“Who We Are Project”

Artistic Director Dr. Wilbert O. Watkins

Assistant Director Philip Kendall

Carol Rechtoris

Dennis Lauritsen

Beth Fioritto

Scott Enloe

And check out the Living Lutheran interview with LCC member, Emily Landon

In this next installment, we are talking with Scott Enloe, the current president of Lux Cantorum Chicago, about music and spirituality, his involvement with the choir, and his experience so far as the president of the board of LCC.

Scott is a retired history and music teacher and administrator at Thornwood High School who started singing with LCC in 2019. Scott also sings with the Northwest Indiana Symphony Chorus.

What do you love about LCC?
There are a lot of things I like about LCC. I like the people. The members are friendly and warm. I like the challenge of the music that Wilbert selects, and I like sharing this music with the people who attend the concerts. The music is challenging, but an attainable challenge. It causes choir members to grow in their skills and experience, but it is not so challenging that you get frustrated. Wilbert is a fantastic conductor!

How do you see the role of music in spirituality and faith?
I see music as the support and encouragement, and an impetus in one’s faith. Music in all of its harmonies, melodies, motifs, and text—when it has text—allows a person to take the opportunity to reflect upon their faith experience and, based on that reflection, to move forward.

What is your experience with music in your faith life?
Music causes me to enjoy both the emotions of one’s faith, and the intelligence of one’s faith. Faith experiences can’t be legitimate without both. The opportunity to experience this music in performance powerfully informs my faith.

How does LCC’s mission speak to our day? What does LCC have to say to the world?
Given the context we are in right now—just coming out of a pandemic—the pandemic had to have been a lonely, frustrating, and scary experience for many. Now, we seem to be facing the possibility of entering another very big health challenge. LCC performs music that can comfort, encourage, and inspire. A lot of what we sing places an emphasis upon loving our fellow human beings. That is important to do right now because if we are to make our society a more loving and inclusive one, we can do that through various ways of showing love through music.

As Board President, what’s next for LCC?
Hopefully, we can take this message of encouragement and inspiration through excellent music to larger audiences and more people in different ways. We have been dabbling with livestreaming in the last two concerts, and I would like to expand that effort and to make it more effective.

Secondly, I would also like to see us increase the size of our audience and our choir. We are a group of about twenty-four singers, and we could probably go up to a choir of 28 or 30.

I would hope that as we expand our membership and expand our audience, we might find more support monetarily in order to do all that we are trying to do. Doing these things and being more effective at them gives us the opportunity to tap into a larger audience and more support and that will give us an opportunity to find appropriate grants to help fund our work.

Beth Fioritto sings Alto II with Lux Cantorum Chicago. She has been singing with the choir since 2015. Beth works as a 5th grade teacher for Chicago Public Schools at Saucedo School in Little Village. We recently sat down to talk with Beth about LCC and the strong sense of community amongst the singers.

What do you love about Lux Cantorum Chicago?
I really love singing with people. It nurtures a part of who I am. I love the community and the experience of singing together. With Lux Cantorum, we have a wonderful community of people I get to see every week. It’s a good feeling. The weekly choir practice is a place where I can pause in my week, and I can go and just be present and make music with all these wonderful people. It means a lot to me. I am glad I have that.

There is something for me that’s very transformative about the experience of singing. I believe that music itself is sacred. Music is my spiritual life in a lot of ways, and it is more than the sum of its parts, especially when you are making music with other people. It is one of the few things that can bridge differences, bring people together, and help us be our best selves as a reflection of who we want to be. I just think that’s beautiful.

One of the things I really like about our weekly practices is how they end. We circle the room and sing “Spirit of the Lord” while looking at each other. It’s really a connecting experience.

The quarantine has been challenging. At the beginning, I was overwhelmed with work. We were reinventing teaching. I took a break from the choir but rejoined in January. To be honest, at first, I was kind of depressed at the notion of virtual choir. It’s not going to feel good. But that sense of community is still there. I was worried that it wouldn’t be, but it is. Also, I feel like I’m part of a larger, global virtual choir phenomenon along with of all these choirs that have to do the same thing.

