On Sunday, February 23, the VandeWalle Courtroom at the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Law will host “Voices of Justice,” a concert that combines music and legal themes. This event is a collaboration between UND’s Department of Music and School of Law, featuring both music and law students.
The concert idea originated from the Alice T. Clark Faculty Mentoring Program, where assistant professors Justin Montigne and Dan Lewerenz met. Montigne was inspired to use the courtroom for a performance after testing its acoustics during a visit.
Montigne described the format: “The singers will be seated in the jury box in the courtroom, and they’ll just pop up individually in their songs.” Audience participation is encouraged for certain songs.
A highlight of the program is “Twelve Chairs,” composed by guest artist Jodi Goble with poetry by Rita Dove. Goble, visiting from Iowa State University, will also conduct master classes at UND. The song cycle features solos exploring jurors’ thoughts.
Law students will perform monologues between songs to provide legal context. Montigne emphasized that this collaboration allows exploration of themes like legal rights and civic duty.
Lewerenz added historical insights using texts such as “The Federalist Papers” and works by Alexis de Tocqueville: “In ‘The Federalist Papers’ and the writings of de Tocqueville, jury service is portrayed as a great equalizer… But jurors themselves? More often than not, they see it as a burden.”
Lewerenz hopes this initiative makes the law school more accessible: “But anything that we can do that introduces law students to other students on campus… I think, is a win, win.”
Montigne expressed his commitment to interdisciplinary collaborations: “Singers can sing about anything… We want to use our voices to advocate and illuminate.”
The concert will be live-streamed alongside an in-person performance at VandeWalle Courtroom. A pre-concert talk starts at 4:10 p.m., followed by a Q&A session with Goble after the concert.
