SWEDES: TheWayTheyWere
  • Home
    • The Bethany Artist & the Bethany Scientist: Lydia & Emil >
      • ​"First Swedish Agricultural Company" Lindsborg Founders, 1868 >
        • Swedish Pastor Olof Olsson Immigrating to Lindsborg 1869, June 27th Arrival >
          • Church and Lindsborg Founder Pastor Olsson, 1869 - 1876 >
            • ​"He Gave God Glory" The Story of Olof Olsson, ​1841 - 1900
      • Their "Bethany Lutheran Church" 1869 >
        • Their "Augustana Lutheran Synod," 1860 - 1962 >
          • The Augustana Heritage Association, 2000 - 2016
        • Their "Augustana Women's Missionary Society," 1892
      • Their "Bethany Lutheran Home" Since 1907
      • Their Lindsborg's "First" Swedish Smoky Valley Community Chronicle 1909 and Their "Second" 1919 >
        • "Pioneer Swedish-American Culture in Central Kansas," 1965 >
          • "The Smoky Valley in The After Years," 1969
      • Their 1920s Coronado Heights Photographs and their Smoky Valley Historical Association (SVHA)
      • Their 1936 1873 Swedish Homestead, "The Old Deere Farm," The Peter J. Larson Farm, etc. >
        • Their 1873 Swede House
        • A Smoky Valley Swedish Virtual Memorial - ​"Dedicated to the Memory of the Smoky Valley Swedish Settlements" >
          • Recognizing & Thanking >
            • - Claude Koehn -- The Before and After
      • Their 1940 Deere Home >
        • Emil's and Nina's 1961 Thunderbird
      • 1943, After Lydia--The Building of the Lindsborg Hospital
    • Their Bethany College Handel's "Messiah" Performances, 1882 on... >
      • "Messiah" Performers, Venues & Audiences, Press and Broadcasts
    • Their Bethany College 1899 Swedish Artists' Midwest Art Exhibition
    • Their Bethany College 1902 "Terrible Swedes," Coach Bennie Owen, Their 1903 "Rockar Stockar"
    • Their Bethany College 1904 St. Louis World's Fair Swedish Pavilion
    • Their Bethany College Anniversary Celebrations: 15, 20, 25, 100 years >
      • Their Celebrating 15 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1896. The First Bethany Annual, 1895-96
      • Their Celebrating 20 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1901. The "Forget-Me-Not," 1902 >
        • The King of Sweden's Emissary, 1901
        • Yale University's Bethany Club
      • Their Celebrating 25 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1906, "Souvenir of Lindsborg and Bethany College"
      • Their Celebrating 100 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1981, "The Centennial of Bethany College"
    • Their "I WAS THERE" Coin ~ Bethany College Celebration, 1902
    • Their Bethany College's 1937 Introduction to New Sweden, founded in 1638 >
      • Deere's Introduction to New Sweden
    • Their friend, Emory Lindquist, and his 1975 "Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college" >
      • Their friend, Emory Lindquist, and his 1953, "Smoky Valley People, A History of Lindsborg, Kansas"
    • Their friend, Leon Lungstrom, and his 1990 "History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas"
  • Swedish Immigration Story, 1854
    • "The Story of the Old Spoon" by Ingrid Anderson Sohlberg & Daughter Lydia Sohlberg Deere, 1937
    • Who They Left Behind
    • From Sweden with Love Collections >
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Kosta Portraits, 1867 >
        • The Swedish Sohlberg Kosta Glass
        • The Swedish Sohlberg Letters
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Royal Gold Thread Embroidery Sampler (c1890s)
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Post Cards (c1890s)
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Magazines, (c1940s)
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Books, 1819/1886 to 1899
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Albums, late 19th early 20th centuries
      • The Swedish Deere Coins -- 1801-1929
    • Lydia Sohlberg Deere's 1927 "Lindsborg Swedish Club's" Handwork >
      • Lydia's Signatured Black Book of Her Handwritten Sewing Instructions >
        • Nina Sohlberg's Child's Sewing "Little Dots" PICTURE BOOK >
          • The Lindsborg Swedish Club's "Allers Monster-Tidnings" magazine, 1940
  • Artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere
    • Lydia's Lindsborg Photography, 1900-1925 >
      • The Hats
      • The Smoky River
      • The Smoky Hill Bluffs
      • Coronado Heights -- One Winter's Day
      • In and Around Lindsborg
      • Sohlberg House with Parents >
        • Our Sohlberg Home and Neighbor Alma Luise Olson
      • Sohlberg House with Emil 1916 to 1920 >
        • Lydia's Travels with Deere 1916 - 1930s >
          • Lydia's California Photographs for Painting
          • Lydia's Palm Springs Pictorial Magazine, 1938-1939
          • Lydia's California Pressed Wild Flowers, c1930
      • "LYDIA'S WORLD" Photography Exhibitions in Lindsborg, 2005 - 2011
    • Lydia's Art, 1919-1938 >
      • Lydia's Art: The Kansas Collection >
        • The Sketches
      • Lydia's Art: The Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico Collection >
        • The Sketches
      • Lydia's Art: The California Collection >
        • The Sketches
    • Lydia's Art Professor Sven Birger Sandzén, 1871-1954 >
      • Lydia's Assignments for Professor Sandzén >
        • Students of Sandzén 2019 Exhibition
        • Bethany Home ~ Celebrating Artist Birger Sandzén through His Students' Paintings
    • Lydia's Art Professor Birger Sandzén's "Art Exhibitions" ... 1893-1940 >
      • Lydia's Art Professor Sandzén's Exhibition at the Babcock Gallery in New York, 1922
    • Lydia's Sandzén's Body of Work Reviewed by N.Y.C, 1984 "American Impressionism," author William H. Gerdts
    • Lydia's and Sandzén's Swedish Artist Friend Charles Edward Hallberg, 1855-1940
    • Lydia's and Sandzén's Swedish Artist Friend Oscar Brousse Jacobson, 1882-1966
    • Lydia’s Sohlberg Family Connection to Sandzén, 1880-1894-1993
  • Scientist Emil O. Deere
    • Deere's & Lydia's Bethany -- Lydia's Photography, 1906-1925 >
      • Bethany College "Campus from Above"
      • Bethany College "The Gateway" 1917 and "Bethany Campus Association" 1912
      • Bethany College "College Street," today's "North First Street"
      • Bethany College "Campus Life"
      • "Bethany College's Earliest Buildings" >
        • Bethany College "​Ladies Dormitory" / "Lane Hart Hall" 1883 - 1899 - 1983
        • Bethany College "Old Main" 1887-1968 >
          • Lydia's and Emil's Old Main Apartments, 1920 to 1940
          • Deere's Bethany College Classes in Old Main
        • Bethany College "Messiah Auditorium" / "Ling Auditorium" / "Ling Gymnasium" 1895 - 1946
        • Bethany College "Swedish Pavilion" 1904
        • Bethany College "​Carnegie Library" / "Bethany Library" 1908 - 1980
        • Bethany College "​Bethany Academy" 1882 -- Swensson's Bethany's Beginnings
    • Deere's 1959 Interview on Rev. Dr. Carl A. Swensson (On YouTube) >
      • Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, 1857-1904 >
        • Swensson's "Bethany Lutheran Church" and the "Augustana Lutheran Synod"
        • Swensson's Bethany's Beginnings: "The Bethany Academy of 1882"
        • Swensson's Musicians' and Singers' "Messiah", 1882 on ... >
          • Thure Olof Jaderborg
        • Swensson's Swedish Artists of the 1890s
        • Swensson's "Bethany College Museum," 1882 - 1966
      • In Memorium**Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, 1904
    • Deere's Rev. Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, 1873-1943 >
      • In Memoriam**Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, 1943
      • Rev. Dr. Pihlblad on Bethany College, 1904 - 1941
    • Deere's Swensson's "Bethany College Museum" 1882 - 1966 >
      • Bethany College Museum Collections' New Location,1966 >
        • Articles on the Bethany College Museum Collections Move of 1966
    • Deere's Bethany College Field Trips -- Lydia's Photography, 1906-1925 >
      • Deere's Swensson's Bethany College Museum Collections >
        • Cliff Dwellers' Pottery Collection
        • Fossils Collection, "The Find"
        • Taxidermy Collection
    • Deere's Dr. Leon Lungstrom on the "Bethany College Museum"
    • Deere's Dr. Leon Lungstrom on "Three Pioneer Scientists of Swedish Descent"
    • Deere's Smithsonian Institution's Souvenir, 1904
    • Deere's 1940 Presidential Address to the Kansas Academy of Science
    • Deere's 1955 Letter to President Eisenhower re Tuttle Creek
    • Deere's Service, 1901-1966 >
      • Deere's Education & Degrees
  • "The Other Swedes"
    • Honoring them and their works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \\\\/ >
      • Mrs. Alma Christina Lind Swensson ~ Remembering her as Mrs. Rev. Dr. Swensson, the First Lady of Lindsborg
      • Photographer B.G. Gröndal ~ Remembering him for visually documenting Lindsborg and Bethany College in their earliest days
      • Miss Alma Luise Olson ~ Remembering her as "First Honored American Woman by Sweden" by Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg >
        • Remembering Miss Alma Luise Olson and her most extraordinary life at home and abroad by Ms. Karen A. Humphrey
      • Artist Birger Sandzén ~ Remembering him for "sharing his art with the world," starting "first" at Lindsborg's Bethany College >
        • Dr. & Dr. Mrs. Charles Greenough III ~ Remembering them for their gift of the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery
      • Artist Lester Raymer ~ Remembering him as the renown virtuoso artist and "behind the scenes" community supporter
      • Dr. Arvin W. Hahn ​​~ Remembering him for saving Bethany College from going under!​ >
        • Dr. Arvin W. Hahn (1923-2017) ~ Remembering him handing me my Bethany College Diploma on Sunday, May 26,1968
