Alumna to be featured during March 15 concert

When Staff Sgt. Heidi Ackerman takes the stage of Northwestern College’s Christ Chapel with other members of the U.S. Army Field Band and Soldiers’ Chorus on Sunday, March 15, it will be a familiar experience. Ackerman is a 2008 Northwestern alumna who performed frequently in Christ Chapel as a member of the A cappella Choir, Heritage Singers and Symphonic Band as well as a student recitalist.

“March 15 can’t get here fast enough,” says Ackerman, a mezzo-soprano in the Soldiers’ Chorus. “I cannot wait to bring the Army Field Band to Northwestern and have them receive the hospitality Orange City offers. I know our music and message will be received with open arms.”

Ackerman joined the ensemble in 2013 and tours 120 days per year, carrying the Army story through music to audiences across the nation and stopping at local schools to encourage music education. The musicians perform a wide-ranging repertoire that has Ackerman singing everything from Cyndi Lauper covers and Mozart operas to patriotic tunes. At the Northwestern concert, she will be the featured vocal soloist for Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Two by Jobim.”

“I’m honored to serve this country while at the same time following my calling to sing,” says Ackerman, whose father and grandfather also have a military background. “I enjoy the breadth of repertoire we perform; I love the challenge of singing so many different styles. The sky is the limit here. I can’t wait to see where the Army and music take me next.”

An Arizona native, Ackerman earned a master’s degree in vocal performance from Arizona State University after graduating from Northwestern as a music and secondary education major. Before joining the Army, she taught elementary and junior high music, directed church choirs and a community chorus, soloed with the Phoenix Symphony, and performed in such productions as “Otello” and “Madame Butterfly” with the Arizona Opera Company.

“I’m very proud of being a Northwestern grad,” says Ackerman. “Northwestern readied me for the ‘real world’ through my recitals. During my junior and senior years, I performed hourlong recitals consisting of repertoire from varying time periods, languages and styles—all fully memorized. These experiences taught me a foundation of discipline I built upon in grad school. And I developed strong ties with the music faculty that are still strong today.”

The March 15 concert will be Ackerman’s second performance at Northwestern as an alumna. In 2013, she sang Handel’s “Messiah” as a principal soloist with the Sioux County Oratorio Chorus and Northwestern’s Heritage Singers. “It is still one of my favorite moments as a professional singer,” she says. “I hadn’t been back to campus since graduation; it felt like I was returning home. I was so proud to sing for my former professors and show them that the seeds they planted in me had been cultivated and bloomed into the singer I’ve become today.”

The March 15 concert, beginning at 3 p.m., is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. Tickets can be obtained in the Northwestern music department’s office in DeWitt Music Hall Monday through Thursday between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. or by visiting www.armyfieldband.com/tickets.

Ackerman will give a master class and hold a question/answer session about her experience of becoming a professional singer March 15 at 1 p.m. in the choir room. The public is welcome.

The concert band and chorus are the oldest and largest of the U.S. Army Field Band’s ensembles. They have presented joint concerts in all 50 states and 30 foreign counties, with audiences totaling in the hundreds of millions. The 65-member band and 25-member chorus also perform independently, and have recently shared the stage with ensembles like the Boston Pops, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra.