History of The Chorale

The Minnesota Valley Men’s Chorale was organized in September of 2003. Steven Boehlke retired from Rosemount High School after 36 years as a public school choral director. The men’s chorale was a dream of Boehlke’s, along with several influential charter members. The chorale is a non-auditioned ensemble dedicated to singing together as a community and sharing the male chorus repertoire with the community.

The chorale has a unique rehearsal schedule. We have a two concert season, fall and spring. Rehearsals begin approximately twelve weeks before the concerts. Traditionally, the fall concert is two weeks before Thanksgiving. The chorale then breaks for the holiday season. Rehearsals begin again the third week in January with concerts approximately 12 weeks later. The chorale has found that many men want to sing, but are involved in careers that won’t allow them to sing with ensembles that meet for nine months.

MVMC’s first concert was November 15, 2003 at Grace Lutheran Church, where Steve is the choir director. There were 32 singers at that first concert. The opening selection was “Let All Men Sing” by Keith Christopher. The following 17 singers are charter members of MVMC and still singing in the ensemble: Mark Ahlquist, John Anker, Mike Atherton, Mike Champ, John Connolly, Andy Cossette, Darryl Dille, Jeff Duncan, Mike Dvorak, Jerry Ewing, Lucas Ingles, Garret Pratt, Tom Rysavy, Randy Schafer, Bill Stephenson, and Pete Tyma.

In the spring of 2005, the chorale began the tradition of presenting their concerts on two consecutive evenings.  In the spring of 2007, the Minnesota Valley Men’s Chorale began inviting area high school men’s ensembles to be part of the concerts. This provided those high school men’s ensembles with one more opportunity to sing together and it provided MVMC the opportunity to sing with high school singers and to share that life-long adventure of singing. In the fall of 2009, the Minnesota Valley Men’s Chorale invited established operatic artist Mary Wilson to be their guest. Mary performed a short recital and then soloed with the chorale.

In April of 2011, the chorale organized a high school choral festival for men. The first festival chorus, of nearly 80 voices, gathered in the morning for a massed rehearsal. That evening they performed as an honor choir and then sang with the Minnesota Valley Men’s Chorale. In the fall of 2012, the Minnesota Valley Women’s Chorale was organized. Since that time, the two ensembles have shared the concert stage as two distinct organizations. This addition has allowed the ensembles to perform one or two SATB selections at each concert. 

The Minnesota Valley Men’s Chorale celebrated its 10th anniversary in the fall of 2012. That fall, the chorale commissioned David Dickau, Director of Choral Activities at Minnesota State University, Mankato to compose “The Road Not Taken”, text by Robert Frost. The chorale continues to grow its Commission Program. Each year the chorale commissions a new choral composition, which is then premiered at our Spring Concert. In addition to commissions, the Minnesota Valley Men’s Chorale awards scholarships to graduating male singers to continue singing while attending college. The chorale encourages singing as a life-long activity.

Bob Allen
Jim Anderson
Neil Anderson
Dan B. Appleton
Dan N. Appleton
Ian Appold
Paul Appold
Michael Atherton
Dave Baker
Jake Bents
Jake Bowman
Jordan Buri
Tyler Cabrillo
Mike Champ
Matt Chapman
John Connolly
Eric Conway
Riley Cory
Andy Cossette
Jeff Davis
Darryl Dille
David Domack
Jeffrey Duncan
Michael Dvorak
Eric Ebert
Mike Eittreim
Chad Elstad

Dave Erkens
Jerry Ewing
Adam Fielitz
Bruce Gaard
Evan Galchutt
Dave Gant
David Geiger
Jake Gessler
Dylan Giles
Tom Gravatt
Brian Hanson
Jim Hanson
Jeff Hegna
Lucas Ingles
Logan Jacot
Ken Jerzyk
Tim Johnstad
Jon Kopplin
Nathan Litman
Lane Littrell
Brian Loe
Scott Marek
Kevin Massey
Dave McKeag
Charlie Melcher
Jeff Mensing
Nick Nelson

Scott Oakman
Roger Onken
Nic Paulus
John Pearson
Paul Pederson
Bill Pick
Evan Pierson
Garret Pratt
Josh Pratt
Steele Propp
Al Quist
John Rayman
Tom Rysavy
Mark Salter
Randy Schafer
Chad Shannon
Bryan Shealer
Matthew Smith
Jay Sorlie
Bill Stephenson
John Stern
Jeremy Sundheim
Mike Tober
Pete Tyma
Mike Utell
Scott Wendell