FāVS News News and Commentary about Religion and Ethics in Eastern Washington and North Idaho
The Whitworth Choir will tour Norway for two weeks, beginning May 20. The students will perform at Oslo Cathedral, Roros Church, Trondheim’s Our Lady’s Church, Egersund Church and the Stavanger Cathedral, which is the oldest cathedral in Norway, dating back to the 12th century.
Marc A. Hafso, director of the Whitworth Choir, joined the Whitworth faculty in 2003. He is a grandson of Norwegian immigrants who looks forward to introducing students to his ancestral home. He is especially excited to perform in Egersund Church, the home congregation for the Hafsø clan, according to a press release.
The 45-voice Whitworth Choir is regarded as one of the premier choirs in the Pacific Northwest and has a long history of excellence, according to a press release. To foster and strengthen this heritage of excellence, Whitworth University plans to remodel and create an addition to the existing music building as the next major construction project on campus. This plan will triple the current square footage and include a concert hall, a larger recital hall, and new separate rehearsal spaces for choir and instrumental groups.
The choir kicked off its tour over the weekend with a “Bon Voyage” Concert at the Martin Woldson Theater in the Fox.
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of SpokaneFāVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.
