Choral music has long been central to Luther College’s identity.

When Luther College opened in 1926, teacher Elsa Mees established its “Conservatory of Music,” offering non-credit private lessons and serving as a hub for the glee club, chorus and orchestra.  Monthly recitals were organized, along with regular musical contributions to daily chapel services.  Miss Mees also led the Boys’ Glee Club on annual tours across Saskatchewan.

In March 1927, Luther’s music faculty performed live on the Canadian National Railway radio network, which later became the CBC.  That same spring, the Boys’ Glee Club performed its own live radio broadcast, followed by a performance from the Luther Orchestra on another local station.  When Christ Lutheran Church opened next door in 1930, many Luther students joined its choir.

Radio continued to play a role in campus life, including occasional live broadcasts of chapel services.  The Luther College Choir was created in 1936 to provide music for these broadcasts, first under the direction of Professor Carl Behrens and then Paul Liefeld a year later.

When the new gym was opened in 1951, the Christmas Candlelight service was able to take its current form, moving from the chapel to accommodate its growing audience. Mrs. Schneider shaped the service over many years, introducing its traditional candlelit setting, processional entrance, and quiet, reflective tone. Pastor Tiefenbach read scripture between musical pieces, and in later years, music director Carl Cherland incorporated the structured lessons-and-carols format.

Morris Anderson (past President of Luther) wrote:

One of my aims as president was to establish a full-fledged choral program.  Among other reasons, a choral program feeds into instrumental programs and musicals – there are all sorts of spin-offs if you can get a good choral program going. And the tradition in our Lutheran Church and Lutheran College is the choral.  It is the basis for strength elsewhere in the music program.

When Carl Cherland was hired in the mid-1970s, he added the handbell choir, followed by a Junior Choir and a Girls’ Chorus (directed by Gail Fry) in the 1980s.

For more information about Luther’s choral history, see Richard Hordern’s The Luther College Story: 1913-2013: A Century of Faithfulness in Education.