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And the Emmy goes to ...

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Dan Graber? You better believe it. He's got the statuette to prove it.

It was delivered by UPS and came wrapped in the kind of brown paper that hints at something sweet inside. Measuring the size of a shoebox, the package was exactly the kind that is coveted -- the kind that often delivers something frivolous, something of comfort, even of excess.

It was delivered to Dan Graber's home in Sioux Falls the third Tuesday of July; it wasn't a total surprise in that the Freeman native knew it was coming. But, even so, imagine the look on his face as peeled off the brown paper wrapping and lifted off the top of the hard black box, finally to see what rested inside.

An Emmy.

A real-life Emmy! The very statuette given to the superstars of television who win for Outstanding Actor or Outstanding Drama or Outstanding Direction. You know the statue; it's gold in color and shows a winged woman with her arms stretched to the sky holding a sphere that represents an atom. Designed and approved by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1948, the wings represent art, the atom, science, the Emmy itself, excellence.

Now, here one was in Dan Graber's home, his own to polish, the honor inscribed on its round black base. It reads:

2010 HEARTLAND REGIONAL EMMY AWARD Musical Composition/Arrangement "Through The Desert Goes Our Journey" Daniel Graber, Arrangement, Choral Conductor Agile Arts Productions, Herndon, VA

Yes, folks; 25-year-old Dan Graber, son of Steve and Linda Graber, 2004 graduate of Freeman Academy and 2008 graduate of Bethel College (North Newton, Kan.), is a 2010 Emmy winner.

An odd mix of pride and embarrassment (or is it humility?) washes over Dan when asked about it. He's clearly thrilled that he is able to keep an Emmy statuette on his coffee table, but doesn't seem all that eager to spill the details. There was even a hint of reluctance when asked for an interview.

"It's a 'right place at the right time' kind of deal," he says, and then -- despite his initial resistance -- goes into the story of how he went from Dan Graber to Dan Graber the Emmy winner.

Here's how it all went down.

Dan was a senior at Bethel College in the spring of 2008 when choir director Bill Eash approached him about taking on a music project that would be used in a film being produced by Walter Ratliff, an independent filmmaker from Herndon, Va.

Ratliff was making a documentary called Through the Desert Goes Our Journey, in which he tells the story of what is known in many Men-nonite circles as the "Great Trek," a journey that took hundreds of Russian Mennonites through

Central Asia in the late 1800s. Led by Claas Epp II -- an ancestor of Freeman resident Walter Epp -- those on the journey were bound for the Khanate of Khiva, a Muslim kingdom bordering Afghanistan which Claas Epp said would be the site of the second coming of Christ. After the end-times prophecy failed, many remained in Khiva and formed close relationships with the Muslim population there.

Through the Desert Goes Our Journey focuses on Amerian descendants of the migration who retraced the steps of that journey in 2007, on the relationships formed in the 19th century between the Christian and the Muslim communities and the impact the Russian Mennonites had on the region at the time.

Dan's call was simple and specific: Prepare and direct the Bethel College Concert Choir in an arrangement of "Through the Desert Goes Our Journey," an old and obscure hymn that uses the more familiar tune of "Heart With Loving Heart United" -- well known in many Mennonite churches and part of both Mennonite Hymnal of 1969 and Hymnal: A Worship Book.

"When Walter approached me (about using this hymn for the documentary), I said, 'That sounds like a great idea. I have a student I can put on it,'" said Eash. "So I handed it over to Dan."

"It's a beautiful hymn," says Dan, who made a few minor arrangements to the music and added German text before preparing the 40-voice auditioned choir to produce an exceptional and polished product. Among the biggest challenges, Dan says, was making sure the German enunciation was spot on.

The hymn was used repeatedly throughout the 57-minute film and serves as the musical backdrop as the Epp descendents retrace their ancestors' steps.

"The music lends itself very well to the scenery and the story," says Dan, who adds this important point: "Through the Desert Goes Our Journey" was sung by those who originally made the journey.

"Supposedly, as they trekked east into Asia, they sang this hymn in dark times," he says. "Through the Desert Goes Our Journey just resonated with them."

Dan and the Bethel College Concert Choir weren't the only contributors to this project.

Andy Gingerich, a 2005 Bethel graduate, also plays guitar in the film and is named in the award, as are both Eash and the choir itself.

There is one final Bethel College connection: Jesse Nathan, a 2005 Bethel graduate from San Francisco, co-produced the film with Ratliff, who said, "the music is one of the best features of the documentary."

Through the Desert Goes Our Journey premiered at Bethel's Fall Festival in October of 2008 and first aired on Kansas Public Television on April 2, 2009. In the months that followed, thanks to the release of the film, the story of the Great Trek began to circulate and people caught wind of the movie.

"It started to get around," Dan says, who says he appreciates the opportunity he had to be part of the project.

He appreciates the fact that Ratliff's film focuses on the positive relationships that were formed between the Christians and the Muslims that derived from the Great Trek.

He appreciates his Emmy.

"It's kind of been sitting on the coffee table, just hanging out," Dan says.

It's a symbol of his part in an award-winning film and a reminder of an important story of the Mennonite Church, resurrected a century after it happened.

Clips of Through the Desert Goes Our Journey are available at YouTube.

A copy of the documentary is available for purchase through amazon.com.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Heartland Chapter is one of 19 regional chapters of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Founded in 1986, it serves television markets in Denver; Oklahoma City; Tulsa; Wichita/Hutchinson, Kan.; Omaha, Colorado Springs/ Pueblo; Lincoln/ Hastings-Kearney, Neb.; Topeka; Grand Junction/ Montrose, Colo.; Cheyenne, Wyo./ Scottsbluff, Neb. and North Platte, Neb.

Freeman native wins regional award for music arrangement used in documentary, Through the Desert Goes Our Journey



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© 2011 Freeman Courier Freeman, South Dakota. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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