History and Literature Faculty
Amundson holds a B.A. from Luther College and an M.M. in orchestral conducting and music theory from Northwestern University. He pursued further study in orchestral conducting and musicology at University of Virginia and the Aspen Music School. In 1980, Amundson was winner of the Hans Haring Prize in conducting in Salzburg, Austria. He is the Minnesota Music Educators' Association 1992 recipient of the "Orchestra Educator of Year" award. Formerly the music director of the Tacoma Youth Symphony, Amundson is the founding conductor of the Metropolitan Symphony in Minneapolis and served as the music director of the Bloomington Symphony for 13 years. A published composer, Amundson is also active as a guest conductor and clinician. |
 David Castro Assistant Professor of Music — Theory dcastro@stolaf.edu Assistant Professor, David Castro, received a B.Mus. in Music Education from Pacific Union College in 1998, a M.M. in Music Theory from The University of Arizona in 2000, and earned his Ph.D. in Music Theory at the University of Oregon in 2005. His doctoral dissertation, advised by Jack Boss, was titled, “Sonata Form in the Music of Dmitri Shostakovich.” In it, Castro examines Shostakovich’s adroit handling of a tonal form while maintaining his own unique post-tonal voice. Castro’s analyses also support hermeneutic interpretations when such readings are appropriate. Castro continues to examine Shostakovich’s music, having presented numerous papers at Music Theory conferences nationwide. He is also conducting research into the employment of Schenkerian notions of prolongation to examine Twentieth-century compositions, particularly for the works of those composers who employ neo-tonal compositional techniques, including non-functional triadic harmony and free counterpoint. |
Forsberg received bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in theory-composition from the University of Minnesota, where he was a student of Paul Fetler and Dominick Argento. His works are published by G. Schirmer, Belwin-Mills, Augsburg, Schmitt-Hall and McCreary, and Curtis Music Press, and his commissioned works have been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra. Forsberg is a member of the Minnesota Composers Forum and ASCAP. |
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Hanson received a B.A. in music from Wells College, Aurora, NY and master’s and Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Illinois, Champaign, IL. She studied at Universität der Stadt Wien at Vienna, Austria, under a Fulbright-Hayes grant. Her specialty is the music of Vienna during the 18-20th centuries, but she also has interests in opera and American music. Her publications include a monograph on Music in Biedermeier Vienna (Cambridge University Press) and articles for Music and Letters, Anterem, and in the Oxford Biographical Dictionary of Music. |
Martin Hodel is Associate Professor of Music at St. Olaf, where he has been teaching since 1997. He has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player in the US and around the world. Currently an extra and substitute player, he played full time in the trumpet section of the Minnesota Orchestra for the 2005-06 season. As Principal and Solo Trumpet with the Eastman Wind Ensemble, Hodel toured the U.S. and Japan, and he has toured coast to coast in America with the Dallas Brass. In June he premiered Eric Ewazen’s Concerto For Trumpet and Orchestra (an orchestration of the Sonata) with the St. Olaf Orchestra in Spain. He has also shared the stage with jazz artists Joe Henderson, Maria Schneider, Slide Hampton, Claudio Roditi, David Murray, and Jimmy Heath, and has toured Germany with organist Bradley Lehman as part of the Hodel-Lehman Duo. A CD by the Duo, In Thee is Gladness, recorded in Emden, Germany has been released on Larips Records. Hodel appears as a soloist on eight other compact discs, has performed live on the nationally-broadcast radio program, A Prairie Home Companion, on Minnesota Public Radio, on public television, and on national broadcasts of the radio programs Sing for Joy and PipeDreams. Hodel holds a doctorate in trumpet performance and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, a master of music from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a bachelor’s degree in music education from Goshen College. His teachers have included Charles Geyer, Barbara Butler, Allen Vizzutti, Donald Hunsberger, James Ketch, Raymond Mase, Craig Heitger, David Hickman and Anthony Plog. Recently Hodel studied Baroque (natural, valveless) trumpet and 18th-century trumpet literature in Europe with Dr. Edward H. Tarr, the leading expert on early trumpets and trumpet literature. |