      • Dr. ​Elmer Copley ~ Remembering Bethany College's Oratorio Society Conductor who carried on "that" "Messiah" traditional excellence for 26 years, taking it to new levels >
        • Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the “Messiah” conductor for the Bethany College "Swedish King’s" performance, 1976 >
          • Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the "Messiah" conductor for the Bethany College "Centennial Celebration” performance, 1981
      • Dr. William Holwerda ( MD) ~ Remembering him at the founder of "Svensk Hyllningsfest"
      • Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg ~ Remembering her as the founder of the "Lindsborg Swedish Folk Dancers"
      • Mr. & Mrs. Hilding Jaderborg ~ Remembering them and their “Swedish Crafts Shop” – 65 years and 50 trips to Sweden
      • The Swedish Lindsborg Builders ~ Remembering them for the lovely homes they built
      • Dr. Greta Swenson and Mr. & Mrs. Mark Esping ~ Honoring them for founding Lindsborg's “first” "Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas." 1986 >
        • Recognizing their Folklife Institute's "Swedish-American Heritage Center," 1996
      • Ms. Rebecca Copley ~ Honoring her as Bethany College's “first” graduate to become an International Opera Singer
      • Mr. Bruce Karstadt ~ Honoring him as a Bethany College graduate for heading up a major national Swedish American institution
      • Mrs. Becky Larson-Anderson ~ Honoring her as Bethany College's “first” woman graduate to become mayor of "Little Sweden" USA
      • Dr. Mark Lucas ~ Messiah conductor bringing the Lindsborg “Oberammergau of the Plains" to a "new" world stage
    • The Smoky Valley Writers on "The Other Swedes" ​ ~ Their Swedish American Legacy Collection >
      • Mr. Bror Carlsson and Mr. Alf Brorson from Sweden ~ Chronicling Founder Pastor Olof Olsson's missionary journey to Lindsborg from Värmland, Sweden
      • Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson ~ An author of countless Swedish & English publications, newspapers, articles and books ...
      • Mrs. Margaret Dahlquist Eddy ~ Providing the only known history on Lindsborg and Bethany College's earliest Swedish photographer, B.G. Gröndal
      • Rev. Dr. Alfred Bergin ​~ Compiling foundational Swedish Smoky Valley Augustana Lutheran settlements' histories and more
      • Dr. Emory Lindquist ~ Chronicling Swedish Augustana Lutheran Lindsborg and Bethany College
      • Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg [Selma Lind] ​ ~ Chronicling the Lindsborg of her day, its early histories, and more
      • Dr. Leon Lungstrom ~ Chronicling college professors and providing the "only known written" account on the Bethany College Museum
      • Ms. Karen A. Humphrey ~ Chronicling highlights of Swedish Augustana Lutheran Lindsborg and Bethany College society and culture in the earliest years
      • Mr. A. John Pearson & Mr. Kenneth Sjogren ~ Chronicling the Bethany College Presidents
      • Mr. Bill Carlson ~ Chronicling Lindsborg's earliest and later histories with a personal connection
      • Mr. Chris Abercrombie ~ Remembering him as the "historian," the SVHA president and his body of work
      • Mr. Thomas N. Holmquist ~ Chronicling key Swedish Augustana Lutheran Smoky Valley settlements other than Lindsborg
      • Rev. Eugene K. Nelson and the Bethany Home Writers ~ Chronicling the "only known written" story on the beginnings of Bethany Home
      • Smoky Valley Historical Association Members ~ Researchers, compilers and writers of " Where Did They Live? "
    • ​Smoky Valley History Research Writers Website Designers ~ Their Swedish American Legacy Websites
    • Bethany College Swedish Knights and Honored Ladies ~ Their Royal Swedish Legacy Listings
    • His Majesty, Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden ~ Honoring him in Lindsborg and at Bethany College, 1976 >
      • Mr. Bill Carlson's Lindsborg's Bethany Home & the Swedish King's Visit
  • Contacts
    • For Lindsborg, 1869, CONTACT Today >
      • 2020 Christmas in Lindsborg ~ 'Welcome to Annandag Jul Worship from Sunnemo & Lindsborg"
      • 2020 Christmas in LIndsborg ~ the Ljuskröna and Apple Tree Exhibit" online presentation
    • ​For Bethany College, 1881, CONTACT Today
    • Closing Remarks & Traveling through SWEDES >
      • The Swedish American Legacy Photographs >
        • ​Lydia's Lindsborg's Photography​, ​1900 - 1925
        • Lydia's Bethany's Photography, ​1906 - 1925
Home
<>  Their Legacy "Messiah" Performances  <>
In this particular era, the Lindsborg Messiah at Bethany was noted as "no other like it in the country!“ -  Lindquist's Bethany in Kansas
"There is only one Lindsborg and I wish to have a part in this!" -- Austrian Empire born opera singer Ernestine Schumann-Heink
"Messiah" Performers, Venues & Audiences, Press and Broadcasts
--19th & 20th centuries--
Messiah Auditorium
1895 - 1946

