough, this year is no exception.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: I I think I know what the audience is gonna like, and believe me, you're gonna love the the music that he's picked out.
20:08
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be you might get a little John Rudder in there, a little spoiler alert there, and some others too, of course.
20:15
SPEAKER_02: There's no Christmas concert that should not have John Rudder in it.
20:18
SPEAKER_02: Every Christmas concert should have a little bit of rudder.
20:21
SPEAKER_05: And I've always said that, so thank you.
20:24
SPEAKER_02: Well, actually, I've actually met him, and the funny thing is that there's this saying, you know, that the I can't believe it's not butter.
20:31
SPEAKER_02: You have you ever seen that?
20:32
SPEAKER_02: That butter commercial?
20:33
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
20:33
SPEAKER_02: Well, that in England they kind of jokingly say, I can't believe it's not rudder.
20:37
SPEAKER_02: And now that he's you know been knighted by the king, I mean he's Sir John.
20:41
SPEAKER_02: So I've spent a bunch of time in Cambridge and and he'll he's usually there, and he'll meet with us and talk to us, and and he's tells amazing stories.
20:49
SPEAKER_02: He's a remarkable, remarkable man.
20:51
SPEAKER_02: So you can meet your heroes.
20:52
SPEAKER_02: I agree with what you're saying.
20:53
SPEAKER_02: I think there's gonna be a couple pieces that the audience goes, Oh wow, that's amazing.
20:59
SPEAKER_02: So we'll see.
21:00
SPEAKER_05: Well, like Coach Kay said, you do know what the audience likes, because we like it every year.
21:05
SPEAKER_05: So very excited for what you're putting together.
21:07
SPEAKER_05: Well, so it sounds like Teesaw's been listening to Christmas music maybe since Easter, and then others, it takes longer to catch up, but you're certainly listening to Christmas music sooner than maybe the general population.
21:18
SPEAKER_05: Maybe not Monty, but can you ever get too much Christmas?
21:21
SPEAKER_02: Well, I you know what?
21:23
SPEAKER_02: I There may be some nods.
21:24
SPEAKER_02: Of of really quality Christmas music, and that means instrumental or choral.
21:29
SPEAKER_02: I don't think there is too much ever.
21:31
SPEAKER_02: I mean, there might just be that it's the wrong time of the year to be listening to it.
21:35
SPEAKER_02: I probably wouldn't listen to it during Holy Week.
21:37
SPEAKER_02: It wouldn't probably fit very well.
21:39
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the fact that I was listening to this piece on Easter Sunday morning and singing it, that was the moment where my soul just went, I got it.
21:47
SPEAKER_02: It's there, you know.
21:48
SPEAKER_02: But how we're gonna get to that point is what's really fun and really interesting.
21:52
SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, just who's gonna narrate and what's gonna come along with the music and guide us through.
21:59
SPEAKER_02: The other thing I'm gonna say is that people are in for a little bit of a surprise.
22:02
SPEAKER_02: I know a few years ago we had some dancers that were came into Christmas at Northwestern.
22:08
SPEAKER_02: This year it's very possible that we're gonna have a visit by the three kings.
22:12
SPEAKER_05: Oh.
22:13
SPEAKER_05: Wow.
22:13
SPEAKER_02: And none of them will be King Charles, I'll tell you that right now.
22:16
SPEAKER_02: Or or Prince William, you know, or any of them.
22:19
SPEAKER_05: But just Monty and his college roommates.
22:27
SPEAKER_02: You know, that's true.
22:28
SPEAKER_02: I hope that I hope those kings show up.
22:30
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
22:31
SPEAKER_02: But that's gonna be the little teaser appetizer for people.
22:35
SPEAKER_05: Very exciting.
22:36
SPEAKER_05: Uh now do you have a hard stop on Christmas music in your home on December sixth once you're done with the concerts?
22:42
SPEAKER_01: My family is Ukrainian, so we go through on my dad's side, we go through January seventh.
22:48
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: Which is a traditional in our family.
22:51
SPEAKER_01: But I personally love Christmas music, so I'll listen to Christmas all the way through January 7th.
22:56
SPEAKER_04: My husband doesn't think that Christmas music should be outside the month of December.
23:02
SPEAKER_04: And he's another band director too.
23:03
SPEAKER_04: So it's really funny is sometimes I'll turn on Christmas music when he's not home.
23:07
SPEAKER_04: But we use our Alexa.
23:09
SPEAKER_04: And so then if he if I only pause the music and if he plays it later, then all of a sudden there's Christmas music being played in November, sometimes October.
23:18
SPEAKER_04: But I do find that I need a little break after Christmas at Northwestern for about a week and then I'm back in again.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Regular Cassie, how do you feel about Christmas music?
23:28
SPEAKER_05: I love Christmas music.
