Press Contact:
Karl Reichert, Publicist
Phone: (612) 708-5275
E-Mail:karlreichert@visi.com
Press Materials/Photos available online at: stolafchoir.com
St. Olaf Choir Fact Sheet
- The St. Olaf Choir, founded in 1912, has been singing for capacity audiences in major venues across America, and around the globe (including 13 international tours) for more than 90 years, sharing the finest sacred choral repertoire, inspiring people of all faiths, garnering immense critical acclaim, and setting new standards for choral excellence.
- The St. Olaf Choir is internationally renowned for a unique combination of superior choral singing and the presentation of challenging choral programming with a vast repertoire encompassing the entire history of Western music, from Renaissance polyphony to new music. The St. Olaf Choir transcended America’s limited early 20th century choral tradition with the introduction of a cappella singing of the highest level, creating a new model for the widespread choral growth that followed.
- The 75-voice St. Olaf Choir is the premier choral ensemble of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. St. Olaf College is a four-year, co-educational liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with students from across the United States, as well from 35 countries. St. Olaf College is recognized worldwide for the exceptional breadth and depth of its music program.
- St. Olaf Choir members are full-time, undergraduate students. Their commitment to the St. Olaf Choir involves rehearsing five days a week in addition to completing a full schedule of academic and musical studies.
- The St. Olaf Choir is perhaps best known for its annual performances in the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, one of the oldest Christmas musical celebrations in the United States. Aired on national and international radio and television for more than 20 years, the St. Olaf Christmas Festival achieved another major milestone when Christmas at St. Olaf: Where Peace and Love and Hope Abide was simulcast to more than 180 movie theaters across the nation on December 2, 2007. The PBS premiere of the one-hour highlights program produced by Twin Cities Public Television aired on Wednesday, December 19, 2007, and reached 2.5 million people, according to Nielsen Media Research.
- The St. Olaf Choir’s ever-expanding discography now features 25 discs following the 2007 release of Repertoire for Mixed Voices, Volume 1, which is the first of a two-disc compilation of “home concert” recordings from the 2001 to 2006 national tours recorded in Boe Memorial Chapel on the campus of St. Olaf College. Repertoire for Mixed Voices, Volume 2, will be released in 2008. Other recordings released in recent years include two volumes of Great Hymns of Faith,Charles Ives: The Celestial Country, My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord,The Spirituals of William L. Dawson, and Advance Australia Fair. All recordings are available through St. Olaf Records at www.stolafrecords.com.
- Extraordinary sales of the first volume of Great Hymns of Faith recording surpassed 270,000, and in honor of two past Memorial Days (2003 and 2004), St. Olaf College donated more than 4,000 copies of the two Great Hymns volumes to the U.S. military chaplaincy for worship services among troops in Iraq and around the globe.
- In 2005 the St. Olaf Choir was invited to perform at the White House on May 5 for President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush and guests to commemorate The National Day of Prayer.
- In February 2005 Armstrong and the St. Olaf Choir were honored with a request to perform in the final concerts of the 2005 National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) in Los Angeles, which included singing in the final concert of the convention at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, sharing the stage with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The next day the ensemble flew across the country and sang in an acclaimed performance at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, the tenth appearance in the St. Olaf Choir’s history.
- The St. Olaf Choir has received countless invitations to perform at prestigious festivals around the world including the Seoul Olympic Arts Festival, the Strasbourg and Bergen Music Festivals, and most recently, the closing concert of the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music in Minneapolis, MN, August 2002. Recent national invitations have included the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) National Conference in 1999 and the St. Olaf Choir together with the St. Olaf Band and St. Olaf Orchestra presented the highly lauded opening gala concert of the 59th National Conference of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) in April 2004.
- Celebrating both the Centennial of Norway’s 100 years of independence from Sweden as well as 100 years of friendship and historical legacy between St. Olaf College and Norway in June 2005, the St. Olaf Choir with the St. Olaf Orchestra and the St. Olaf Band took an unprecedented three-week tour to Norway performing jointly in Oslo, Bergen, Molde and Trondheim, with each ensemble presenting additional concerts throughout the country. In December 2005 “A St. Olaf Christmas in Norway” television special was broadcast nationally on PBS and was released on DVD.
- The St. Olaf Choir continues to attract capacity audiences at top venues around the country including Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall, the Kennedy Center, Cleveland’s Severance Hall and the Orchestra Halls of both Chicago and Minneapolis.
- Founded in 1912 by distinguished Norwegian musician F. Melius Christiansen, the St. Olaf Choir is credited with contributing to the transformation of American choral music. Founding director F. Melius Christiansen was the first of only four conductors for the St. Olaf Choir. He was succeeded by his son, Olaf Christiansen, in 1943; Kenneth Jennings in 1968; and current director Anton Armstrong in 1990.
- Dr. Joseph Shaw’s 1998 book, The St. Olaf Choir: A Narrative, chronicles the illustrious history of one of America’s most preeminent choral institutions. Most recently, the St. Olaf Choir was honored with the 1999 Wittenberg Award for outstanding contributions to Lutheran church music.
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