Marisa Crater leads worship through music

2010 Apr 1

A talented collection of student and faculty musicians from Augustana College's music department will lead worship at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Naperville, Ill., on Sunday, April 11 at 8:00 and 9:30 a.m. Marisa Crater, a first year majoring in liberal studies from Hampshire, IL, is one of more than 40 students from Augustana who will share their talents as a part of the worship services.

The Ascension Singers, an audition-based choir directed by Dr. Michael Zemek, will lead the vocal component of the worship music. They will collaborate with a four-person brass ensemble and organist to perform several festive Easter anthems during the services. Zemek sees the choir's trip to Good Shepherd as a valuable opportunity to use their musical gifts in a new, meaningful setting.

"One of the primary goals of Ascension Singers as an ensemble is to provide musical leadership in worship settings. Our trip to Good Shepherd allows us to expand our service beyond the Augustana community, where we regularly sing in chapel services and other events, and to share our musical offerings with a congregation that has many close ties with our college."

The instrumentalists accompanying the Ascension Singers to Good Shepherd will include Larry Peterson, organist and director of music for the Augustana Campus Ministries program; Dr. James Lambrecht, professor of trumpet and director of the Augustana Symphonic Band; and three student brass players from the Symphonic Band. Lambrecht will play alongside the three student musiciansa"senior Paige Anderson, junior Gaetano Iaccarino and sophomore Kyle Amatia"to form a special, one-time brass quartet.

Paige Anderson, a music performance major who frequently plays the trumpet for Augustana's on-campus worship services, is looking forward to playing alongside Lambrecht in the quartet. She says that playing in a small ensemble in a worship setting is a rewarding challenge.

"On the one hand, with a small ensemble size, there's no place to hide! We all have to listen carefully and adjust to each others' tempos and dynamics. If you make a mistake, you risk throwing the whole ensemble out of sync. Still, playing in churches generally offers an intimate, personal experience. The audiences never fail to be warm and welcoming."

Peterson arranged for the choir and brass quartet to play at Good Shepherd through the church's pastor, Gary Olson, who is the father of Augustana senior Robert Olson. The Augustana music ensembles will perform as part of Good Shepherd's traditional worship services.

For more information, contact Kamy Beattie at (309) 794-7721 or kamybeattie@augustana.edu.

About Augustana: Founded in 1860 and situated on a 115-acre campus near the Mississippi River, Augustana College is a private, liberal arts institution affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The college enrolls nearly 2,500 students from diverse geographic, social, ethnic and religious backgrounds and offers more than 70 majors and related areas of study. Augustana employs 287 faculty and has a student-faculty ratio of 11:1. Augustana continues to do what it has always done: challenge and prepare students for lives of leadership and service in our complex, ever-changing world.