On the Bethany College Campus
Messiah Auditorium was also referred to as Ling Auditorium or Ling Gymnasium which had a seating capacity of 4,000.

Presser Hall on the Bethany College Campus
Prince Wilhelm of Sweden was present for the groundbreaking ceremony for Presser Hall in 1927,
which would have a seating capacity in its auditorium of approximately 1,800. 
In 2008, the seating capacity of Presser Hall numbered 1,752, per internet source. 

*   *   *
World Renown National & International Performers at Lindsborg's Bethany College
"in their day"
~ a sampling ~

Source:  Emory Lindquist's 1975 Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college


Italian Eloise Vitti in 1899 from Milan first performed in the Messiah at Bethany College.  This marked the beginning of international professional opera singers and instrumentalist performing at Bethany's Messiah Auditorium in the early years and later at the College's Presser Hall.

Names of these performers are organized according to their birth year with a link to their Wikipedia information:


Lillian Nordica  (December 12, 1857 – May 10, 1914)
American born opera singer, on the major stage in Europe and the US, one of the foremost dramatic sopranos of the late 19th century and early 20th century


Marcella Sembrich (February 15, 1858 – January 11, 1935)
the stage name of Prakseda Marcelina Kocha
ńska, a Polish coloratura, having an important international singing career, chiefly at the New York Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London

Eugène Ysaÿe (July 16, 1858 – May 12, 1931)
Belgian violinist, "The King of the Violin,"composer and conductor


Ernestine Schumann-Heink (June 15, 1861 – November 17, 1936)
a German Bohemian American, operatic contralto

Stated with one of her visits,  “There is only one Lindsborg and I wish to have a part in this."

