CANCELED: St. Olaf Choir

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Courtesy of St. Olaf College

The 2021-22 St. Olaf Choir.

Jan. 14 update: The 2022 St. Olaf Choir tour, including the concert scheduled for January 28 in Madison, has been canceled due to the rising positivity rates of COVID-19 on our campus and across the country. All tickets purchased through Eventbrite will be refunded in the coming days.

press release: The internationally acclaimed St. Olaf Choir, conducted by Dr. Anton Armstrong, will perform at Luther Memorial Church in Madison on Friday, January 28, at  8 p.m. as part of its 2022 national tour. Monona native Emma Auby is a soprano in the choir.

The St. Olaf Choir has set a gold standard for choral singing, and the ensemble’s 75 singers and Armstrong will perform in 15 cities from Saturday, Jan. 22, through Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022, presenting concerts in some of the nation’s finest concert halls in a twelve-state tour to Minnesota, Utah, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Ohio.

“Hearing the St. Olaf Choir in concert is more than just a musical experience,” says Anton Armstrong. “Our singers, performing at the highest artistic level, convey a message of hope. Our music provides a bridge to what can unite us at a time when the world is so divided. We often hear from concertgoers who tell us they are not only struck by the sound and uniformity of the St. Olaf Choir, but also by the earnestness of what comes through the voices of our young singers. Our singers touch the hearts and souls of listeners, and our audiences leave transformed.”

Tickets are available for all tour concerts online at stolaf.edu/tickets. For the Madison performance, tickets are $30 for adults, and $10 for all students. Masks are required for audience members, and members of the fully vaccinated St. Olaf Choir will wear masks throughout the performance.

The 2022 National Tour marks Anton Armstrong’s 32nd year as conductor of the St. Olaf Choir, and is the fourth to lead the ensemble during its 110-year history. In addition to his role as a professor of music at St. Olaf College, he is in demand in the international choral scene as a guest conductor and lecturer. Like his three predecessors, Armstrong carries forward the international reputation of the St. Olaf Choir, an ensemble that is rooted in St. Olaf College’s tradition of faith and commitment to a global perspective.

The choir’s musical selections for the tour reflect these values with a variety of both sacred and secular works. The program will include pieces by living and traditional composers including Adolphus Hailstork, Mack Wilberg, Felix Mendelssohn, J.S. Bach, and the choir’s founder: F. Melius Christiansen.

About the St. Olaf Choir

The St. Olaf Choir has performed in a number of symphonic collaborations including performances of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem for Voices, Orchestra and Organ, Opus 9, with the Minnesota Orchestra under the baton of Osmo Vänskä in April 2010 at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. The St. Olaf Choir has also performed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO).

In June 2019, the St. Olaf Choir and the St. Olaf Orchestra combined forces in Norway in June 2019 and shared the stage during four joint concerts in Stavanger, Bergen, Trondheim, and in Oslo where King Harald V of Norway attended at the Oslo Opera House. This tour was the St. Olaf Choir’s fourth during Armstrong’s 30-year tenure as conductor, and the eighth visit since the St. Olaf Choir was founded in 1912.

Other recent international tours have included a 2017 tour to Japan and Korea, a 2013 tour to Norway, a 2009 tour to England, Wales and Ireland, a 2005 tour of Norway, a 2001 European tour including Paris, Prague, Bratislava, Vienna, Leipzig, and Berlin, and a 1997 tour to Australia and New Zealand. Annual national tours attract audiences totaling 25,000.

Stay up to date with the choir on Facebook and Instagram. For more info visit: stolafchoir.com.