Above: BSU’s Chamber Singers perform during the 2024 Carl O. Thompson Memorial Concert.

Choir ensembles from Bemidji State University’s School of Music embark on a five-city spring tour on March 25, culminating with a March 29 home concert in Bemidji.

The Bemidji Choir and Chamber Singers, under the direction of Dr. Isaac Lovdahl, assistant professor of music and director of choral music at BSU, will appear at five houses of worship in North Dakota and Minnesota between March 25–29. Tour stops include:

• March 25, 7 p.m. — Saints Anne & Joachim Catholic Church in Fargo, North Dakota;
• March 26, 8 p.m. — Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary in Duluth;
• March 27, 7:30 p.m. — Zumbro Lutheran Church in Rochester;
• March 28, 7 p.m. — Trinity Lutheran Church in Stillwater;
• March 29, 7 p.m. — First Lutheran Church in Bemidji.

BSU musicians will visit local high schools for workshops with choir students prior to evening concerts.

The Bemidji Choir will perform 10 pieces in two sets during the program, including “A Song of Belonging.” That piece was composed by Lovdahl, based on two poems by BSU students Hannah Lewis and Liz Fisher, which explored the sense of belonging they found as members of the university’s vocal ensembles.

Between the Bemidji Choir’s two sets, the Chamber Singers — a small-group ensemble specializing in ancient repertoire — will perform four pieces. The group’s four tour pieces were written by composers born between 1557 and 1657.

The Bemidji Choir’s second set is entitled “Love and Loss,” and is dedicated to the memories of Dr. Paul Brandvik, a professor emeritus of music who directed choral programs at BSU from 1967–1998, and Bonnie Beedy, Lovdahl’s mother-in-law. Both died in 2025.