The St. Paul Rose Ensemble will be performing at Bemidji State University as part of its eighth annual Greater Minnesota Tour, “The Roots of Bluegrass: A Journey Through America’s Folk, Old Time, and Gospel Traditions.”

The Oct. 8 performance will begin at 7 p.m. in the Thompson Recital Hall in Bemidji State’s Bangsberg Fine Arts Complex. The concert is free of charge and open to the public.

Founded in 1996, the Rose Ensemble performs vocal music that is intended to uplift audiences. This year’s tour will feature “rousing hyms, Appalachian foot-stomping songs, Southern Harmony shape-note singing and Shaker spirituals: the music that gave birth to bluegrass.”

The Rose Ensemble received the 2005 Chorus America Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence and was the first-prize winner in both sacred and secular music categories at the 2012 Tolosa Choral Contest in Spain. The ensemble can be heard on national media and the European Broadcasting Union.

The ensemble’s Greater Minnesota Tour begins Oct. 3, and will include 10 concerts in St. Peter, Little Falls, Moorhead, Detroit Lakes, Alexandria, Hibbing, Silver Bay, Ely and International Falls in addition to the performance at BSU.

For more information contact Dr. P. Bradley Logan, professor of music, (218) 755-2918, or visit roseensemble.org.