F. Melius Christiansen

It was in 1903 that F. Melius Christiansen was hired to teach music and direct the band at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.  Born in 1871 in Norway, he received his musical training in Leipzig, Germany, immigrated to the United States, and served as organist at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Northfield, which was considered the church of St. Olaf College. He was the organist at St. John’s Lutheran Church until his death in 1955. He reorganized the church choir in 1907, drawing new membership from students and faculty of St. Olaf.  His intent was to improve the quality of choral singing and reacquaint the church with its heritage of chorales and a cappella (unaccompanied) music.

Under his rigorous leadership the choir was soon presenting “song services” at St. Olaf College and in local churches as well.  In 1912, just before the choir’s first extended tour to neighboring Wisconsin, the name of the choir was changed from “St. John’s Church Choir” to the “St. Olaf Lutheran Choir.” Since its official founding as the St. Olaf Lutheran Choir in 1912, the ensemble has maintained a standard of musical excellence that has been internationally recognized and acclaimed. During its early years (1912-1920), the St. Olaf Lutheran Choir participated mostly in local events such as weekly church services and special college functions. The first Christmas “song service” — a tradition which now brings more than 15,000 people to campus each year — was presented in 1912.

Christiansen’s musical training and his desire to provide an experience of intellectual and spiritual depth for the singers and the listeners were reflected in programs including J.S. Bach, the Russian choral masters, and leading German composers of the day. Norwegian music on the programs suggests that the St. Olaf Lutheran Choir was a source of ethnic identity and pride. A tour to Norway in 1913 brought the St. Olaf Lutheran Choir to its cultural “homeland” where many of the singers still had relatives.

A major event in the St. Olaf Lutheran Choir’s expanding reputation was its tour to America’s East Coast in 1920. Singing in New York and other leading music centers, the choir was widely acclaimed for its extraordinary performances of a cappella music. International recognition came with the St. Olaf Lutheran Choir’s tour to Germany in 1930.

Olaf C. Christiansen

In 1941 Olaf C. Christiansen, who had already established himself as a choral director at Oberlin College in Ohio, came to St. Olaf College as Chairman of the Music Department and Assistant Conductor of the St. Olaf Lutheran Choir under his father. He assumed full musical direction of the choir in 1943.

During his tenure, Olaf Christiansen not only upheld the musical artistry of the St. Olaf Lutheran Choir but expanded the concert repertoire of a cappella literature. To the then-standard and beloved repertory of his father he added more Renaissance music, more contemporary music, American folksongs, and spirituals. Like his father, he performed many of his own compositions and arrangements. Together, F. Melius and Olaf Christiansen developed an approach to choral singing that has had a profound influence on the development of choral singing in America during the twentieth century.

Since the 1920’s the St. Olaf Lutheran Choir membership has been exclusively students at St. Olaf College, with the exception of Paul G. Schmidt, the choir’s first manager, who continued to sing with the choir until his retirement in 1948, and Gertrude Boe Overby, soprano soloist with the choir from 1922 to 1941.

Kenneth Jennings

Kenneth Jennings, an alumnus of St. Olaf College and a former member of the St. Olaf Choir, with a master’s degree form Oberlin Conservatory and a doctorate from the University of Illinois, became the St. Olaf Choir’s third director in 1968. By this time the choir had dropped “Lutheran” from its title. Acknowledging the choir’s best traditions, he also accepted new challenges and moved the choir’s repertoire in new directions.

The St. Olaf Choir has inspired audiences in the United States, Europe, and Asia with 12 international tours under the direction of Kenneth Jennings. In 1988, the St. Olaf Choir was one of only five choirs in the world invited to participate in the Olympic Arts Festival in Seoul, South Korea. Two years earlier, it celebrated its 75th anniversary with a four-week tour to Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the People’s Republic of China. In 1970, the St. Olaf Choir opened the international Strasbourg Music Festival in France, where it achieved distinction as the only collegiate group ever invited to perform at the prestigious event. In 1972, Jennings was invited to return to the Strasbourg Music Festival to conduct the St. Olaf Choir and the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of J. S. Bach’s monumental Mass in B Minor.

Members of the St. Olaf Choir spent three weeks studying and performing in Vienna in January 1975, and then went to Rome at the invitation of the Vatican to participate in events for the “Week of Christian Unity.” The St. Olaf Choir’s 1980 tour to Norway included a performance at the Bergen Music Festival and a concert in Oslo with members of the royal family in attendance. The choir returned to Norway in 1994 for a three-week tour. Jennings’ tour programs, while still largely from the repertory of a cappella music, also included music with instrumental ensembles reflecting concerns for historically accurate renditions of Baroque and Classical music — and occasionally music with piano, organ, and handbells or electronic synthesizers.

Through Jennings’ efforts, conductors of international reputation including German conductor Helmut Rilling and American conductor Robert Shaw also came to the college to rehearse and conduct great choral masterworks. Shaw spent a week in residence at the college in 1985 preparing for a performance of J.S. Bach’s Passion According to St. Matthew. In November 1991, British composer Sir David Willcocks, who served as conductor and musical director of The Bach Choir of London from 1960 to 1998, came to St. Olaf to conduct the St. Olaf Choral Festival.