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.

Six St. Olaf choral students receive honors in fall voice auditions at St. John's

Trent Chaffee '09
November 23, 2005

Twenty-eight singers and six pianists from St. Olaf College traveled to St. John's University on Nov. 4 and 5 for the fall voice auditions sponsored by the Minnesota Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Of these students, six finished in the top three of their respective divisions.

Elena Bird '09 (Kenai, Ark.) took first place in Division 3A, Taylor Baggott '08 (Maple Grove, Minn.) placed first in Division 4 and Eric Neuville '06 (Waupaca, Wis.) won first place in Division 6. Other students who placed in the top three were: Holly Flack '09 (Portland, Ore.), second place in Division 3A; Sonja Tengblad '06 (Maple Grove, Minn.), second place in Division 5B; and Matt Abbas '06 (Worthing, S.D.), third place in Division 6.

"Most people know of the St. Olaf vocal music program through the many successes of the choral ensembles and the Christmas Festival," says Associate Professor of Music Alison Feldt. "This is one more way the public learns about the high caliber of singing that takes place everyday at St. Olaf."

Approximately 350 singers from colleges and private studios around the state participated in the auditions. Singers were divided in to divisions based on age. Each singer sang a preliminary audition on Friday on which they received written comments from a panel of three judges. The top one-third of the singers from each age division sang on Saturday morning and again received written comments from a panel of three judges. On Saturday afternoon, the top three singers in each age division sang in the final round.

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