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Armstrong calls Christmas Festival music 'a healing balm'

By David Gonnerman '90
December 2, 2011

"We offer people an opportunity to come in out of crazy lives, hectic moments, and take a moment to sit back and reflect on the good things in their lives, those things in which they struggle, and allow the music to be a healing balm," Anton Armstrong '78, artistic director of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, tells Minnesota Public Radio's Alison Young.

"One of the things that the Christmas festival experience does for our students is suggest they understand better the notion of what it means to try and do something well," adds John Ferguson, conductor of Cantorei. "And I think this transcends into all kinds of things, not just music making."

Read about the St. Olaf Christmas Festival simulcast that will be seen in nearly 400 movie theaters around the country December 4.

See photos of this year's event.

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