Olive Fremstad (Anna Olivia Rundquist)  (March 14, 1871 - April 21, 1951)
Swedish American opera diva in both ranges of mezzo-soprano and soprano


Pau Casals i Defilló  (December 29, 1876 – October 22, 1973)
a Spanish, cellist and conductor


Julia Claussen (June 11, 1879 – May 1, 1941)
a Swedish mezzo-soprano made her New York City Metropolitan Opera debut in 1917


Amelita Galli-Curci (November 18, 1882 – November 26, 1963)
an Italian coloratura soprano, one of the most popular operatic singers of the early 20th century


Efrem Zimbalist, Sr. (April 21 [O.S. April 9] 1889 or 1890 – February 22, 1985)
Russian Jew, a renown American concert violinist, composer, teacher, conductor


Joseph Szigeti (September 5, 1892 – February 19, 1973)
Hungarian violinist performed regularly around the world


Maria Augusta von Trapp  (January 26,1905 – March 28 1987)
the mother of the Von Trapp Family which were all singers.  Their story became the Broadway musical The Sound of Music (1959) and then the 1965 film


Blanch Thebom (September 19, 1915 – March 23, 2010)
an American operatic mezzo-soprano, voice teacher, opera director; part of the first wave of American opera singers in highly successful international careers


Birgit Nilsson (May 17, 1918 – December 25, 2005)
a celebrated Swedish dramatic soprano


Issac Stern  (July 21,1920 – September 22, 2001)
Jewish, born in Russian, a renown American violinist and conductor



Messiah Performance Venues & Audiences
"in their day"
~ a sampling ~

Source: A. John Pearson Bethany College Publications Editor,  former Bethany College archivist, Lindsborg News Record:  "Renditions of Handel’s Messiah outside Lindsborg"
May 13, 1918  -- Conductor Hagbard Brase /\
​
     Camp Funston (west of Junction City, KS),  4,000 seats in the All Kansas Building for soldiers of the 89th Division. Bethany Oratorio Chorus traveled by Union Pacific Railroad filling 11 coaches
Camp Funston
​Fort Riley, Kansas

Source:  Emory Lindquist's 1975 Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college, pages 167-169
 "World War I was a grim reality, but "Messiah" concerts on May 13, 1918, provided an emotional uplift for soldiers of the 89th Division and others who both heard and performed that day at Camp Funston."
​
PHOTO and TEXT from Lindquist's book, page 160
Picture
*   *   *
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

February 8-9, 1922  -- Conductor Hagbard Brase /\
    Oklahoma City Coliseum to an audience of 15,000
The program referred to this as  “the greatest Musical Event in the History of Oklahoma.”
Sponsored by Oklahoma State Teachers Association
*   *   *
Kansas City, Missouri
Source:  Emory Lindquist's 1975 Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college, pages 167-169
"The Messiah was presented by the Bethany Oratorio Society in Kansas City, Missouri, as shown here for December 13 and 14, 1930."
​PHOTO and TEXT from Lindquist's book, page 161
Picture

​November 18-19, 1922  -- Conductor Hagbard Brase /\
   Kansas City, Missouri for the opening of the new American Royal Building for the American Royal Stock
Welcomed by the governors of Kansas and Missouri
14 Pullmans transported the Bethany Oratorio chorus of 600 and the orchestra of 70 there

December 14-15, 1929  -- Conductor Hagbard Brase 
/\
   Kansas City,
Missouri

Two concerts in Convention Hall sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce Attractions Committee, with profits going to Presser Hall, the new home of the “Messiah Chorus."
  Saturday night’s attendance was 4,747, Sunday, 9,036, the largest crowd ever to hear the Bethany Oratorio Society
 
December 13-14, 1930  -- Conductor Hagbard Brase 
/\
   Kansas City Missouri more than 9,000 attend, with $5,000 received going to the Presser Hall Fund,
Sponsored by the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce
 
November Sunday, 1945  -- Conductor Hagbard Brase 
/\
   Kansas City Missouri 
The Bethany Oratorio Society joined the Kansas City Philharmonic Orchestra in the Municipal Auditorium observing the Salvation Army’s 80th anniversary with an audience of 12,000.        
   The program also included General Evangeline Booth, daughter of Army’s founder, General Geroge C. Marshall.   A message from President Harry Truman was read, parts of program were broadcasted by WDAF radio.