Hoekstra teaches music history and directs the St. Olaf early music ensembles, the Collegium Musicum and Early Music Singers. His area of specialization is music of the Renaissance, particularly the French and Flemish chanson. He has published articles in Early Music, Musica Disciplina, Speculum, and The Choral Journal, and he has published critical editions of music of Hubert Waelrant and André Pevernage, and most recently an edition of Le Rossignol musical des chansons (Antwerp, 1597). He is a member of the American Musicological Society, the Viola da Gamba Society of America, and Early Music America, and in 2002 EMA presented him with Thomas Binkley Award, a national collegium directors award. He currently serves on the board of Early Music America and is chair the EMA Committee for Early Music in Higher Education. Hoekstra earned his B.A. from Calvin College and master's and doctoral degrees in music history from The Ohio State University under a University Fellowship. |
Mahr holds a B.M. degree in composition and a B.A. degree in music education from St. Olaf College and a master's degree in trombone performance and a D.M.A. in instrumental conducting from the University of Iowa. An internationally acclaimed composer, Mahr received the 1991 Ostwald Award in the ABA Band Composition Contest for his composition The Soaring Hawk. He was elected to the American Bandmasters Association in 1993. Formerly director of bands at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and founding conductor of the Twin Ports Wind Ensemble, Mahr is the principal conductor of the Minnesota Symphonic Winds and is active as a clinician and guest conductor nationally and internationally. Recent commissions have come from the United States Air Force Band, the Music Educators National Conference, and the American Bandmasters Association. Over a dozen of his works for band have been published, with many released on compact disc recordings and included on state contest lists. Mahr is the president of the North Central Division of the College Band Directors National Association. |
Composer Justin Merritt (bn. 1975) is Assistant Professor and Composer in Residence at St. Olaf College. He was the youngest-ever winner of the ASCAP Foundation/Rudolph Nissim award in 2001 for Janus Mask for Orchestra. He is the winner of many other awards including the 2008 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute Award for River of Blood, the 2006 Polyphonos Prize for Hay Días, the 2006 VocalEssence Essentially Chorale Competition for Adoro Te Devote, the 2000 Left Coast Chamber Ensemble Composition Competition Award for The Day Florestan Murdered Magister Raro, and the 2001 Kuttner String Quartet Competition for Ravening. Other works include music for orchestra, ballet, and opera. His music has been heard across North America and Europe. He has also worked as composer and musical director in dozens of theater productions, ranging from Shakespeare to DaDa. Hear more music by Justin Merritt at www.mooneast.com Merritt earned his D.M. from Indiana University where he studied composition with Sven-David Sandström, Samuel Adler, Don Freund, Claude Baker, and electronic and computer music with Jeffrey Hass. |
Visiting Assistant Professor of Music and Asian Studies, Matt Rahaim received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Wesleyan University (Connecticut), and a MA and PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Berkeley. He has been studying, teaching, and performing North Indian classical vocal music in India and the US since 1996. In 2000, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study vocal music in Pune, India with Vikas Kashalkar, with whom he has been studying ever since. His research interests include hand gesture, the harmonium, comparative vocal technique, and evolutionary narratives of music history. |
Catherine Rodland graduated cum laude with departmental distinction in organ performance from St. Olaf College in 1987. She received her MM and DMA from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY where she was a student of Russell Saunders. While at Eastman she received the prestigious Performer's Certificate and the Ann Anway Award for excellence in organ performance. Catherine is a prizewinner in several competitions, including the 1994 and 1998 American Guild of Organists Young Artists Competition, and 1994 Calgary International Organ Competition, and first prize in the 1989 International Organ Competition at the University of Michigan. As a result of these competitions she has concertized extensively throughout the United States and Canada. Prior to St. Olaf, Catherine worked as Minister of Music at First Church of Christ in Glastonbury, Connecticut where she was responsible for seven choirs. She co-authored the book "Choristers' Training Program" for the Royal School of Church Music in America, a manual for childrens' choir education. A specialist in working with childrens choirs, Catherine has presented workshops at several church music conventions. Her advanced childrens' choir toured England in the summer of 2001, singing services at Ely Cathedral, Ripon Cathedral, and York Minster. |
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