“I am a 45-year conductor. I have never experienced anything like this. Sometimes we get wrapped up in the performance and in the notes. We forget, as we sing, that we are praising and praying to the Lord. It [singing at Carnegie Hall] was a spiritual awakening for those singing that we are praising God,” said Gloria Knoll, director of the Chancel Choir at McCabe United Methodist Church in Bismarck, North Dakota.

View from the balcony as members of the McCabe UMC choir sing with other choirs at Carnegie Hall on December 1, 2025. (Photos courtesy of Rev. Lou Whitmer)

Eleven singers connectedd to the McCabe UMC Choir performed at Carnegie Hall on December 1, 2025.  Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) invited the group to join other choirs from across the United States and South Africa to perform a three-act concert under the direction of composer and conductor Mary McDonald.

Mary McDonald is well-known in sacred music. With a career spanning over 40 years, her songs are in the catalogues of every major publisher of church music. More than 1,500 compositions, including anthems, seasonal musicals, and keyboard collections, testify to her significant contribution to church music.

The Invitation

On Palm Sunday, the Chancel Choir at McCabe United Methodist Church performed a piece of music arranged by Mary McDonald,  accompanied by flute, handbells, brass, piano, and organ. View the Palm Sunday service.

Bill Willis, a member at McCabe United Methodist Church in Bismarck, North Dakota, filmed it and put it on YouTube. The video was discovered by Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY). 

Singers from the McCabe choir in NYC.

“Bill is proud of McCabe and faithfully films and posts things on YouTube. I don’t know how, but the video popped up for DCINY, and they sent us an e-mail,” explains Rev. Lou Whitmer, associate Pastor, McCabe UMC. “We deleted the first two or three e-mails because we thought they were spam. How many times do people write to a choir in Bismarck asking if they want to sing in New York at Carnegie Hall? Finally, they called and stated they were trying to reach the choir director or someone. We started thinking maybe they are legitimate.”

In June, the choir and its director began making serious plans to perform at Carnegie Hall. Members of McCabe UMC’s choir were invited to travel to New York at their own expense. Eleven people went from McCabe UMC—10 members of the congregation and a family member of one of the members. Six people travelled to support the group.

Performance Details

The group from Bismarck spent five days and four nights in New York. They joined a mass choir representing 30 choirs from the United States and South Africa.

The formal concert in Carnegie Hall.

"Many of the choirs were from United Methodist churches. There were two full days of rehearsal. The guest conductor and composer was Mary McDonald. She was amazing. She gave us spiritual guidance,” said Knoll.  

On the third day, there was a dress rehearsal in the afternoon and the performance at night. There was a full orchestra. Concerts featuring church choirs and spiritual music take place several times each year at Carnegie Hall. Every night in December, Carnegie Hall hosts a concert.

The performance had three acts, each featuring three mass choirs. The first act, comprised of several church choirs, performed familiar Mary McDonald songs. The second act featured a choir of 155 voices, including McCabe UMC choir members, who also sang Mary McDonald songs. They premiered a cantata, “Gloria.” The third act featured another mass choir performing excerpts from Handel’s Messiah. The finale was the Hallelujah Chorus, sung by the three mass choirs, 700 voices. View the program details.

A highlight of the performance was the finale, singing the Hallelujah Chorus with 700 voices in Carnegie Hall. After singing, the two choirs that sang during the first and second acts moved to be seated in the balcony area. During the finale, the "Hallelujah Chorus," everyone sang.

The conductor for the finale told the singers in the balconies, “Leave your folders by your side. That is why we asked you to memorize the first stanzas. When we get to the second stanza, join in.”

First, the choir on the stage started singing the "Hallelujah Chorus," and then the choirs in the balconies joined in. Over 700 voices were singing the "Hallelujah Chorus."

“We surprised the audience by coming from all directions,” stated Knoll.

The mass choir for Act Two, including voices from McCabe UMC, sang: “A Blessed Messiah,” “Behold Our God,” and “Gloria.”

“It was a life-changing experience. It was very cool,” said Londa Holen, a member of McCabe UMC’s Chancel Choir.

