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Anniversary Concert: Encore! Encore!
Moonstone Populace members Mike Soffa (left), Rich Zangl, Barb Mueller Louis, Ralph Schwartz and Elaine Schwartz Rebek on stage in the Prairie Theater for an “encore” performance. Photo courtesy of Marilyn Zangl. |
The pieces all fell into place when a copy of the program from the first musical concert ever held at the campus surfaced during the planning of the 40th anniversary year celebrations at UW-Fond du Lac.
Patricia Eby, UW-Fond du Lac music professor and associate dean, saw the opportunity to do a 40th anniversary encore and invite back some of the original participants as special guests at the Fond du Lac Chamber Singers annual fall concert.
That first musical event in January 1969 in the former student center was appropriately entitled “First Concert.”
“It just seemed fitting to re-create the first of forty years of wonderful musical concerts on our campus and it seemed a good time to reunite many of the ‘firsts’ on the campus again,” said Eby.
The opening selection in 1969 was “Ave Verum Corpus” by William Byrd. The 2008 encore concert also opened with this musical piece directed by Dr. Ray Wifler, the first music director at the campus.
Also coming back to the stage that evening were several UW-Fond du Lac alumni musicians including Priscilla Luedtke Ehlert, Barb Mueller Louis, Ralph Schwartz, Mike Soffa and Rich Zangl.
Louis, Schwartz, Soffa and Zangl along with Ralph’s sister, Elaine Schwartz Rebek, were members of the group Moonstone Populace.
Friends since they were in college together, they had reunited once before to perform at the dedication concert in the newly opened Prairie Theater in 2000.
“We’ve always been friends, but getting back together as a group at the dedication for the Prairie Theater reminded us how much fun we had in the past, and now we get together annually,” said Zangl.
Although Zangl says they may feel a little nervous when first taking the stage, it doesn’t last long. “Once we are together on stage, the magic that has been there for 40 years takes over, and it always seems to work.”
“All of the alumni musicians were gracious in responding to the invitation,” said Eby. “That just proves how much music means to students – and how it is carried throughout a lifetime.”
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