Spotlight interview: In ‘Celebrating Our Stories,’ members of Soli Deo Gloria reconnect vocally with their ancestral roots

April 18, 2024

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By Donald Munro

For its annual spring concert, Soli Deo Gloria music director Julie Carter wanted to do something a little different. She asked her singers where their ancestors had come from. The result was 18 countries and two Native American tribes representing 10 different languages. And thus, a distinctive theme was born for the ensemble, which is considered Fresno’s preeminent women’s chorale. Carter selected music from each country for the program, which will be performed 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 19, at University Presbyterian Church. (There will be a pre-concert talk at 7 p.m.)

I got the chance to interview Krysta Nielsen, one of the singers, to ask about the concert and her own family story.

Q: Julie Carter queried the members of Soli Deo Gloria and discovered that the singers’ families originally came to this country from 18 countries. How did you feel when you learned about this theme?

A: I was really excited about the theme, because genealogy and family history is a really important part of my family and church culture. Our ancestors have kept a lot of records, photos, and journals, and I find all of that so intriguing. In researching my history for this concert, I learned that sewing skills were passed down from many generations to my mom and then to me. Knowing where you came from gives such a grounding sense of belonging. The other singers all seem equally excited about the theme and eagerly contributed old ancestral photos to use in our promotional video.

Q: Your forebears came from Scotland. So did mine! (I’ve even visited the Munro Castle, which is near Inverness.) How far back do you trace your family?

A: The story I shared with the choir was the story of my great great grandmother, Jeanie Pryde, and I can trace the Pryde line (pictured at top) back to 1620 Scotland.

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Q: I understand that something of a wild coincidence occurred when you all compared notes about your ancestral origins.

A: Each rehearsal, a couple of singers would share their ancestral stories. The story I told was of how my ancestors in Scotland joined a new Christian church in the late 1890s and, as a result, were shunned by their friends and some of their family. They heard of a newly formed colony in unsettled northern Mexico where they set out to make a new life and married, raised families, and made a living there in Mexico until the revolution forced them to flee to the states. After rehearsal that day, Allison Larsen came up and said hey, my ancestors lived in a Mexican colony too. Was it called Colonia Dublan? I was floored. That was exactly where my ancestors lived. Allison’s family joined the same church while living in Switzerland and Denmark and sailed across the world to the same little part of Chihuahua, Mexico. We compared notes and learned that our families lived in the same close-knit community for 10 years! There’s no way they didn’t know each other!

Krysta Nielsen and Allison Larsen

Q: What Scottish song did Julie select? How do you feel when you sing it?

A: We have two Scottish selections, “Loch Lomond” (solo by Heidi Orender) and our super secret, off-program, encore “Auld Lang Syne,” which I’m honored to have been selected for a special duet with Leslie Purvis. The language in these songs is so close to English, yet so quirky and clearly not quite English. It makes me think of how my great-great grandma must have sounded when she stepped off the train in El Paso, Texas, where she was picked up by the English-American man she would later marry and traveled with by wagon down to Mexico. She said her children grew up speaking the strangest combination of Scottish, English, and Spanish. I have a great sense of peace come over me when I sing that “Auld Lang Syne” duet.

Q: Considering the songs in the concert, what is the hardest language for you to sing?

A: I would have voted for Swedish, but Allison’s daughter, who served a Swedish speaking church mission, came to our rescue and recorded all of the words to the song “I denna ljuva sommartid (In this sweet summertime)” which helped so much! That song is one of the most beautiful in the concert. It has a gorgeous solo that will be sung by Audriana Vargas, and tells a story of how wonderful summertime is in that part of the world. They clearly don’t spend most of it over 100 degrees like we do here! I can’t picture anyone in Fresno writing a song to glorify summer.

Q: Tell us about “The Harbor and the Sea.” It sounds like a touching piece.

A: I’ve been in communication with the composer, Ellen Gilson Voth, and she had some wonderful insight to offer! She was inspired by the story of a Syrian refugee as told in the book “A Hope More Powerful than the Sea” by Melissa Flemming. Her colleague, Elizabeth Sunshine, partnered with her on the text to help broaden the meaning of the piece to not only tell the story of the refugee, but also speak a broad, life-affirming message: “Whatever waves buffet us in the course of our lives, we are not alone when we reach out and welcome others who face turbulent journeys in their search for safety and acceptance.” Who hasn’t experienced the need of a soft place to land at some point in their life? Or had the experience of being that safe harbor for someone else in need? On this piece, we will be combining with Clovis High School’s auditioned girls choir, Luminosa, directed by Tami Spurgeon. It also features an oboe solo, which will be performed by Rachel Aldrich.

Rachel Aldrich and Walter Saul

Q: How long have you been with Soli Deo Gloria?

A: I joined SDG in 2016. My voice teacher had just auditioned and joined and then told me that someone had dropped out of SDG after a couple of rehearsals, and they were in desperate need of a 2nd soprano. I didn’t have much choral experience at the time, but our conductor, Dr. Julie Carter, must have seen some decent potential in me and let me join. The next week, my voice teacher dropped out and I took her place in 1st Soprano. I’m so glad Julie gave me that chance. I may have struggled in those early rehearsals with the difficulty level, but I quickly got up to speed. Six years later, I’m pretty on-point and I don’t think Julie’s ever come to regret her decision.

Q: You sing first soprano. What is the highest note you’ve had to sing in SDG?

A: In our choir, if you say jump we say how high? The sky’s pretty much the limit with our Soprano 1 section. We think the highest note in a piece was a D two octaves above middle C, but we’re capable of several steps higher than that, even.

Q: I’ve always wondered what it’s like for a singer to go so high. I love how those notes seem to just float above everything. What is it like for you?

A: Sometimes a scene comes to mind from the movie “Shrek,” where Princess Fiona is singing with a bird in the forest and as the notes ascend, the bird strains until its head explodes. Ha ha: Except we’re Princess Fiona, of course, and everyone who is mind-blown at our high notes is the bird. (Although sometimes we feel like the bird.)

Q: A special song on the program is “The Great Dust Bowl,” arranged by SDG’s accompanist, Walter Saul. Tell us about it.

A: While selecting music for “Celebrating our Stories,” Julie came up empty handed in her search for a Dust Bowl-themed song suitable for a women’s choir. Thankfully, we have a renowned composer in our very midst. Walter came to our rescue and created a stunning and highly dramatic arrangement of “The Great Dust Storm” by Woody Guthrie in SSAA format just for us. I was so happy to hear that Walter came through with a song for us, because I have some Dust Bowl heritage as do several members of the choir. Walter shared, “The new piece opens with a vocal depiction of a dust storm and then the human aftermath. The last chorale-like strains solemnly intone the final emigration to other places, including California.” It ends with the words “We loaded our jalopies and piled our families in, we rattled down that highway to never come back again.” One of our altos, Zeno Jonas, had lots of great Dust Bowl era family photos to share with us, one of which is going to be used as the photo to depict “loading the jalopies” in the slideshow that will be shown on the projectors during the song.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to say about the concert or SDG?

A: This concert was tailored to represent each Soli Deo Gloria singer and tell the stories of their heritage. While the concert is deeply personal for us, there is truly a song to tell EVERYONE’S ancestral story. From Old Mexico to Germany, Italy to Ireland, we’ve got you covered. For those countries we weren’t able to fit into the program, we have “Beneath These Alien Stars,” which tells the strangeness of finding yourself under a new sky in foreign land; and “The New Colossus,” about Lady Liberty with her beacon of hope and welcome to the homeless. Everyone in attendance Friday evening will experience that soul-stirring feeling we feel.