Ensemble VIII
Chris Oelkers, organist
Donald Meineke, artistic director
{$30 General | $25 Senior 60+ | $5 Student}
Plan now to attend this inspiring evening to celebrate the beauty of Advent and Christmas with the voices of Ensemble VIII. Director Donald Meineke will lead a choir of 18 singers in this reenactment of the well-known Christmas Eve services at King’s College Chapel, first performed in 1918. The singers will read the traditional lessons and the audience will be invited to sing the carols of the season.
Ensemble VIII is a world-class vocal ensemble whose mission is to perform vocal music of the Renaissance and Baroque at the highest artistic level with a keen attention to scholarship and historically informed performance practices.
Ensemble VIII comprises some of the nation’s most accomplished and outstanding early musicians. Under the direction of artistic director Donald Meineke, these artists bring to the extremely challenging music of the Baroque and Renaissance superior technical abilities and experience in performing stunning and exacting repertoire.
Ensemble VIII’s ambition is to make the vast canon of Renaissance and Baroque vocal music accessible and fresh to Austin and Central Texas audiences. The ensemble offers a rare opportunity to hear superb specialists in early music perform at the highest degree of technical precision and dramatic intensity.
Chris Oelkers, Organist
Chris Oelkers was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A recipient of numerous scholarships and awards, he studied organ and church music at the University of Manitoba, the Toronto Conservatory of Music, and the University of Kansas, where he studied with Michael Bauer and James Higdon. He was Cathedral Organist at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Winnipeg, and later Director of Music for the First Congregational Church of Topeka, Kansas.
From 1998-2005, Chris was Principal Organist and Associate Music Director for Village Presbyterian Church in suburban Kansas City, where he presided over the organ concert series, as well as the Annual Handbell Festival. Chris served as adjudicator for the Carlene Neihart Organ Competition, judging performances in both repertoire and improvisation. During this time, Chris was organist and accompanist for the Festival Singers of Atlanta and later the Festival Singers of Kansas City. He played organ and piano on several CDs, including a recording of the landmark Laudes Organi by Zoltan Kodaly. Chris also served as accompanist for the Kansas City Chorale under the Direction of Charles Bruffy, most notably in a concert performance of the Duruflé Requiem. In 2004, he was commissioned by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art to provide a live soundtrack for a screening of the 1914 film His Majesty the Scarecrow of Oz.
In August of 2005, he joined the ministry team at St. Louis King of France Catholic Church in Austin, and from 2009–16 served as Director of Music for that parish. In 2016, Chris answered a call to serve as Director of Music and Organist for the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin, where he oversees a thriving music ministry in a fast-growing parish.
Chris is active as a recitalist and has given many performances in the United States, Canada, and Europe, most notably at the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig; Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire; St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh; and St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. He was a semifinalist and finalist in the American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation. Chris was featured on the Great Organ Series at the University of Texas and was Guest Artist on KMFA 89.5 FM radio’s weekly broadcast of Pipeworks. When not occupied as a church musician, he directs the Austin Saengerrunde, a German choir representing the oldest ethnic society in Austin, dating to 1879. Chris and his family live in Austin.
Donald Meineke, Artistic Director
Hailed as a “fresh voice on New York’s musical scene” (The New Yorker), Donald Meineke is an organist, conductor, tenor, and the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Ensemble VIII. He maintains an active career as a recitalist, lecturer, conductor, and singer performing with local, national, and international ensembles.
Meineke serves as the Director of Music and organist for the historic Church of the Holy Trinity (Episcopal) on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, known fondly as the birthplace of the Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” composed as a collaboration between the priest and organist in 1868. He has served as Cantor of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City where he led the twice Grammy®-nominated Bach Choir and Players in the internationally renowned Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity series. His Bach Choir’s recording of Samuel Capricornus’ Jubilus Bernhardi, in collaboration with string ensemble ACRONYM, received critical acclaim and was on Colorado Public Radio’s December 2017 “Top 5 Must Have New Recordings” list. His recordings of Capricornus and Bach Vespers have been featured on classical music stations nationally and internationally, including KMFA’s Ancient Voices and WXXI’s With Heart and Voice, and he has appeared as a guest artist on Columbia University-WKCR’s Bachfest.
He was the Co-Founder and Director of the 2014 Early Music Festival: NYC which featured over thirty concerts by dozens of local and national ensembles to critical acclaim. Meineke served as a choirmaster for Maestro Helmuth Rilling for many years, preparing choirs across Europe and South America for performances of the major choral and orchestral works by Bach, Mozart, and others.