Anton Armstrong
Harry R. and Thora H. Tosdal Professor of Music

Anton Armstrong is the Harry R. and Thora H. Tosdal Professor of Music at St. Olaf College and Conductor of the St. Olaf Choir, a position he assumed in 1990. He came to this position following ten years in Grand Rapids, Michigan where he served on the faculty of Calvin College and conducted the Campus Choir, the Calvin College Alumni Choir and the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus.
A graduate of St. Olaf College, Anton Armstrong earned a Master of Music degree at the University of Illinois and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Michigan State University. He holds membership in several professional societies including the American Choral Directors Association, Choristers Guild, Chorus America, and the International Federation for Choral Music. He also serves as editor of a multicultural choral series for Earthsongs Publications and co-editor of the revised St. Olaf Choral Series for Augsburg Fortress Publishers.
Dr. Armstrong is widely recognized for his work in the area of youth and children's choral music. He served for over twenty years on the summer faculty of the American Boychoir School, Princeton, New Jersey and held the position of Conductor of the St. Cecilia Youth Chorale, a 75 voice treble chorus based in Grand Rapids, from 1981-1990. He is the founding conductor of the Troubadours, 30-voice boys' ensemble of the Northfield Youth Choirs since 1991. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Boychoir School, the Board of Chorus America and the Board of Choristers Guild. In June 1998, he began his tenure as founding conductor of the Oregon Bach Festival Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy.
Anton Armstrong has conducted the St. Olaf Choir in critically acclaimed solo concert performances at the 59th National Conference of the Music Educators National Conference in April 2004, the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music in August 2002, and at the 1999 National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association in Chicago, Illinois. In February 2005, The St. Olaf Choir shared the stage with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in presenting the finale concert for the national conference of the American Choral Directors Association at the new Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, California.

The Eliot & Klara Stockdal Johnson Professor of Organ and Church music at St. Olaf College, John Ferguson,earned a B.M. from Oberlin College, an M.M. from Kent State University, and a D.M.A. from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Russell Saunders. He is also Cantor to the Student Congregation. His responsibilities include directing the church music-organ program, teaching organ and conducting the St. Olaf Cantorei.
 A native of Cleveland, Ferguson came to St. Olaf in 1983 from Minneapolis where he served Central Lutheran Church as Music Director and Organist, an appointment accepted in 1978 after a 15-year tenure on the music faculty at Kent State University. While at Kent State he also served as Organist-Choirmaster of the United Church of Christ, Kent, Ohio.
While he is respected as a fine teacher and performer, it is his work as a church musician, especially as an improviser and leader of congregational song that has received national acclaim. Each year Ferguson  prepares and leads many hymn festivals across the country for both local congregations and professional gatherings. In addition, he is in constant demand as a speaker and clinician. He has served as visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.
Ferguson is the author of Worship Blueprints: Guide to Planning for Worship Music and Walter Holtkamp: American Organ Builder and the co-author of A Musicians Guide to Church Music. He was music editor of the United Church of Christ Hymnal, published in 1975, and his choral and organ music is published by Augsburg, Concordia, G.I.A., Ludwig, and MorningStar publishing houses.    In 2005 his composition, “Who Is This” for choir and viola was awarded the prestigious Raabe Prize for excellence in sacred composition.
Since joining the St. Olaf faculty, Ferguson's skills as choral conductor and creative arranger have become more widely known. He brings a special combination of experience as choral singer (Oberlin College Choir under Robert Fountain), church musician and participant in the St. Olaf choral tradition and his workshops in conducting and repertoire for church choirs are consistently rated as highlights at conventions of professional organizations. In July, 1996 he led workshops and a hymn festival in Seoul, Korea. The summer of 1997, he designed and led a hymn festival in the Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim, Norway as a part of the celebration of the millennium of the birth of St. Olaf. He was invited to design and present a hymn festival held in the Washington National Cathedral as a major event for a recent national convention of the American Choral Directors Association.

David Hagedorn is an artist in residence in the music department, director of the jazz ensembles and teaches percussion at St. Olaf College. He earned a M.M in percussion performance from the New England Conservatory and a D.M.A. in percussion performance from the Eastman School of Music.
His latest release, Horizon, with pianist Dan Cavanagh, was released in December of 2010. Hagedorn also has an album, Solid/Liquid on the artegra label in SACD format released in October of 2003. He is featured on Songs from the Lonely Avenue by the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and also with pipa artist Gao Hong on Quiet Forest, Flowing Stream. Other albums with local artists include Subduction the Phil Hey Quartet, live at the Artists Quarter, Where’s When with Pete Whitman’s X-tet, the Out to Lunch Quintet, live at the Artists Quarter, and many recordings with the vocal group Cantus.  He recorded two albums with the George Russell Living Time Orchestra on Blue Note Recordings and has toured with . Tours with George Russell, included concerts at Kool Jazz Festivals in Saratoga Springs, New York and San Diego, California and club appearances at Sweet Basil in New York City and at the African American Cultural Center in Philadelphia. He played vibes and marimba on Twin Cities jazz singer Debbie Duncan’s album, It Must be Christmas on Igmod Recordings. In 1984, he received an honorable mention award from Down Beat magazine for a performance with alto saxophonist Nelson Rangell.         
Hagedorn has performed in academic settings, on the Prairie Home Companion and Good Evening, shows on Minnesota Public Radio, and also at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire Jazzfest. David Hagedorn regularly performs in the Twin Cities with groups such as Source Code with Eric Gravatt (drummer formerly with Weather Report), the Out to Lunch Quintet, the Phil Hey Quartet, Low Blows, Pete Whitman’s X-tet, and JazzMn.

Jennifer Anderson Koenig, associate college pastor at St. Olaf since 1997, choreographed and performed for three years with the professional modern dance company Ballet Harren and later served for three years on the dance and fine arts committee at Luther Seminary. Koenig served in parish ministry in Iowa before coming to St. Olaf.

Jill Mahr is instructor of music in handbells and flute at St. Olaf College. She conducts both the St. Olaf Handbell Choir and the Chapel Ringers and oversees the Manitou Handbell Choir, which is student conducted. Mahr founded a children's handbell and handchime program at her church, Bethel Lutheran, Northfield, which now has four graded choirs. Mahr is past secretary of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers Area VII. She is principal flute of the Mankato Symphony and teaches flute privately in her home.

Jeffrey O’Donnell is the Director of Broadcast / Media Services at St. Olaf College and executive producer of the college’s sacred music radio program Sing For Joy (singforjoy.org). He is a 2002 graduate of St. Olaf College, where he received a B.M. cum laude in church music. O’Donnell oversees the college’s initiatives in concert recording, web streaming and program outreach. He enjoys performing with Twin Cities choral ensembles and was on the steering committee for the 2008 AGO National Convention in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area.