MINNEAPOLIS — The famed West Point Glee Club held a free concert Saturday evening at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis.
It’s one of a series of performances in honor of Veterans Day in the Twin Cities this weekend.
It’s the kind of entrance you’d expect from a military-affiliated group: uniformed, marching step by step, disciplined.
That discipline is the key to being part of this exclusive group.
“There’s a bit of an audition process. You have to have some musical background,” says club member Katherine LaReau.
Like Cavan O’Hara, who sings as part of ‘The Knightcaps’, the club’s acapella ensemble. O’Hara’s father drove from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to videotape the concert.
There is only one member from Minnesota: Lenora McFall from Minnetonka.
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“Being a part of the Glee Club for the past three and a half years has been the top experience for me at West Point,” McFall said.
A great experience also for her parents, Sonya and Brian McFall.
“Choir since grade school, all the way up to the Minnetonka choir, so I think she’s feeling pretty good,” Brian McFall said.
The club is proud of the message it hopes to convey.
“There’s something about the way we see cadets in uniform singing about duty, honor and country, and songs that talk about our history and shared values that can really bring people together,” LaReau said.
That message is especially timely as our country rallies around our veterans this holiday weekend.
“Better than a recording. It was fantastic,” said Marie Goergen of Eden Prairie.
Saturday night’s performance in Westminster was the second of three shows. The club will perform Monday at the Minnesota Veterans Home near Fort Snelling.