   A special 10 coach train took the chorus to Kansas City on Sunday morning while en route 6 pastors conducted church services
---------------
/\  " Upon Brase's retirement in 1946 as conductor, a well-known music critic observed that
'one of the last of the 
finest type of European music masters in America
had raised his baton for the last time.' "

Source:  Dr. Emory Lindquist's 1984, Hagbard Brase: Beloved Music Master, page 164
---------------
                                              Kansas City, Missouri
                                                          Source:  Emory Lindquist's 1975 Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college, pages 167-169
         "In 1945 the Oratorio Society returned to Kansas City to perform at a Salvation Army anniversary program."
​
PHOTO and TEXT from Lindquist's book, page 161:
Picture
- 
*   *   *
Special Performances


Lindsborg, Kansas

-  Dr. Elmer Copley, Conductor  -


April 17, 1976
 for
His Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden

April 19, 1981
for
Bethany College Centennial Celebration


Kansas City, Missouri

April 17, 1988
Sponsored by the Metropolitan Lutheran Ministry of Kansas City, a consortium unit of Lutheran Social Service
for the Oratorio Society of 400-voice chorus and 65-member orchestra to perform
at the 12,000 seat capacity Municipal Auditorium


*   *   *
Special Performance

New York, New York
​

-  Dr. Joel Panciera, Conductor  -
 April 7, 1997
Carnegie Hall
(2,800 seat capacity)
​

This performance would be a "first" yet if would be the "last" of such important performances of the 20th Century.
​-----------------------------

Dr. Panciera, Messiah Chorus and Orchestra at Bethany College Presser Hall, Holy Easter Week, 1996
Source: Bethany Magazine, Spring 1997
Picture
​​-  photographs of today's Carnegie Hall from Bing.org, 2020 -
Picture
salina_journal_-__sunday_april_13_1997.pdf
Download File
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
Lindsborg, Kansas

21st Century
-- ​First Live-Streaming Messiah Performance --
October 18, 2020
This is a new chapter for future "Messiah" performances.

Conducted by
Dr. Mark Lucas

With severe modifications due to the Covid-19 pandemic, 
Dr. Lucas and members of the Bethany College Oratorio Society performed marvelously!


​​~ The Lindsborg Bethany College Oratorio Society has yet to miss a year of performing the 
Messiah ~

~ the tradition of which began in 1882 ~

​​*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

The Press
"in their day"
~ a sampling ~

Source:  Emory Lindquist's 1975 Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college, pages 167-169

Ladies Home Journal, 1900      (the "first time" the Messiah Festival received national news media attention)
The April 1900 issue, page 15, by Charles M. Harger
- from Lindquist's book, page 167
Because of its surroundings, and uplifting by its earnest methods and teaching, the Easter performance of “The Messiah” by the Swedish colony at Lindsborg, in Central Kansas, is each spring one of the interesting events of the West.  A musical festival that out on the comparatively sparsely settled prairies can bring together ten thousand people during Holy Week, many of them coming two hundred miles, must be excellent indeed.  The growth of the audiences in this instance, year after year, indicates a thorough appreciation of a worthier rendering of Handel’s great oratorio.
 
The Swedes are a singing people, and the religious sentiment is strong in their hearts.  The one cherished day for this colony of perhaps three thousand (3,000) families is Easter, and the chief glory thereof is “The Messiah.”  The Lindsborg settlement dates back to 1869, when the Rev. Olof Olson led from Sweden the first comers and founded the colony on the unbroken prairies.  The settlers toiled, and prospered, and saved.  They were homesick for the scenes of childhood, but learned to love their new home.  Amid the struggle against drought and storm they sang their folksongs of cheer.
 
… The concert engages the very best of the talent of the college, but it is not the event for which the auditors long.
 
That comes in the evening.  The crisp, frosty air outside and the early darkness make the octagonal auditorium ablaze with the light, most alluring, and its four thousand seats are quickly filled.  Over the gathering broods a tenderness appropriate to the memories of the occasion, its influence being manifest in hushed tones, as if this were indeed a service of the heart.  Easter is not here, but its forerunner has shed abroad a spirit of consecration.
 
Before the audience is the chorus—tier on tier of men and maidens, nearly four hundred of them.  Bunting and banners transform the stern outlines of the great stage.  The men are in black; the maids in pink and white, the costumes making vivid contrast.  Whole sections are in a flutter of light; others are somber and still.  The central figure of all, occupying the place of honor, is the powerful  organ, and supporting it the orchestra of forty (40) pieces.  When the time arrives for the opening Doctor Swensson steps forward and in a few words tells the story of the first Easter—the prelude of the music that is to come.
 