I really think that we needed music this year more than ever, and it is important to make music together. It has been incredibly special to make music this year with LCC.

We continue this series with a conversation with Dennis Lauritsen, who has served as pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Lutheran Church—where LCC regularly performs—since December 2000. Raised on a farm in Monona County, Iowa, Dennis now lives in Riverside, Illinois where he and his wife Jane raised their three children. Besides singing with LCC, he enjoys running, cycling, and reading good books.

What do you love about LCC?
LCC became another home along the way for one of my deepest loves in life. I love the mystical movement of wind (breath or spirit) in song flowing through voices drawn together from many places and experiences. And when we are swept up together as one voice in this transcendent experience, it seems that we may be more closely approaching that which we are intended to be: bearers of peace, unity, gentleness, beauty, truth, compassion, love and praise for the Great Mystery which is beyond comprehension.

What about its mission speaks most powerfully to you?
We in LCC have chosen to call this the “transformative” nature of sacred choral music. There is a sense for the divine presence among us, transforming us as we sing. That word “transformative” speaks clearly and powerfully to me as in the mission statement of the choir, “…the transformative power of sacred choral music.” Our world, and especially our nation at this moment in its history, seems so desperately hungering and thirsting for transformation from its disordered state of hostility and hatred, division and distrust, chaos and cruelty, sickness and despair. I think of the Apostle’s words in the Letter to the Romans, chapter 12, where he urges us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” When we sing together as we do in LCC, and when we sing the choral repertoire that we have been given, I’m sure that most of us, if not all, have recognized in moments the transformation taking place within our own being as well as those among whom we sing. In my mind, this is an ineffable, exhilarating, and even ecstatic mystery, transcending words and transporting us to a realm of experience in such a way that we may return to “this world” with a renewed, reformed way of living that can communicate that which is creative and life giving. What makes life meaningful, it would seem, is participating in the wondrous, continuous unfolding of creation, that is, the transformation of chaos into a created order that sustains life. I think this is one of the things that we try to do with LCC.

Tell me about an event that for you most captured the essence of the LCC experience.
The sanctuary at Resurrection Lutheran Church in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago has held a place near my heart since the early 1990s when I was serving another parish in that neighborhood—the Romanesque arches, evening worship experiences, the restful and simple beauty of the sanctuary, the stained-glass windows, the worship space at sunset. Our mid-winter concert at Resurrection a few years ago, from beginning to end, was an experience for me like no other. The concert was at sunset when the western windows were splendorous with colored light. The acoustics seemed impeccable. The choir was well-prepared. The program was tender as well as exhilarating. Everything seemed to congeal, and we had stepped beyond the vale of tears into a place of unrestrained joy and freedom. This is hope.

What is your experience with music in your faith life?
I can’t remember a time when I did not love to sing. Where I come from, you practically begin singing with your first breath after learning some of the melodies from your mother while still in her womb! You sing at home. You sing in the fields. You sing on the school bus. You sing at church. You sing every day in school and then college. And most of the time, you’re singing with others in some form of a choir, even if it's a pick-up choir under a big, shady elm tree in the middle of a summer drought. I feel I actually found my voice in high school through singing. I sang with the Wartburg College Choir and then with the Minnesota Chorale while I was studying at Luther Seminary in the Twin Cities.

What’s next for LCC?
I’m curious, as I suppose most of us are, about what we’ll look like when we emerge from this moment in history. It certainly seems to be a time of birth (and the birth pains that go with it!), but how this child will appear and what this child shall be is another question. Finding our way through the web of virtual rooms and realities, at the moment, seems to be “what’s next for LCC,” and this experience will surely be formative of the future in ways that are unimaginable right now. My hunch is that there will be no going back to “the way we were.” The uncertainty is both disturbing as well as exciting. So, I think it’s harder now to answer the question than it was seven months ago “what’s next for LCC.” What is immediately next is doing the very best we can by producing a good virtual holiday concert. The process, we're told, should hone our individual skills to become a better in-person choir—whenever and however that may return. Aside from this feeble foretelling of the future, I think getting the word out about LCC and broadening and building our audiences are always crucial next steps. We have healing in our wings to offer a wounded world but there are not many who know where to find it. We have something wonderful to offer people if we can just get them to attend one concert, they will come back.

