AMERICANS DREAM
Mastersingers
Ryan Kelly, Director
Sunday, February 15, 2026
Madeleine Wing Adler Theatre
Performing Arts Center 3:00 PM
PROGRAM
The Golden Door .......................................................................................................................................................Ronald Perera (1941-2023)
textfrom Ellis Island Oral History Projectinterviews,historical records, and Emma LazarusāāThe New Colossusā
1. What is your number?
What is your number?
What is your name?
Age? Sex? Married or single?
Your nationality? Your race?
Your last permanent residence?
The name of your nearest relative in the old country?
2. America. I wish I was going.
I was nineteen. I wasnāt going with anyone. And if you asked me, cowboys and Indians, thatās all I knew about America.
And then we started to talk to the teacher about different countries. And when America came up, I told him , āWe are going to America next year.ā And then he said, āIām glad for you. I wish I was going.ā
I bought a suitcase, a second -hand cardboard suitcase for two dollarsā¦ All I had was the suit of clothes I woreā¦ and an extra handkerchief and a pair of socks. I had a new pair of shoes, and I was walking barefoot because I wanted to save my new shoes for America.
āAmerica. I wish I was going.ā
They all came to the railroad station and they kept on telling me, āYou save us. Work hard, save money and take us over to America. Thatās our only chanceā¦ā
āIām glad for you. I wish I was going. America. I wish I was going. ā
3. The fastest and securest transportation
The fastest and securest transportation to America by means of the Imperial steamers Kaiser Wilhelm the Second, Crown Prince Wilhelm, Crown Princess Cecile and Prince Friedrich Wilhelm. The trip takes five or six days.
We draw attention to the new arrangements
We draw attention to the new arrangements,
The new arrangement of the third class cabins.
The new arrangement of the third class cabins.
They have a place for two to six persons and the facilities are most comfortable. The travelers eat in dining rooms on choice dishes.
The travelers eat in dining rooms on choice dishes. On the rooftops are games.
On the rooftops are games.
For their entertainment social rooms are available as well as promenade decks and baths.
The departure of passengers from Ljublijana is every Tuesday and Thursday. The traveler who buys his ticket from me can board without payment. The same ticket is valid for all the steamers, as well as railways in America.
The travelers eat in dining rooms on choice dishes. On the rooftops are games. The passengers depart on every Tuesday and Thursday. Fastest and securest transportation.
Edward Tavcar, in Ljublijana, Kolodvorska Street, opposite the well-known hotel āAt the Old Board.ā
Joaquin Ried, speaker
4. Steerage
The steerage was one huge place. It was the lowest deck. The stench, it was the summer in August, the humidity, the heatā¦ it was very hotā¦ in that huge, cavernous area. The body smell, the body odor, the lack of sanitation, the lack of any kind of facilitiesā¦ There was no such thing as washing or bathing. The stench, the vermin. It was rat infes ted.
We tried to get out of the steerage, get out of the babble of voices, get out of the heat and the stench and get on the main deckā¦ but we were constantly chased away.
People from first class and second class would throw food down, an orange or apples or some food and we, the children, would all stand by and this one would catch this and that one would catch that. Sometimes you were lucky enough to get something.
The steerage was one huge place.
5. The Lady with her hand up
Six oāclock in the morningā¦ couldnāt see a goddam thingā¦ but as you sailed into New York slowly, you could s ee New York coming out of the sea.
All of a sudden we heard a big commotionā¦ and everybody started yelling that they see āthe Lady,ā the Statue of Liberty.
All of a sudden we heard a big commotionā¦ and we all ran upstairsā¦ Everybody started screaming, and crying, kissing one another. People that you didnāt even know before kissing one another. People that you didnāt even know before were along side of youā¦
All of a sudden we heard a big commotionā¦ everyone was so excited to see America and see the Lady with her hand up.
Ava Wolfersberger and Brandon Zuniga, soloists
6. Island of hope; island of tears
Ellis Island, Ellis Islandā¦ must have been five, six thousand people. Jammed! Hot as a pistol! And Iām wearing my long johns and a heavy Irish tweed suit ā¦ Got my overcoat over my arm. And Iām carrying my suitcase.
What is your final destination?
By whom was your passage paid?
Do you have a ticket?
Were you ever in the United States before?
Do you have twenty -five dollars?
I didnāt know what my father look ed like. And I remember sitting on that bench and my feet couldnāt touch the floor, and there was an officerās sleeveā¦ and he said, āHere comes your father.ā And this man is twelve feet tall and he picked me up and hugged me.
Are you supported by a charity?
Are you a polygamist? An anarchist? A contract laborer?
Are you going to join a relative? What is his name?