A tremor passes over the ranks of the singers; they are rising to their feet.  The orchestra breaks the stillness.


Chicago Tribune , 1913
- from Lindquist's book, page 167
In 1913 the music critic 
described the Lindsborg “Messiah” tradition in an article that was often quoted:

“It is not surprising, therefore, that this chorus attains a tone of surprising unity, and that in all matters of rhythmical and intervallic precision it is unsurpassed.  The quality of the tone is beautiful.  In all massive efforts it is of overwhelming sonority.  Sopranos are remarkable for the purity, the flexibility, and smoothness of the tone produced and the confident ease with which they approach trying altitudes of pitch.  The contraltos share the delicious sympathy of tone quality common to most American choruses.  Tenors achieve brightness and aggressiveness, and the basses are splendidly sonorous...

The Messiah has been sung by many persons the world over, but it is doubtful if the choruses were ever better sung than when these trained voices, rehearsed for a year, burst forth in divine harmony.  They sing it with the scriptural works in their hearts.  It is a praise anthem to the God who had prospered them and kept them together.”



New York Times, 1939
- from Lindquist's book, page 168

Howard W. Turtle, in 1939 wrote: “When Brase begins his stern beat for one of the great choruses of the Messiah, he draws from the chorus a body of tone that is truly magnificent in its splendor.  It is an expression in song from voices schooled to near perfection through years of training.  But it is more than that.  In Lindsborg, the Messiah is religion—as much a part of the Swedish peoples worship as the church services which they attend every Sunday.  It is an outpouring of the story they believe—the voice of John the Baptist crying in the wilderness, the birth of Jesus, His ministry, His crucifixion, and the triumphant resurrection with its resounding ‘Hallelujah.’”

Reader’s Digest , 1944
- from Lindquist's book, page 168
in a feature article, “Oberammergau of the Plains,” in April, 1944, pointed out that the “Messiah” festival is called by critics ”the finest of its kind in the world.”

Washington Star, April 5, 1953
- from Lindquist's book, page 168

A musical saga, that has no equal in this or any other country, reaches its annual climax Easter Sunday in the performance of Handel’s Messiah.  In the small Midwestern town of Lindsborg, Kansas, Handel’s great oratorio will be given today for the 197th time.  For nearly three-quarters of a century it has been the inspiration of the daily life of the inhabitants.  The story is one of the most thrilling in American history and in the annals of music.  For the performance of the Messiah not only testifies to the cultural ideals of this community, but records the preservation until the present, of qualities of mind and spirit that inflamed the pioneers whose contribution to the greatness of this country was directed by God.
 

Salina Journal, Salina, Kansas, 1997
"Messiah Chorus WOWS New York"
 April 13, 1997
 Read PDF File for story
salina_journal_-__sunday_april_13_1997.pdf
File Size: 1104 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

*   *   *
The Radio Broadcasts
"in their day"
~ a sampling ~

 Sources:   A.John Pearson Bethany College Publications Editor and Messiah Bethany College Oratorio conductor professor Dr. Elmer Copley writings
1939:  National Broadcasting Company (NBC) broadcast Messiah performance selections throughout the nations
1945:  The Office of War Information broadcast the Messiah to troops overseas
1949:  Voice of America broadcast the Messiah abroad
  • Through the years National Radio continued these broadcasts as well as NBC periodically.
  • Today, at times, the Messiah have been shown on television.  It is always broadcast by radio.

*   *   *
On PBS Television Several Times
​

​- Presser Hall -
since March 29, 1929 for the
Messiah Performances
- as of 2008, the Presser Hall Auditorium has a seating capacity of 1,752 -
Picture
Source: In Memoriam**Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, 1943
- Prince Wilhelm of Sweden and President Ernst Pihlblad at groundbreaking ceremony for Presser Hall in 1927 -
Picture
Source: In Memoriam**Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, 1943
For "Messiah" Auditorium go HERE.

*     *     * 
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~

reconnecting past to present
*     *     * 

All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org.  All rights reserved.
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.