Armstrong received a B.M. in vocal performance from St. Olaf College, an M.M. in choral music from the University of Illinois, and a D.M.A. in choral conducting from Michigan State University. He has studied voice with Robert Scholz, Burr McWilliams, James Bailey, and Ethel J. Armeling. Armstrong is active as choral clinician and festival conductor (including numerous all-state choirs) throughout North America, the Caribbean, Scandinavia, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. He has special interest and experience in training the young and adolescent singer. He is an active member of the American Choral Directors Association and Choristers Guild (Past President, National Board of Directors) and former artistic director of Albermarle (the coeducational summer program of the American Boychoir School, Princeton, N.J.) |
Dr. Aspass recieved his M.M. in Choral Conducting from Michigan State University in East Lansing, and his B.M. in Voice Performance from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Dr. Aspaas recently completed his Ph.D. in Choral Music Education at The Florida State University in Talahassee, Florida. He was the Interim Director of Choral Studies at Central Washington University. Prior to pursuing his doctorate, Dr. Aspaas was on the faculty of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. While there, he conducted the Concert Choir and Cantamus, taught private applied voice and choral conducting. Additionally, Dr. Aspaas served as Acting Director of Choral Activities in 2000-2001 and conducted the Glee Club and Chamber Choir, who performed the Durufle' Requiem and Bach's Mass in B Minor. Since 2001, Dr. Aspaas has sung with the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus in Eugene, Oregon, under the direction of Helmuth Rilling. He has recently performed as a soloist with Rilling and the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, the Bach Collegium of Fort Wayne, Indiana, the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and the South |
Mark Calkins earned a B.M. in K-12 Music Education from Concordia College, Moorhead and his M.M. in Voice Performance & Pedagogy from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has appeared in leading roles with opera companies throughout North America and Europe. His artistic specialty is the Rossini repertoire. Mark has performed Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Lindoro in L’Italiana in Algeri, The Prince in La Cenerentola, The Count in Le Comte Ory and Oreste in Ermione to critical acclaim in Opera houses such as: Opera De Nantes, France; Dublin Grand Opera, Ireland; Cologne Opera, Germany; The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Birmingham Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Castleward Opera, Northern Ireland; Kentucky Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Toledo Opera, Minnesota Opera, Opera Omaha, Mobile Opera, Central City Opera and Dayton Opera. He is a former member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s young artist development program, the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. Mr. Calkins was featured as Cassio in Otello on an A&E nationwide production of Spotlight Colorado and starred in a National PBS Television broadcast and World Premiere of Robert Greenleafs’ Under the Arbor, available on DVD. Concert engagements include appearances in Europe’s Music festivals in Salzburg, Bregenz, Villach, Austria; Merano, Italy and Bremen, Germany with Roger Norrington conducting the London Classical Players in Rossini’s Stabat Mater. He has appeared throughout the U.S. in Broadway touring productions of Phantom of the Opera. Mark joined the faculty of St. Olaf College in 2005. He is a current recipient of the Ted & Roberta Mann Scholarship working toward his D.M.A. at the University of Minnesota. He also maintains a private studio of young professional singers and teaches master classes in performance at the pre-professional level across the country and in Italy. Mark recently performed Nadir in Bizet’s Les Pecheurs de Perles with FM Opera in March, Camille in the Operafestival di Roma production of La vedova allegra (The Merry Widow, Lehar) in Rome, Italy in July and Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Opera Fort Collins, Colorado in August of 2006. In December, Mark and his wife, Metropolitan Opera Star, Cynthia Lawrence will appear in recital for “The Minneapolis Women’s Club”. In January of 2009 Mark and Cynthia will be appearing in recital at the 4th International Conference on the Physiology and Acoustics of Singing at the University of Texas, San Antonio. |
Dressen earned a B.S. from Bemidji State University and an M.F.A. and D.M.A. from the University of Minnesota. He was a voice student of Roy Schuessler and has coached with Gerard Souzay at The Ravel International Academy of Music in France and with Sir Peter Pears and Eleanor Steber. An active performer, Dressen was recently with the Washington Opera at Kennedy Center in Carmen and the world premiere of The Dream of Valentino by Dominick Argento. He has been a soloist with the Minnesota Opera, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Plymouth Music Series, Minnesota Orchestra, and Aldeburgh Festival in England, and has appeared several times with Garrison Keillor in A Prairie Home Companion. Dressen's recordings include Aaron Copland's The Tenderland and Benjamin Britten's Paul Bunyan and The Company of Heaven. He was also editor of an anthology series of opera arias by Benjamin Britten for Boosey & Hawkes publishing company. |
Margaret Eaves-Smith, Associate Professor of Voice, B.M., M.M. in Vocal Performance, Cleveland Institute of Music; student of George Vassos. Soprano, Margaret Eaves-Smith, a native of Havre, Montana, was first recognized as a rising talent early in her career when she received the Artist Award from the National Association of Teachers of Singing in 1973. She has achieved both national and international awards in the Regional Metropolitan Opera, S-Hertogenbosch, and Geneva vocal competitions as well. She has sung with the L'Orchestra de la Suisse Romande and the Minnesota Orchestra, and under the direction of James Levine, Louis Lane, Margaret Hillis and John Rutter. Her coaches have included George London, Elly Ameling, Gerard Souzay, Dalton Baldwin, and James King both in the United States and Europe. Additional study includes master classes in Graz, Austria and Aldeburgh, England. Before her tenure at St. Olaf, she taught on the faculty of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. With many years experience as a recitalist, adjudicator and with special interest in the performance of lieder, chanson, and oratorio, Margaret has served as a dedicated teacher to St. Olaf students since 1979. In May of 2004, Ms. Eaves-Smith was the recipient of an alumni achievement award for excellence in teaching from the Cleveland Institute of Music. |
Feldt received a B.A. from Luther College, and M.A. in vocal music and pedagogy from the University of Iowa, and a D.M.A. in vocal performance from the University of Minnesota. Her additional study has been with Kerstin Meyer, Rita Streich, and Rudolf Knoll of the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria. Feldt has won numerous awards, including first place in the 1992 and 1995 Minnesota District NATS Artist Award Voice Competition, first place in the 1990 Minnesota - Western Wisconsin District Metropolitan Opera auditions, first place in the 1989 Opera/Lied Competition from the city of Salzburg Cultural Foundation, and first place in the 1989 Operetta Competition in Salzburg, Austria. Special interests lie in the performance of lieder, chanson, and opera. |
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 Janis HardyAssociate Professor of Music — Voice hardyj@stolaf.edu Hardy has appeared in concerts and operas throughout the United States, including appearances with the Opera Company of Boston, the Spring Opera of San Francisco, the Houston Opera, and the Minnesota Opera. She has soloed under Klaus Tennstedt, Neville Mariner, Dennis Russell Davies, Aaron Copland, Edo DeWaart, and Charles Dutoit. Hardy has done the following solo albums: Copland's Old American Songs and Larsen's In a Winter Garden for Pro Arte, Britten's Paul Bunyan, Copland's Tender Land, and Smythe's Mass in D for Virgin Classics. She has studied with Thomas Grubb and Martin Katz. |
Holt received bachelor's and master's degrees from Oxford University. A singer since age 7, he was included as one of the choristers at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. He has sung professionally in a Cathedral Choir and in the BBC Singers, and more recently was a founding member of the King's Singers, an internationally renowned, six-voice male vocal ensemble. Since 1987 he has divided his time among professional soloing in oratorio, writing record jacket notes, producing records, being a classical disc jockey, and teaching privately and through various schools. |
Johnson received a B.M. in vocal performance from St. Cloud State University and an M.M. in voice performance from the University of Michigan. She is director of the Manitou Singers. Formerly on the voice faculty at the University of Minnesota and Gustavus Adolphus College and a former member and associate conductor of the Dale Warland Singers and music director of theDale Warland Symphonic Chorus, she prepared symphonic choruses for Neemi Jarvi, Sir Neville Mariner, David Zinman, Stanislaw Skrowaczewsky, Gerard Swartz, Edo de Waart, and Leonard Slatkin. Currently, Johnson is associate conductor and director of special events for Philip Brunelle's Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota and is active as a clinician specializing in women's literature. |
