How many angels can dance
On the head of a pin?
Can GOD make a mountain so high
It can’t be moved again?
How long is a moment,
And where do we come from,
And where do we go when it ends?
How many angels can dance
On the head of a pin?

Songwriter Chuck Hall captured the November moment in my own mind way back in 1990 when he penned these words. By the time you read my column, the 2016 election will be part of history. I became eligible to vote in 1966, but this election of 2016 ( 50 years having passed) is the most ludicrous campaign I have ever witnessed. The wonderfully multicultural world of the United States has become beautiful, and the future looks really bright once we fully accept the diversity that makes the United States a blessed place to live. Long live the diversity of our culture and its arts!

Wine as part of the arts world

Do you enjoy fine wine?  Last Friday night at the Bluefin Grille up in Tofte, MN, we had a celebration with five different wines, matched to the wonderful steak dinner that was part of the Wine Lovers’ Weekend. There was no live music, but the vivacity of the wines, paired with the salad, the steak, and the dessert, was quite entertaining. The tables were full, and the hosts and hostesses were as enthusiastic as the guests to have really stupendous foods on the menu, paired with very special wines from Oregon and Washington vineyards.
DSSO concert this very weekend

Next, I can simply mention some events coming up that I hope you will support. I will write my own sort of review about them as they occur. We have a DSSO concert coming up this weekend, with violinist Erin Aldridge playing the solo passages from the Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi. The DSSO Chorus will add their voices to the Requiem Mass,one of the final works composed by Wolfgang A. Mozart back around 1790.

Choral music galore on November 19 and 20

The following weekend we are in really deep choral trouble. The Arrowhead Chorale is offering its first concert of the season on Saturday and Sunday, November 19/20  at the Duluth Depot. On this same Sunday, the J.S. Bach Magnificat and more will be performed at First Lutheran Church. If that’s not enough, the One Voice MN choir will be performing on November 20 at Duluth Congregational Church with a special program celebrating choral music and the world of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, here in Duluth. You have to choose, but all the music will be wonderful.

Wonderful string quartet from Matinee Musicale

Matinee Musicale will continue its 117th concert season with a performance by the Verona Quartet, an ensemble from the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. This will take place at Pilgrim Congregational UCC Church on 4th Street on Tuesday, November 15, starting at 7:30pm.


Elections come and go. I hope we will all be civil in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, music and the theater are with us around all the seasons. Whatever happens on Tuesday, Election Day 2016, do everything you can to support the arts in your community. That is what really matters in this life.