You reached this page through the archive. Click here to return to the archive.

Note: This article is over a year old and information contained in it may no longer be accurate. Please use the contact information in the lower-left corner to verify any information in this article.

A sound collaboration

By Kari VanDerVeen
April 22, 2010
Osmo Vänskä conducts the Minnesota Orchestra during a 2005 performance at St. Olaf.

This weekend the St. Olaf Choir, conducted by Anton Armstrong '78, is performing Durufle's Requiem with the Minnesota Orchestra, conducted by Osmo Vänskä. The performances mark yet another chapter in what has become the orchestra's longest collaboration with a chorus.

As the St. Olaf Choir prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding as well as the centennial of the college's annual Christmas Festival, the ensemble continues to reach out and work with other ensembles, including the Minnesota Orchestra (read about New York critics' recent rave reviews of the orchestra).

The collaboration dates to 1926, when the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (forerunner to the Minnesota Orchestra) helped dedicate St. Olaf’s new music hall with a concert on campus. The relationship was strengthened in the late 1960s, when Kenneth Jennings '50 took the reins of the choir and began collaborating with Minnesota Orchestra Music Director Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. In 1969 the choir joined the Minnesota Orchestra for four joint concerts throughout the state in which they performed Hector Berlioz’s Lelio and Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

Anton Armstrong '78 leads the St. Olaf Choir during last year's Christmas Festival.

The collaborations continued, with the two ensembles marking a number of important milestones with joint performances. The St. Olaf Choir performed with the Minnesota Orchestra as part of the official opening of Orchestra Hall in 1974. A few years later, the choir flew to New York to join the Minnesota Orchestra in celebrating its 75th anniversary with a concert at Carnegie Hall in 1978. In 1985 the choir and orchestra toured the East Coast at the same time, performing Bach’s Magnificat together at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. That same year, the choir also joined the Minnesota Orchestra in a performance of Handel’s Two Coronation Anthems during the British Festival of Music at Orchestra Hall.

After an eight-year hiatus, the St. Olaf Choir, under Armstrong's leadership, resumed collaborating with the Minnesota Orchestra when the two ensembles teamed up to perform Grieg’s Peer Gynt in Orchestra Hall in 1993. The current Duruflé collaboration marks the eighth time the St. Olaf Choir has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra since 1993.

"This has been a mutually beneficial relationship from both ends," Armstrong says. "These collaborations present another opportunity for our students to experience great orchestral works."

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.