Mary Martz MARY MARTZ, soprano, Instructor in Music. B.S. in Performance and Music Education with a minor in Speech Therapy, Moorhead State University. Graduate studies at Amherst College. Ms. Martz has an extensive performance background in opera theatre with the Minnesota Opera, Minnesota Opera Touring Company, other regional companies, oratorio, recitals, and many years of classroom and private voice instruction. She has also taught in the New York NYSSSA program and is Lecturer in Voice at Carleton College. |
Harriet McCleary, soprano, has performed recitals, in operas and oratorios in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Texas and Graz, Austria. Dr. McCleary takes great inspiration from introducing new music to audiences. In 1997 she premiered the first four songs of a set entitled "Chanting to Paradise" by Libby Larsen. In 1999 she premiered a set of songs, "Still Life," by Monte Mason. Formerly on voice faculties at University of Nebraska at Omaha and Westminster Choir College, she teaches on the voice faculty at St. Olaf College and privately at her home studio. Her degrees include B.M.E. and B.M. in Church Music, Texas Christian University; M.M. in Voice, Choral Conducting and Church Music, Westminster Choir College; and D.M.A. in Voice Performance, University of Minnesota. She currently sings with the St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral Choir, Minneapolis. |
McKeel received a B.M.Ed. degree from Westminster College, an M.M. degree from the University of Minnesota, and opera apprenticeships with Santa Fe and Minnesota Opera companies. He has sung over 60 roles with the opera companies of Muny, Minnesota, St. Louis, Santa Fe, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore. McKeel has also appeared with the Guthrie Theatre, Plymouth Music Series, Kennedy Center, New Works Ensemble, Midwest Opera Theatre, Dale Warland Singers, Minnesota and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras, and England's Aldeburgh Festival. Performances range from The Magic Flute & The Marriage of Figaro to La Boheme & Carmen to premieres of Casanova's Homecoming, The Juniper Tree, and the award-winning A Death in the Family. Other performances include Lady in the Dark, Sweeney Todd, the critically-acclaimed premiere of The Three Hermits, the award-winning Paul Bunyan with England's Aldeburgh Festival, and As You Like It at the Guthrie Theatre with Val Kilmer and Patti Lapone. McKeel's recordings include The Mother of Us All, Voices from Lost Realms, Paul Bunyan, The Three Hermits, Visions, and The Hero of Hamblett. He is also a composer of over 50 works including operas, operettas, musicals, choral works, art songs, and song cycles which have received commissions, grants, and performances from the Kennedy Center, Minnesota Opera, Minnesota Composers' Forum, Jerome and Blandin Foundations, Midwest Opera Theatre, Southern Theatre, St. Olaf College, Twin Cities Opera Guild, Bel Canto Voices, Margaret Jory-Fairbanks Foundation, and SEMAC. McKeel directs the St. Olaf Opera Workshop and teaches Acting for the Lyric Stage and Performance Studies. |
Smith earned degrees in both instrumental and vocal music. He has held a variety of teaching positions, serving on the faculties of the University of Vermont, the Berkshire Choral Festival, and the University of New Mexico. Smith has been featured at the Aspen Festival, Madeira Bach Festival (Portugal), and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Smith has also performed at the Covent Garden Festival (London), Prague Spring Festival (Czech Republic), Foire Saint Germain (Paris), and Festival Van Vlaanderen (Belgium). In addition, he has appeared on NPR's "A Prairie Home Companion" several times. |
Jack Yates is a member of the renowned James Grear and Company of Minneapolis where he serves as one of the lead singers and staff songwriters of GrearCo Productions. With this ensemble he has toured and recorded extensively. Several of these recordings have reached national acclaim. Jack has worked with the famous duo, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, performing on the Prince of Egypt and Emperor’s New Groove soundtracks. He is well know for his vocals on Don’t Give Up (1998), Set Me Free (2000) and Peace Be Still (2002), all of which he recorded on the James Grear Projects. Jack provided the lead vocals on a remake of Youngblood’s classic from the 70s, Get Together, which has received rave reviews in both the gospel and mainstream markets. Jack graduated from St. Olaf College in 1994. |
Voice Faculty