DCINY sent the music to each choir so that those invited could prepare. The McCabe singers prepared by practicing at least once a week for one hour. Each singer listened to tutorials and watched YouTube videos to prepare. Knoll, as the director, coordinated the preparation efforts.

She said, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice!”

There was a dress code for the performers. Men wore tuxedos and women wore long black dresses.

“We dressed to the nines. I rented from a place in Bismarck. They gave me a good deal because their tuxedo was going to be on stage at Carnegie Hall,” said Jason Grueneich, McCabe UMC.

The group flew together and stayed in two different hotels. The trip dates were November 29-December 2. The concert was held on Monday evening, December 1. It was the first concert of the holiday season at Carnegie Hall.

The performance was sold out. After the performance, there was a gala across the street with all kinds of food and beverages. There was a roaring fireplace. It was a celebration of the performance.

A Spiritual Experience

“Having sung a lot, hundreds of performances growing up, I have never experienced something like this. It was a combination of the faith-based music as well as the fact that we were at Carnegie,” shared Gruenwich. “As we were singing, there were three times that the tears were just streaming down my face. I couldn’t do anything to stop the tears. It was tears of joy. I have not experienced that before. It was a shared experiential joy. It truly was moving. Singing praises to God with choirs from across the country.”

Jason Grueneich grew up singing in church and in the community. “I ended falling away from it as I got older. I ended up getting COVID. It did some damage to my lungs and my heart. I quit singing altogether because I didn’t have the breath control,” he said.

Two years ago, Grueneich found McCabe. “They got me to join the church choir. It was a safe place to explore my singing. I was able to find my voice again. It was a transformational experience to be with the members of McCabe and be standing on the stage at Carnegie, five years after I thought I was going to be done with that experience.”

He grew up in the Baptist faith and fell away from organized religion for almost 20 years. After meeting Pastor Lou Whitmer and Pastor Karl Kroger, Grueneich walked into McCabe, and it felt like home.

“The people were friendly and welcoming. The sermons were engaging and community-based and really hit home– about serving others. There is something special about McCabe,” he shared.

DCINY is the organization that brought the mass choir together.  As the choirs come together in New York, Grueneich and others shared a transformational experience.

“It felt as if people were coming home together. It is a way for people to offer their talents to praise God,” he said. “It was transformational and spiritual to be singing with a group of people that had not practiced together until that day. It was like we had been singing together for years. It was unbelievable. We had to do minimal adjustments to make the voices meld.”

There were three rehearsals and a dress rehearsal, each lasting four hours. On the first day, the group met Mary McDonald, who described how the music comes to her from God.

McDonald describes how she composed “Gloria.” Three songs make up the cantata, all in Latin.

McDonald explained to the singers, “When I would go to compose. It was like it was coming straight out of heaven. God just poured it into me. It just came pouring. That is how my music came to me. You need to understand that this Tennessean has had no formal training in composing. I have not had formal piano. I played by ear since I was five. It is all God. I want you to know that when it came to composing the ‘Gloria,’ it wasn’t like that. I have never composed in Latin. I was so blessed. He would give me a few measures and then stop. I would sit with those measures. It came one piece at a time.”

While Mary McDonald was at a composer’s conference, a gentleman came up to her who had a ten-year-old daughter. The daughter was involved in an accident, and they thought they would lose her. The mom and daughter were driving and had the radio on. A song by Mary McDonald came on that had just been released. The little girl was singing it word for word. The mom asked, “How do you know that song?” The little girl said, “Mom, when I was in heaven, the angels were singing it.”

McDonald shared, “I share that story with you because the songs are in heaven being shared by the people that have gone before us. When we sing, those people sing with us,

Singers ready for the formal concert.

Londa Holen found herself sobbing at one rehearsal. Most of the time, there were tears somewhere in the group of 155 singers as they rehearsed.

“As we are singing, ‘Behold Our God,’ I started to cry. I just sobbed. Many people sobbed. I looked up at Mary McDonald, and she was not conducting; she was praising God. Her hands were up in the air. She was glorifying God for the voices and the music that had come together from him. She prayed. She went from praising to praying. The entire choir just bowed their heads or put their hands together and prayed,” shared Londa Holen.

