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I had the honor of interviewing Dr. Katherine Rohwer, the Director of Choral Activities, to ask her a few questions about the Choir Concert on Oct. 19th, 2025. The Arkansas Tech University Choirs sung pieces in Latvian, Latin, English, Native American and even an African Sahel language. The theme of the Concert was “The Earth Still Sings.”
Q: So, you chose “The Earth Still Sings” to be the theme of this concert. Could you explain the theme in more detail?
A: “Sure. So, as I was just kind of thinking this summer about the things that were striking me and in my heart, and I was thinking about how our earth, both the people on it and the planet itself, have a lot of challenges, especially right now. And how could I craft a program that speaks to acknowledging the challenges and get us to a place of hope, of connection, and infuse that into this concert for both our singers, and of course, our audience.”
Q: And these pieces, we have all different backgrounds and cultures. Could you go more into your thinking process as to why these specific cultures? We have Latvian, Native American, and an African Language. Could you go more into depth?
A: “Yeah, sure. So, one of the pieces that- there were two pieces, actually, that struck me. One is like, it’s called “Kasar Mei La Gaji.” It’s by a Venezuelan composer. And it was written in the late 1980s. And it is about the challenges the environment faces. We think about the 1980s and what we were talking about as a society. That’s the time in which this piece was written. And while the composer is Venezuelan, the text is actually a dialect out of Africa, so it’s not Spanish. “Kasar Mei La Gaji” is an African language, and it means that “The Earth is Tired”. So, I chose that piece, and that was going to be a centerpiece for us. It’s a piece that is important in the choral canon. It’s one that I have sung and it’s one that I wanted to expose our students to. Another piece that I encountered was called “Gimikwenden Ina”, and it is written by a First Nations individual from Canada, someone who has that heritage. Corey Payette, and he wrote the piece about, well, actually, it’s from a musical, and the musical tells a story of a couple of young people who were taken from their families and put into a residential school. And it’s about them reclaiming their heritage. And when I encountered both of those pieces this summer, I thought, ‘I think these have a place on our concert program.’ We have some people in our choir who are of Native American heritage, and I like to try to make sure that members of our choir, that their backgrounds are highlighted in the music that we choose. So, from both of those two pieces, knowing that I wanted to use them, I thought, how can I craft a program that kind of takes us from maybe light, a lighter spirit into that, this acknowledgement of pain, or the earth being tired or the challenges we face, and then come out of that and return to light, return to hope to say, we still sing. We are still together. Despite these challenges we face. So, I included a Latin motet by Francis Pulang called “Exultate Deo”. There’s a piece called “Can we Sing the Darkness to Light” by Kyle Person. There is a piece written for the tenor/bass choir called “Earth Mother” that was written about some of the challenges that we see in the climate these days. There’s an American folk tune called “Shenandoah” that talks about the beauty of the Shenandoah River Valley. So, all of those came together and I could weave them together for us to acknowledge and also find hope
Q: If there is one song to captivate what this whole concert means, which of the songs would it be?
A: That is a really good question, and they all work together to tell the story. I think maybe both “Gimikwenden Ina”, which comes from a culture of people who have a deep connection to the Earth and have a deep connection of caring for each other. Another piece, I think, in terms of getting to the light would be “His Eyes on the Sparrow” arranged by Zanaida Robles that will close the set for the Choral Artists.
