By Jules Young, Arts and Entertainment Editor
This year, the Gettysburg College Choir celebrated its 90th anniversary with its spring break choir tour and their on-campus home concert on Saturday, March 21st. To celebrate this landmark anniversary, choir director Dr. Robert Natter reached out to College Choir alumni around every stop on the regional tour and invited all the alumni at the home concert to sing alongside the current choir.
After a two-year hiatus, the College Choir resumed their tradition of touring over spring break with a regional tour around the Northeast. The choir performed concerts in Philadelphia, PA; Morristown, NJ; Boston, MA;Ridgefield, CT; Washington, DC; and Lancaster, PA.
College Choir practices for their performance at Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City. (Photo Derek Reed/Gettysburg College Choir)
With the anniversary in mind, Natter planned the tour differently from usual regional tours. To decide the performance spaces, he “put out a call to all Gettysburg alumni, not just choir, saying ‘we’re having this celebration, be a part of it.’” He sent this mass message and received more than 50 responses. As a result, every church that the choir performed at had a host who was a Gettysburg alum. Additionally, this allowed many alumni to attend each performance. To celebrate them, the choir invited all alumni in attendance to sing the Gettysburg College Alma Mater alongside them at each concert, encompassing the lasting community that the College Choir represents.
Beyond just the concerts, the choir tour is an opportunity to bond as a group and enjoy the locations they travel to. The choir had the opportunity to explore Boston the day after the concert there and made an additional stop in New York City. In New York, the choir got the chance to sing in the Church of St Ignatius Loyola without an audience, purely to sing in a beautiful space. Between the free days and the many hours spent on the bus together, the choir grew closer both as musicians and as people.
Natter reflected on the tour afterward, saying that he was “really pleased with the way that tour went because everybody was all in,” and that “the enthusiasm from all the students was really palpable.” After the last two years when the tradition lost some momentum, he was particularly pleased that the excitement for the tour had returned in this year’s group. Regarding the concerts themselves, Natter felt that “musically, it was very strong, and community wise, it was very strong.”
After each choir tour, there is a “home concert” performance that takes place on the Gettysburg College campus. Natter took this opportunity to host a grand celebration for any alumni who could make it back to campus. Their participation included a celebratory luncheon as well as their involvement in the concert, singing not only the Alma Mater, but also “Beautiful Savior,” College Choir’s hallmark piece since its origin, and “The Road Home,” a piece that represents the beauty of returning to where you came from. Over one hundred people signed up to attend the concert, nearly sixty of which sang alongside the choir.
In the recent past there has been a handful of choir reunions: one in 2016 for the 80th anniversary, and one in 2010 when the Parker Wagnild fund was made. The Parker and Helen Wagnild fund receives ongoing donations from choir alumni, and allows the College Choir students to go on tour for little to no cost. Natter was particularly excited for “how fun it was for the current students to meet the alums,” a handful of whom attended the luncheon and mingled with the alumni there.
The luncheon was held in the afternoon of the home concert, gathering alumni across nearly sixty years of choirs. In its ninety years, the college choir has seen four directors; the founder, Parker Wagnild, Russel Getz, Kermit Finstad, and current director Robert Natter. Members of the choir under each of these four directors were present for the luncheon. One representative from each of these eras presented on what choir was like in their time, and shared some of their favorite memories of their respective directors. To end the presentations, they showed a video of Kermit Finstad and his wife recorded for the occasion. The energy at the function was lively and excited, with many old friends reuniting and reminiscing on choir tours of years past.
At the home concert, College Choir and Camerata sang their extensive program of 18 pieces in total. Natter put together a program that would reflect the nature of time, nostalgia, and community, apt for a special anniversary concert. Soloists in college choir included Maren Carter ’27 and a trio of Jared Cox ’29, Lindy Harris ’29, and Grace Sewell ’29 on “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” Lana Dyer ’27 on “The Road Home,” and Asher Devine ’26 and Jules Young ’26 on the traditional seniors’ solo in “Beautiful Savior.” Some choir members displayed their multifaceted abilities in the concert, such as Christian Keller ’27 who conducted “Sicut Cervus,” and Jared Cox and Lindy Harris, who accompanied one of the “Time Pieces” with a violin duet. Between the College Choir and the alumni who joined them, there were about ninety singers in total.
Alumni join the Gettysburg College Choir at the Christ Chapel home concert. (Photo Derek Reed/Gettysburg College Choir)
Throughout the choir tour, the events on the day of the home concert, and the home concert itself, Gettysburg College Choir’s 90th anniversary garnered much-deserved attention, and was celebrated with a wonderful sense of community and appreciation for the history of the group.
This article originally appeared on pages 6-7 of the April 2026 edition of The Gettysburgian magazine.