Transformational, spiritual, and life-changing are just a few of the descriptors about the Carnegie Hall experience. Knoll was recognized, along with 12 other choir directors who were present during the performance.

“I never imagined that I would sing in Carnegie Hall.  All the directors were called to stand. We took a bow. One of the guys from the McCabe choir is from my hometown. He was mentored by my father. He said to me, ‘If your dad had seen you today.’  He made me cry,” Knoll stated.

Connecting with Neighbors in New York City

In November, the McCabe UMC’s choir put on a Gospel Brunch. The choir performed, and food was served. A free will offering at the brunch was dedicated to assisting the homeless in New York and Bismarck.

“We wanted to leave something behind in New York. The brunch raised $1,000. One-half was given to Ministry on the Margins in Bismarck. There was $500 to give to a homeless project in New York. I was tasked with finding a place to donate to in New York,” shared Pastor Lou.

Pastor Lou found several places that assist homeless people in New York. Finding someone to answer the phone or reply was challenging. She reached out to United Methodist Churches and the New York Annual Conference.

She describes, “I searched online and found Park Avenue United Methodist Church. I took a cab over to the Park Ave UMC on Sunday morning. I was met at the door by this wonderful person, their communications manager. I asked if they had a program to assist the homeless. She told me that the young adult ministry is just getting their program, which feeds homeless people, going again. They do a meal every Saturday for approximately 150 people. The young adult group at Park Ave UMC is also starting a clothing pantry for clothing for job interviews.”

The leader of the young adult ministry was at worship, lighting the Advent candle that day. Pastor Lou visited with him and gave him the $500 from McCabe UMC. Colin Thompson, the leader of Park UMC’s young adult ministry, was thrilled because $500 would buy food for two Saturday meals.

“I feel that the Spirit led me.  A smaller, diverse congregation. It was truly God at work,” said Pastor Lou.

Pastor Lou Whitmer went to New York as a support person. She and five others travelled with the choir members and offered their support.

Onward

Finding a "warmer" place to share a meal in NYC.

In the rare spare moments, the group explored New York.

“We all did a few different things, besides the concert. I was gifted with two tickets to the New York Metropolitan Opera,” said Pastor Lou.

Six members from McCabe struggled to find a place to eat on Saturday. “Six of us, being good North Dakotans, ended up on the patio with a heater behind us, at a very nice restaurant,” shared Grueneich. “I went with a couple of people from McCabe to see ‘Just in Time,’ the Bobby Daren musical.”

Holen was able to travel with her sister, Tammy Boyd. Tammy lives in Minneapolis but has sung with the McCabe choir and continues to do so when she is in Bismarck. They visited the 9/11 Memorial. It was a solemn visit. It covers the event's history. The timeframes and details of how they planned and trained for 10 years to blow up the buildings. They viewed a wall on which an artist painted blue tiles. Every tile represents a person who is lost. The saying on the wall is, “No day will pass that you will ever be forgotten.” A set of stairs from the original towers is on display as people leave the memorial.

“It was special to share the experience and travel with my sister,” Holen said. “I looked at the stairs and imagined the building crumbling around you, and you need to come out through this narrow set of stairs. It had to be a sense of terror. Engraved on the edges of the two pools of water are the names of the people who died. We found the name, Ann Nicole Nelson, from Stanley, North Dakota, who died on 9/11.”

Back in Bismarck, the McCabe Chancel Choir settled into a routine of singing at Sunday worship each week. In the summer, they go to other churches and sing. They call the summer journeys “Sunday Sing Outs.”

The Carnegie Hall experience has changed their view of singing forever.

“It was a very Christ-centered experience. When you hear in the Psalms, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord," I was able to experience that with a community. We experienced Christ and the Spirit moving through us. I have been to New York numerous times, and I have never experienced anything like this,” said Grueneich.

Holen said, “Many of us have been singing for a lifetime. It was just incredible. The little golden tokens that we got to take away. I will sing praising and praying.”

“Everybody had the feeling of awe and that we have this higher purpose. The choir's members are committed. They are very passionate,” said Knoll. “When we got the invitation. It came as a surprise. We did not send in an audition. It was the Holy Spirit. Who would I be to think that we could sing at Carnegie Hall?”