Valley City's annual Christmas at St. Catherine's concert will feature the musical skills and students of two VCSU music department alumni. The annual concert, to be held this year on Thursday, December 1 at 7:30 pm at St. Catherine's Church, highlights the Christmas season through the choral music of the vocal ensembles at Valley City State University. This year two VCSU alumni, Brad Lambrecht of Alexandria, MN and Casey Behm of Wyndmere, ND will join the program. Lambrecht is the orchestral director at Jefferson High School in Alexandria where he has helped develop the orchestral program community-wide. The Rainbow Strings ensemble, which Lambrecht conducts, will accompany VCSU's Concert Choir on Sancta Maria mater Dei by W.A. Mozart at the concert. Also accompanying the Mozart selection will be Casey Behm on organ. Behm is now the instructor of music at Wyndmere School District and was a piano major at VCSU. Behm's keyboard skills will be highlighted on another selection, Cantique de Jean Racine to be performed by the Concert Choir. In addition to these selections, the Concert Choir will perform three selections by regional composers: Stars I Shall Find on a moving poem by Sara Teasdale set by David Dickau, choral conductor and composer at Minnesota State University, Mankato; I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, by Minneapolis composer and publisher, J. David Moore; and O Little Town of Bethlehem by Minneapolis composer and choral director, Matthew Culloton. The VCSU choral ensembles have made a point, over the last ten years, to give voice to choral literature composed by the current generation of American composers. This year's St. Catherine's concert will highlight those composers with ties to the upper mid-west. The VCSU Singers are slated to perform an intense setting of the text, O Magnum Mysterium by Twin-Cities composer Robert Sieving as well as a beautiful setting of the Sara Teasdale poem, The Stars Stand up in the Air by Eric William Barnum. Barnum began his instruction and career in music at Bemidji State University. The VCSU Valkyries, a select women's ensemble, will highlight two other selections by regional composers. Let Us Sing! a Christmas song composed by Linda Tutas-Haugen of the Twin-Cities area that will be accompanied by William Sieling of Alexandria, MN on viola and VCSU music education major, Katelin Wadeson on mallet percussion. Joshua Shank, who just moved to Texas from the Minneapolis area, is the composer of another selection to be performed by the Valkyries, Three Night Songs.The three poems of this set were written by Hilda Conkling at the age of six. Christmas at St. Catherine's is directed by Dr. Leesa Levy and accompanied by Professor Jaime Namminga. The concert is free and open to the public. There will be a reception following the concert in the church basement for the members of the choirs, concert patrons, and the composers of the literature featured in the concert who are in attendance. A good-will offering will be accepted and applied to scholarship funds for students participating in the music ensembles at VCSU.

VCSU Qualifies for the NAIA Football Championship SeriesThe National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics today selected the Valley City State University Viking football team as a qualifier for the NAIA Football Championship Series. In the first round of the playoffs, the Vikings are scheduled to take on the Carroll College Fighting Saints in Helena Montana at 1:07 (central).This is the eighth trip to the national playoffs in Viking history, and first appearance since back-to-back trips in 2000 and 2001 when VCSU faced Carroll College. This year, VCSU is the only NAIA team in North or South Dakota to advance to the playoffs. The 2011 season has been highlighted by nine straight wins after falling in the season opener. During that time, VCSU has won an outright DAC championship by going 6-0 with home-and-away sweeps against Dickinson State, Jamestown College, and Mayville State. Along the way the Vikings earned 15 DAC and Association of Independent Institutions (AII) Player of the Week awards including eight for offense, six for defense, and one for special teams. Head Coach Dennis McCulloch said, 'One of the biggest things impacting our success this season has been the new synthetic turf at Shelly Ellig Field. It has allowed us to have quality practices every day no matter what weather conditions we faced. The old practice fields take a pounding and get very hard in cold weather, and the consistent quality of our artificial turf surface has helped our entire team stay healthier. Our guys have a great attitude every day walking onto the new facility which has been a great help to the coaching staff.'VCSU is currently ranked #12 in the NAIA, the highest ranking for the team since the 2002 season when it was ranked #10 on two separate occasions. Final team pairings and ratings for the entire NAIA Championship Series are available at the NAIA web site www.naia.org.Top Ten Vikings Individual Rankings:Jordan Maher Ranks #2 in NAIA Total Sacks (11.500)LeTheo Proctor Ranks #7 in NAIA Total Receive Yds (872)AJ Pfeifer Ranks #7 in NAIA Total Rushing (1049) Tommy Zinke Ranks #8 in NAIA Pass Efficiency (153.700)

The VCSU Foundation has announced that Alison Kasowski will be joining the staff in the Advancement Office effective December 1, 2011. She will serve as Assistant Director of Annual Giving with specific responsibilities in the area of the V-500 Scholarship Program and other annual fund initiatives. Kasowski a graduate of VCSU, has previously worked in the VCSU Enrollment Services Office for the past three years as an Admission Counselor. According to Larry Robinson, Executive Director of University Advancement, 'We are pleased that Alison will be joining our team. She brings with her a passion for Valley City State University and a successful tenure in the Enrollment Services Office. She will be a major asset to the Advancement staff.' Alison and her husband Josh reside in Valley City and are the parents of a son, Gray.