I know I'll be working with all their choral groups, serving as a guest lecturer in various classes, and teaching one or two special-topics courses of my own choosing.

I'm also hoping that my time there will serve not only the immediate Baylor community but will also plant seeds that will continue to serve the wider Waco area for years to come. I would love to help seed a children's choral program that comes out of the Baylor music department and operates in partnership with one of the university's fine museums - or a town-gown choral group that helps strengthen community.

When I first began conducting and teaching, I had a take-charge attitude, the notion that the young people in front of me were there to do my bidding. I see myself as a catalyst now, someone who helps bring out the best in them, as musicians and as individuals.

In rehearsal last night, for instance, the choir was singing very beautifully, very accurately, but the music was soulless. "You're singing like a well-oiled choral machine," I told them. "I want human beings."

I'm not sure I'm the one to tell you what I've done. There were years, for instance, when people said, "there's a change in the choir's sound," and I really didn't hear it. I was just doing what I was doing.

That said, I'd count the creation of the two volumes of Great Hymns of Faith as significant. Little did we know when we made that first CD that we would send it off to comfort soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. Or that we'd receive letters from people telling us that their loved ones listened to it when they were dying.

The power that the choir could have in the lives of others was obvious when I returned to St. Olaf. Over the years that's only become more manifest. This is something I hope to build upon in the years to come.

The St. Olaf Choir has always been an organization that proclaimed a message of faith, of hope, of love and compassion, of peace.

I do believe that to be convincing those messages have to have an international consciousness and appreciation. This is very much in line with St. Olaf's commitment to provide an education that incorporates a global perspective and challenges students to be responsible and knowledgeable citizens of the world.

As a result, I have not been quite as focused on the need to have the perfect sound as on the need for integrity of expression. We need to find the appropriate voice with which to "tell the story" within each piece that we sing. Which means that while the basic integrity of the sound of the choir always will be there, it will have different "hues" depending on what we are singing.

Africa and the Middle East. I'd like to explore more of Latin America, too, especially Chile and Brazil.

My pastor convinced me to go with him to hear the St. Olaf Choir instead of going with my friends to hear the Moody Blues at Lincoln Center. Then, when I went to the Lutheran College Fair, there were long lines at all the colleges I was seriously considering. I talked at length with the St. Olaf representative, Bruce Moe, and decided to visit.

When I got here, I discovered that everything was white: the fresh snow, the buildings, the people. Even the food was white - Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, and cauliflower!

I also heard [Professor Emeritus of Music] Bob Scholz rehearsing the Chapel Choir. The singing of that ensemble was so compelling; it made me realize that there were many opportunities at St. Olaf to make music at a very high level. It's a good thing, too, since I didn't get into the St. Olaf Choir until my junior year.

I look for a beautiful voice, a healthy voice, one with flexibility, clarity and evenness and without excessive vibrato and flutter. I also look for a very strong ear. Because of the a cappella music we sing I, like my predecessors, put a great deal of emphasis on how well a singer listens to the sounds he or she is producing and how they fit with the sound being produced by those around them.

Those two musical qualifications having been met, it comes down to the quality of the human being. Music colleagues who have had these singers in their ensembles and in their classes help me determine that.

Being in the St. Olaf Choir is, yes, a badge of honor, but that can't be the sole reason you want to be in it. We don't have any room for divas. You must love to sing, you must be disciplined and mature, and you must think it is more important to give than to receive.

It's possible to create music solely for its own sake and to admire it in the abstract. But music has the deepest impact for me, the greatest import, when it serves others. Unless it does that, it becomes narcissistic, a case of "come see what I've done" rather than "here's an expression of my heart and soul."