Next to me was an Italian woman with three children and one of them got sick. The child was coughing and she was holding the child and singing. All of a sudden a doctor and two nurses came to take the child awayā¦ and they took the child from her arms and s he was crying and I was cryingā¦ and I was praying so hard.
āMaladitu lāAmerica e chi la spirminta!ā (Goddam America and the man who thought it up!)
Are you in good health?
Are you deformed or crippled?
How tall are you?
What is your complexion?
Hair color? Eye color?
Birthmarks? Where were you born?
What is your number?
What is your name?
7. Names
The spoken names are those of actual immigrants . Those marked with an asterisk are the names of ancestors of Mastersingers who immigrated through Ellis Island.
Joseph Sakatsitz, shoemaker *
Joseph Smik, metallurgist *
Emmie Julie Van der Einden, entrepreneur*
George Wong, father*
Rose Frederick, business owner*
Mary Deutsch, homemaker *
Martin Daum, architect
Martha Herzog, wife
Helen Rasmussen, infant
Evaristo Pollina, stone cutter
Chan Can Yung, student
Charles Clark, mill hand
Abraham Epstein, laborer
Nathan and Molly Moeller, husband and wife
Olaf Thurlin, blacksmith
John McNamara, miner
Philip Suilides, tailor
Mary Payne, dressmaker
Felicita Migliario, seamstress
Dora Potalschek, spinster
Edgar Deutsch, musician
Fred Ogden, artist
A. Morrell, engraver
James Dawson, wool sorter
Luigi Scarpelli, husband
Wong Chang, merchant
William Birnie, teacher
Italia Meschi, shoemaker
Heinrich Keanlerh, barber
William Rollengaster, boilersmith
David Pupkewicz, bureaucrat
G. H. Carlssund, carpenter
Patrick Fitzgerald, laborer
Edward Wooler, overlooker
Fred DuBois, watchmaker
Enrico Di Giocomo, bricklayer
Katrina Nilsson, servant
Konrad Vaupel, baker
Jacob Archer, dairyman
Gaetano Castino, farmer
Louis Nordau, fruiterer
August Froelich, cigar maker
Mary Coleman, waitress
William Nelson, saddler
Joseph Halmutter, miller
Charles Pearce, cloth-finisher
C. P. Smith, grocer
Joseph McGan, moulder
Kate OāDonnell, servant
William Clayton, hatter
Alfonso Finiello, confectioner
Giuseppi Vidalo, trader
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand a mighty woman, with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon -hand glows world -wide welcome. āKeep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!ā cries she, with silent lips. āI lift my lamp beside the golden door!ā
Juan de Dios Lagares
Jesus Maria Sanmiquel
Phan Tiet Truong
Thuc Phuong Tieu
Vadim Moldovan
Maliki Mohammed Janneh
Ramon Diaz
Rafaela Jimenez
Tin Shim Mak Ng
Tsui-Feng Liu
Abdul Atta
Ngai Chung Tam Angelica Cifuentes
Gottlieb (b. 1986)
textby Richard Engquist, āinspired by the wisdom and whimsy of some of our most colorful presidentsā
Ask Not (JFK , Anthem)
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. Think what itās already done: You have freedom to move, to learn and to prove you can find your own place in the sun. It may not be easy, but who ever said that life was a breeze or even fair? As you go on your way, thereās a risk every day, and a prize you must learn to share. Youāre one among many others; be one on whom someone depends. You have dangers to face and wrongs to erase, and strangers to turn into friends. When I he ar the Star Spangled Banner, when I see Old Glory unfurled, I still can rejoice, I still have a voice, and I still feel a challenge hurled : I know what my country has done for me, now what can I be for the world?!
Advice from Honest Abe (Riff)
You can fool all of the people some of the time. You can fool some of the people all of the time. You can fool a lot of people most any day or night . Iām not sayinā itās right; Iām not sayinā itās cool if you fool some people a lot. But if you fool some people, what have you really got? Not a whole lot! āCause you canāt fool all of the people all of the time. And if you think you can, then you are the whoās the fool. So, remember this rule, and donāt be a fool.
Peyton Schrader, Anessa Rodriguez, Nico Cooper , Emilio Ovalle, ensemble
In the Jungle (Teddy R. , Soundscape)
Softly, walk softly, through the creepy jungle night. Be wary, itās scary ; thereās not a star in sight. Smile brightly, tread lightly, for the jungle is thick. But above all, walk softly and carry a very big stick.
