Special Guests

Special Guests
Saturday, November 17, 2001

St. Olaf choir

The ST. OLAF CHOIR was organized in 1911 by F. Melius Christiansen, born in to a musical family in Berger, Norway and later trained in Leipzig, Germany; a young man whose first interest was instrumental music, particularly concert violin, and who came to St Olaf in 1903 to build a music department. By the time he retired in 1941 he had managed to change the voice of American collegiate choral music, setting a style and standard that have given St Olaf an international reputation.

They began touring in their first year, to Wisconsin, Illinois and North Dakota, and in the next season, 1913, shipped out to Scandinavia. Since then they've seen just about every place from Tijuana, Mexico, to the Great Wall of China; from Des Moines to Dusseldorf, including Australia, New Zealand and Korea.

The current conductor is Anton Armstrong, selected by a search committee from a national field on January 2, 1990. He grew up on Long Island, New York, toured Italy with the American Boychoir in 1971, and graduated from St Olaf in 1978. He earned a Master of Music degree at the University of Illinois and a Doctor of Musical Arts at Michigan State. He is a frequent guest conductor and lecturer throughout Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific.