Carroll University choral director, Dr, Kristina Boerger, enchants raccoon editor with simple, heart-felt gestures
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Because of our seats in the balcony of the Carroll auditorium at last Sunday's Christmas at Carroll concert, and the way the choral numbers were staged in the beginning of the program, with the choir behind us in that balcony setting, we were in for a magical snake-charming. Our pleasure was to be watching Dr. Boerger direct her choir.
She stood in an aisle ahead of us to lead and summon the affects from her students, and not only did the audience filling the hall hear the lovely arrangement of Ron Nelson's Homage to Leonin, an adaptation of a Gregorian chant; we, in our fortuitous seats, got to watch how Dr. Boerger played her choir like the musical instrument it was.
Ordinarily, we as listeners in the audience would have been seated behind the director and would have not seen many of her gestured communications to her singers. These youths were mesmerized by their professor. They seemed completely under her control. She had a very sharp and thin, weightless baton, the zenith of which she would tap with her finger to signal - something, we knew not what. If we'd known what to do, we'd have done her bidding.
Her hands were as at a keyboard, and each motion and gesture seemed to have a special meaning. She had a way of sweeping her hand around her hair. That too apparently meant something. Her face communicated, by her subtle expressions, many things! At the end she brought her hands together after signaling the remaining beats of the choir's sustain with four fingers, then three, then two, then one, and finally with raised eyebrows bowed her thanks to the choir for a creation well sung.
This hypnotism was a blessed thing to witness, as though we were in her choir, or snakes in her bailiwick, with her luted presence in front of us. In reality, it was as if we were not there at all, for her full concentration was upon her budding masters-to-be. At the end of the Homage she reached down to the floor next to her music stand and pulled the cap from her baton tube, returned the wand to its security, softly folded the stand, and with the choir filed out in the semi-darkness. The applause was traditionally held but the snake was in the basket.
