I've always loved singing, but I don't know that I've ever loved it as much as I did when singing with this group.
The Dale Warland Singers, based in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, were considered one of the two or three best choral music ensembles in America, if not the world. DWS closed up show when founder and artistic director Dale Warland retired. Much of the personnel of the ensemble moved on to form The Singers: Minnesota Choral Artists.
No matter what you call them, they'll give you an evening of some of the most beautiful and intelligent music you'll ever hear. I miss singing with them.
Click the link on this post's headline to hear our recording of Franz Biebl's Ave Maria. From Wikipedia:
Biebl was born in Pursruck, Germany in 1906. He studied composition at the Musikhochschule in Munich. Biebl served as Choir Director at the Catholic church of St Maria in München-Thalkirchen from 1932 until 1939, and as an assistant professor of choral music at the Mozarteum, an academy of music in Salzburg, Austria, beginning in 1939, where he taught voice and music theory.
Biebl's best-known work is "Ave Maria", written in 1964. The piece was brought to the United States by the Cornell University Glee Club in 1970. The ensemble met Biebl during a recording session in Frankfurt while on a tour of Germany. Conductor Thomas A. Sokol was given a number of Biebl's works, premiering them after returning home. The "Ave Maria" quickly gained popularity, most notably after becoming part of the repertoire of Chanticleer.
