Anton Arnstrong

Anton Armstrong is the Harry R. and Thora H. Tosdal Professor of Music at St. Olaf College and conductor of the St. Olaf Choir, a position he assumed in 1990. Armstrong came to his position at St. Olaf College after a decade in Grand Rapids, Mich., where he served on the faculty of Calvin College and conducted the Campus Choir, the Calvin College Alumni Choir and the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus. Armstrong is a graduate of St. Olaf and earned a master of music degree at the University of Illinois and a doctor of musical arts degree from Michigan State University. He holds membership in the American Choral Directors Association, Chorus America, and the International Federation for Choral Music among other professional societies. He edits a multicultural choral series for Earthsongs Publications and co-edits the revised St. Olaf Choral Series for Augsburg Fortress Publishers.

Since returning to St. Olaf in 1990, Armstrong has taken the St. Olaf Choir on tours throughout the United States and to Denmark, Norway, Australia, New Zealand and Central Europe (France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic). The St. Olaf Choir received an invitation from President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush, and on May 5, 2005, sang for the President and guests at the White House to commemorate The National Day of Prayer. A month later he led the St. Olaf Choir on a three-week tour of Norway with the St. Olaf Band and the St. Olaf Orchestra to celebrate Norway’s 100 years of independence from Sweden as well as 100 years of friendship and historical legacy between St. Olaf College and Norway.

Earlier in 2005 Armstrong and the St. Olaf Choir were honored with a request to perform in the final concerts of the 2005 National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), including the final concert of the convention at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. He also conducted the ensemble in critically acclaimed concert performances at the 1999 National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) in Chicago, Ill., and the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., in 2002. Together with the St. Olaf Orchestra, the St. Olaf Choir also was heard live on the Nov. 17, 2001, national broadcast of Garrison Keillor's “A Prairie Home Companion” radio program. The choir has recorded 12 CDs during Armstrong’s tenure as conductor - including 11 with St. Olaf Records and the ensemble's first international recording, released in January 2003, with Linn Records of London, England.

Armstrong is widely recognized for his work with youth and children's choral music. He began his tenure as conductor of the Oregon Bach Festival Youth Choral Academy in June 1998. In the summer of 2001, he served as co-conductor of the World Youth Choir sponsored by the International Federation of Choral Music. He and Maria Guinand of Venezuela co-conducted the first National Multicultural Honor Choir at the 2001 ACDA national convention in San Antonio, Texas. He served for more than 20 years on the summer faculty of the American Boychoir School in Princeton, N.J., and was conductor of the St. Cecilia Youth Chorale, a 75-voice treble chorus based in Grand Rapids, Mich., from 1981 to 1990. He has conducted the Troubadours, a 30-voice boys ensemble of the Northfield Youth Choirs since 1991. He is a member of the board of trustees of the American Boychoir School and past president of the national board of directors of the Choristers Guild.

In recent years he has guest conducted such noted ensembles as the Utah Symphony and Symphony Chorus, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has collaborated in concert with Bobby McFerrin and Garrison Keillor. Armstrong made his European conducting debut in 1992 at the International Band and Choir Festival in Brussels, Belgium, and returned to Vienna, Austria, in March 2000 to conduct the 25th anniversary concerts of this festival. In August 1996 he was featured as a clinician at the Fourth World Symposium on Choral Music in Sydney, Australia. In October 2000 he was the featured lecturer and conductor at the combined National Choral Conference of the Swedish and Danish Choral Associations. Armstrong also served as Headline Clinician for the 2002 Australian National Choral Association.

He is active as a guest conductor and lecturer throughout North America, Europe, Scandinavia, Korea, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean. He has conducted ensembles and appeared before regional and national gatherings of the American Choral Directors Association, the Music Educators National Conference, the Choristers Guild, the American Guild of Organists, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, the Organization of American Kodaly Educators, and the Orff-Schulwerk Association.

The St. Olaf Choir

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