23:29
SPEAKER_05: My husband is the same way.
23:30
SPEAKER_05: It's got a window of time.
23:32
SPEAKER_05: So I start listening to it in the car on November 1st.
23:35
SPEAKER_05: There you go.
23:36
SPEAKER_05: And then he'll join me in December.
23:38
SPEAKER_05: But Monty likes to play it during homecoming week because it's to him the best week of the year.
23:43
SPEAKER_05: The most wonderful time.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: It is.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: It's the most wonderful time of the year for an alum.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: And actually, we just got done listening to Christmas music this past week, Cassie.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: So thanks for dealing with that.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate that.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: And now we can move into Christmas at Northwestern season.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: All right, I want to wrap up with this because what I've already heard, the theme has been already in the percolator since Easter.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: The king is coming, the shepherd king, or something like that.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: You're going to see the full theme soon.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: And we're excited about the tunes and things like this.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: But if you had 30 seconds to invite someone to attend this year's program, what would you say?
24:16
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to give you all like just 10 seconds to percolate on that for a second.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: And then I'm going to start actually with I'm going to go left to right in our studio.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go Cassie, Coach K, and then we're going to wrap up with Teesaw.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: So you got 30 seconds.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: What's your elevator pitch for somebody to come to Christmas at Northwestern this year and go?
24:35
SPEAKER_04: You should come to Christmas at Northwestern because it's a experience like none other that you will experience around the Twin Cities.
24:42
SPEAKER_04: You get a chance to worship with the orchestra band and choirs on stage.
24:47
SPEAKER_04: And it's just a really unique Christmas experience.
24:50
SPEAKER_04: We hope you would come.
24:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for me, I think it's the same thing I tell my students as we're getting ready for Christmas at Northwestern.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: If they've got friends, if they've got neighbors, if they've got family who maybe would not go to church, but they would go to a maybe just one concert each year at Northwestern.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: This would be the the one.
25:09
SPEAKER_01: There's so many people in our world, in our just in our neighborhood around Northwestern that need some joy, some hope, some encouragement.
25:15
SPEAKER_01: And Christmas at Northwestern is the perfect place for that.
25:18
SPEAKER_02: Well, I would say there's hundreds of concerts going on every December in in our region and in our state.
25:25
SPEAKER_02: But I think what people need most is to worship.
25:28
SPEAKER_02: And even if they don't know who Jesus is, they've never experienced people who know him singing about him.
25:35
SPEAKER_02: It's unmistakable that you will hear that here.
25:38
SPEAKER_02: The hearts of our students as they play, as they sing, uh the purpose is very clear and that is to lift up Christ and the true reason for the season.
25:48
SPEAKER_02: And I know that's kind of a cliche, but I find that people say to me, Thank you for holding the line and doing worship at Christmas.
25:58
SPEAKER_02: There's no dancing bears.
26:00
SPEAKER_02: Santa does not make an appearance.
26:01
SPEAKER_02: You know, and I don't have anything wrong.
26:03
SPEAKER_02: I don't mind dancing bears, and I like Santa, but that's not really part of the story that we want to tell.
26:09
SPEAKER_02: We have a more important story to tell.
26:11
SPEAKER_02: And I think especially this year, when our world is so turbulent and there's so much going on with wars everywhere and just the economy being turbulent and people being unsure of what the future looks like.
26:24
SPEAKER_02: We need to know that we have a king.
26:26
SPEAKER_02: He's already been here and he will come back.
26:29
SPEAKER_02: And that is going to be a glorious moment.
26:31
SPEAKER_02: And we just want to give people a little bit of an appetizer of that before that.
26:35
SPEAKER_02: That's so good.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: That's so good.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: We have hope in Christ that nothing can touch.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you guys for joining us and for you listening.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: We invite you to join us for this concert of worship for Christmas at Northwestern.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: If this is something you've already enjoyed, then you know how special it is, and we invite you back to continue that tradition.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: And if you've never been here, start a new tradition and join us for Christmas at Northwestern.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: It's happening December 4th through 6th.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: And also on December 5th, that's Saturday, between the two shows, there's going to be a kind of a fun Christmas celebration between the two.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: There'll be a Christmas market featuring alumni made Christmas gifts and stuff like that, and also a Christmas party for you alumni and Northwestern families.
27:19
SPEAKER_02: Bring the dancing bears into that one.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: We'll bring the dancing screech.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: That'll even be better.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: So I think you can check out the tickets are for sale.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: They're ready to rock and roll.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: So you can go to unwtickets.com and get your tickets today.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: But Dr.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: Cassie, Coach K, and Tisaw, thanks for taking some time out of your schedules to join us to share your heart behind Christmas at Northwestern.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: We cannot wait to celebrate.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: So thank you.