Delia Maldonado, Ava Wolfersberger, Harmoniee Wong, Nico Cooper, Jane Keiser, Cooper Saks, Emilio Ovalle, Zane Himmelwright , ensemble
Calvinās Creed (Softshoe Shuffle)
President Coolidge remarked: āI do not choose to run. Iāll go home to Vermont, thatās all that I want. So long, Washington . Itāll be quiet there, Iāll breathe the dry New England air. I have been here a while, it isnāt my style, it isnāt much fun. I do not choose to run again.ā Amen.
Delia Maldonado, Ellie Rhinier, Jane Keiser, Zane Himmelwright , ensemble
No News (Thomas J., Soundscape)
According to Thomas Jefferson: The man who reads nothing at all, but sits in a chair, staring at a wall, from the winter to the fall, reading nothing at all (not even on vacation), the man who stands there fishing and wishing, always wishing on a star, then strolls along the strand, getting sand in his shoes, playing with a ball, reading nothing at all That man has a better education by far than the man who reads noth ing but newspapers, the man who reads nothing but news.
Carmelena Smith , soloist
Dreamers
Norman Dello Joio (1913-2008) text by N. D. J.
Listen, O! Listen to a song, as we sing of a dream one haunted night.
O! Listen as we sing. The dream was of the world , a world spinning , whirling, spinning , the world, it seemed to spin in trackless space and at a pace it whirled beyond belief.
Dark clouds were looming, black winds were raging, bringing despair to oneās soul. O! Fearful was the dream that haunted night. O! Dreadful was the dream that ghostly night . A vast ocean that swept all before it into regions unknown.
While in this dream, the dreamer cried, āWhy, O why is my world madly spinning? Leaving me alone? Why am I alone?ā
Then as dark visions of the dream faded, he was jolted a wake by the joyful sounds of singing.
āJoin us! Clasp hands! Join us in our song, whoever you are. Listen to our jubilant song , a song universal. We sing of love rising in the hearts of man, a song of the years to come. Dreamer, take heart, youāre not alone. Dreamers are not alone.ā
And now we close a song of resolution . We sing our song as the voices of reason dwelling in the minds of man. We are the young (join us wherever you are!) and the songs that we sing are of love and a dream without end.
Zane Himmelright and Cooper Saks , soloists
Shenandoah .................................................................................................................................................................arr. James Erb (1926-2014) text fromAmerican folk tradition
O Shenan doah, I long to see you and hear your rolling river. O Shenandoah, I long to see you . āWay, weāre bound away across the wide Missouri.
I long to see your smiling valley and hear your rolling river. I long to see your smiling valley . āWay, weāre bound away across the wide Missouri.
āTis seven long years since last I see you and hear your rolling river . āTis seven long years since last I see you. āWay, weāre bound away across the wide Missouri.
O Shenandoah, I long to see you and hear your rolling river. O Shenandoah, I long to see you. āWay, weāre bound away across the wide Missouri.
Moon River arr. Clay Warnick (1915-1995) text by Johnny Mercer
Moon River, wider than a mile: Iām crossinā you in style some day. Old dream maker, you heartbreaker, wherever youāre goinā, Iām goinā your way . Two drifters, off to see the world. Thereās such a lot of world to see. Weāre after the same rainbowās end waitinā āround the bend, my Huckleberry friend, Moon River and me.
Anessa Rodriguez , soloist
Deep River arr. Robert Fountain (1917-1996) text from American Spiritual tradition
Deep river, my home is over Jordan. Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground. Oh, donāt you want to go to that gospel feast, that promised land where all is peace? Oh, deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground.
Alaina OKunewick , soloist
Mastersingers
SƔndor KƔdƔr, piano
Dr. Ryan Kelly, conductor
Mastersingers
Director: Dr. Ryan Kelly
Graduate Assistant: Ethan Starr
Collaborative Pianist: SƔndor KƔdƔr
Nico Cooper
Jessica Czekaj
Josh Day
Jayson Dinger
Kailey Force
Noah Fricker
Colin Graveley
Samantha Gunchak S
Allison Hawley
Zane Himmelwright
Jane Keiser, secretary
MASTERSINGERS
Kallista Lake
Lundy Langstaff
Delia Maldonado
Angel Martinez
Damian Mattos
Murphy McDermott
Alaina OKunewick
Emilio Ovalle B
Christina Pavlik
Connor Petula
Alex Polidoro
Ellie Rhinier
Joaquin Ried
Anessa Rodriguez
Cooper Saks
Peyton Schrader, vice president A
Wonyoung Seo
Patrick Skoniczin
Carmelena Smith
Colin Stikes
Giana Stoltzfus
James Stunda
Sean Templeton
Alex Werner
Dean Wilson
Olivia Withers
Ava Wolfersberger
Harmoniee Wong
Brandon Zuniga T SATB section leader
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Performing Arts Center
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