Umeri presents "Loves Me, Loves Me Not"

Umeri, the Drake University Alumni Choir, announced its final concert of the 2025-2026 Season. Loves Me, Loves Me Not will take place on Sunday, April 12 at 6 p.m. at Sheslow Auditorium on the Drake campus. The concert will feature Johannes Brahms’ Liebeslieder (Love Song) Waltzes, a collection of more than a dozen pithy pieces about love. They will be paired with other works that address various aspects of love, from the Renaissance to the 21st Century, written by American and British composers. The music features an almost head-spinning variety of musical sounds and styles, from lushly romantic to edgy. There’s even a piece in hoe-down style!

“This concert invites audiences to engage emotionally and intellectually with many forms of love—romantic, parental, neighborly—as well as the spirit of discovery and challenge.” said Umeri founder and conductor, Aimee Beckmann-Collier. “All this is expressed through music of striking variety and sonic beauty.”

The Liebeslieder Waltzes are delightfully varied and are scored for choir and piano four-hands accompaniment, played by Susan Ihnen and Ling-Yu Hsiao. Dr. Jonathan Sturm, concertmaster of the Des Moines Symphony, will be the featured violin soloist for “Love Is,” a piece that summarizes the themes at the heart of this concert.

There is no admission charge for the concert. However, free will donations are welcome. For more information and to RSVP, visit https://umeri.wp.drake.edu.

Umeri, the Drake University Alumni Choir, was founded in 2019 by Dr. Aimee Beckmann-Collier, Director Emerita of Choral Studies and Ellis and Nelle Levitt Distinguished Professor Emerita of Conducting. This project-based ensemble includes Drake Choir alumni who graduated between 1992 and 2024.

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