We took some time to speak with former LCC singer and board member and current supporting member Carol Rechtoris. If you have not yet had the privilege of meeting Carol in person, you have probably seen the results of her craft and artistry in the handmade quilts that are auctioned off at every concert. By “putting the concert theme in fabric and thread,” she creates exquisite works uniquely tailored for each LCC program.

What are some of your memories of singing with LCC?
When I was singing with the choir, the rehearsals were wonderful for me! Such a stress relief. I would go the rehearsals with the hassles of work on my mind, and by the time rehearsals were over and I was ready to go home, I had no stress! I forgot what I was all up in arms about! Going to sing every week was great, especially with such talented singers.

The choir used to have a fall festival where they would invite a renowned choir director to work with area choirs. We would rehearse in the morning, have lunch, rehearse again in the afternoon, and then do a concert in the evening. The choir director at my church (Christus Victor Lutheran in Elk Grove Village) was a Luther College graduate who worked with Weston Noble. He was the guest director for one year of the LCC’s fall festival, and a bunch of us from church went to work with him. That is how I ended up singing with LCC. [Former LCC member] Steve Petergal invited me to join LCC at that Fall Festival.

Tell me about an event that for you most captured the essence of the LCC experience.
There are so many! But I have my personal favorites: The Lutheran Choir [before it was Lux Cantorum] once sang the Brahms Requiem with the Elgin Choral Union and the Elgin Symphony. The music and the whole experience were wonderful!

The March concerts at Resurrection Lutheran Church were great, too. One time, we did the Maurice Duruflé Requiem. The church has amazing acoustics, and it had an appropriately somber mood during Lent. Then there was the Mozart Requiem, the “Gospel Partners” concert with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago Gospel Choir, and LCC's 70th Anniversary concert at my church. My favorites there were Ola Gjeilo's The Ground, Eric Whitacre's Lux Aurumque, Samuel Barber's Agnus Dei, Paul Basler's Alleluia, and Urmas Sisask's Benedictio.

What is your experience with music in your faith life?
They had devotionals at every LCC rehearsal, and many times I was invited to lead them. During our rehearsals for the Mozart Requiem, I selected a few passages from his biography to share. It was quite fascinating for me.

I once had a powerful “Pentecost” experience through music. One year, a group from my church choir went on a tour of Europe, including to Leipzig, Germany to a festival honoring the Leipzig Peace Prayers and the fall of the Berlin wall. Most of the music during the celebration was in German. I did not understand it until the part of the service that was in Latin. Through my LCC experience, I was able to understand that. It reminded me of the part of the Pentecost story when suddenly, all understood each other! Choral concerts can be religious experiences.

What is next for LCC?
LCC needs to continue in the direction they have been going—inclusiveness—and they be supported by continued fundraising efforts. We must not forget those recent college graduates and high school choir singers who may want to continue their wonderful college and high school experience with music. Those memories can last your whole life.

We need to make sure that we have funding enough for more instrumentalists at our concerts. The endowment that still supports much of LCC’s work came from a woman who came to all our concerts when she was alive and gave a lot of money to LCC when she died. We need to remember to nurture our followers.

There are people who love to sing! The audience, of course, is important, we need it, but it is mostly for the singers to have that time each week to sing. It is well worth the effort!

How does LCC’s mission speak to our day?
I give churches so much credit for their worship during this pandemic quarantine. I have been attending several churches recently and I am enjoying their music. As I have said, choral singing is a stress-reliever! Rehearsing for a concert has the same impact as preparing for a marathon. To sing each week is a very uplifting experience!

Assistant Director Philip Kendall joined LCC in the fall of 2010. We sat down to talk with him about Lux Cantorum—what he loves about the choir and its mission, and one of his best concert experiences. His thoughtful and inspiring responses are yet another example of the many ways this choral movement that you support is transforming the lives of singers and audiences alike.

What do you love about LCC?
I love the opportunity to briefly press 'pause' on the urgency and complication of my daily life every Monday evening to work collaboratively towards a common creative goal with people who live such a variety of lives different than mine. I love singing, and I love choral singing specifically. I love what it requires of me mentally, emotionally, and physically. It engages my whole self in a coordinated way that not many things do and that means that it is a spiritual practice for me. Things that engage my mind and body at the same time tend to be good for me spiritually. Exercise and music making are essential for me in terms of staying healthy. It leaves me with more energy and feeling confident and hopeful and grateful.

I appreciate the variety of ages and backgrounds of the other choir members. I appreciate their religious (or non-religious backgrounds) and the variety of professions they have. I think that is beautiful. We all are experiencing the same music, but we are all experiencing it so differently which is really a beautiful thing.

What about our mission speaks most powerfully to you?
I love the word “transformative” in our mission statement. I know that music transforms me, both over the course of my lifetime and in the moment. Choral music transforms a space and has the power to connect every person in that space. A choral performance is a perfectly unique collection of moments shared by the choir and the audience. Each person experiences those moments slightly differently, but it is a shared experience, nonetheless. And one that cannot be exactly repeated. There is something enormously powerful and certainly transformative about that.

Tell me about an event (concert, etc.) that for you most captures the essence of the LCC experience.
I would say the “God of Many Faiths” concert. I loved the variety of music in that concert. It was an exciting and symbolic concert. It was around the time that we announced the name change. It was the concert that presented a fresh vision for the choir.

The decision to move away from an affiliation with just one Christian denomination felt right for me just because I had some discomfort with the strictness of our repertoire which I thought was limiting. That has been an important shift for me in my own life in terms of how I think of God and spirituality.

We begin the series with a conversation with Dr. Wilbert O. Watkins, who has been the Artistic Director of LCC for 14 years. Wilbert is also a staff member at Pilgrim Congregational Church in Oak Park, the founding Artistic Director for the Sing to Live Community Chorus, and a volunteer for many community efforts.

On the mission statement of Lux Cantorum Chicago:
“We nurture an inclusive, creative community by sharing the transformative power of sacred choral music.”

What about LCC’s mission speaks powerfully to you?
The beginning of the mission statement is important to me because it is in line with everything I have done throughout most of my life. It has been important to me to be inclusive, and to not leave anyone out. I believe that we serve a creative God, so I certainly believe that God calls us to be creative in what we are doing, that is probably even more important now during this pandemic.

Music is such a great vehicle of self-expression, and when we have music that speaks to a person’s emotions and feelings, and allows us to do that with one another in a special way—as far as being in a choir—it is very unifying, and that is another thing that is very crucial for our day.

The LCC mission also speaks about sharing the transformative power of sacred choral music, and that continues the idea of making sacred music accessible to as many people as possible. So, for the last few years, we have had the opportunity to include other faith traditions, and even some pieces that came across as spiritual and not necessarily part of any tradition. But all of that certainly opens the door to accessibility to others and for others.

I have a philosophy of music teaching that music should always be transformative. I think that if we are doing something meaningful with one another—with the text and with the melodies and harmonies and rhythms—it will, in some way, change each of us. Hopefully, it will help us to be better, more thoughtful, and sensitive people. Likewise, when the singers have that experience, it is automatically something that becomes contagious for the audience. I certainly would want an audience member to be transformed in some type of way. If nothing else, if they had a bad day, and they sat there and experienced what we were doing and felt better for that moment and for a few moments after the concert. If that were the only experience, I think it is still worth it, but ideally, I would like that experience to go on for more than a few moments.

How does LCC’s mission speak to our day?
It has always been important to me to have songs that are unifying. I have been very intentional about that with every group I have ever directed in my life. However, in this current political climate, I have found myself even more determined, dedicated and committed to making sure that we have a message that is clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt. We live in this world together, so we have to get along, and we need to celebrate our diversity. We must care for one another. It is important to have a positive message of togetherness and solidarity.

I really have been focusing on the belief that all of us are created in the image of God. With that, I have been thinking about how I approach music and all my meetings with other people, given the racial tension in the world right now. I find myself thinking that if people of faith believe, at all, that all are made in the image of God, how can they not want to stand up for everyone and make sure that everyone is included at the table?