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Monday, January 24, 2000 Page: 7C
The internationally acclaimed St. Olaf Choir of Northfield, Minn., will
make a concert appearance at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2 at Marywood University
in Scranton as part of the choir’s annual tour of the United States.
The event, which will be at the Sette LaVerghetta Center for Performing
Arts Theatre, also will include a pre-concert lecture by choir director Anton
Armstrong, Ph.D.
Directed since 1990 by Armstrong, the 75-member St. Olaf Choir is credited
with beginning the a cappella choral tradition that originated with its first
director, F. Melius Christiansen. When Christiansen took his ensemble on a
tour of the cultural centers of the eastern United States in 1920, the group’s
unaccompanied singing set a new standard for choral singing and propelled it
to the forefront of choral ensemble performance.
That standard was refined and the repertoire widened under the direction of
the son of F. Melius Christiansen, Olaf Christiansen, the distinguished choir
director who led the group from 1941 to 1968. He added 16th-century and modern
American music to the hymn tunes of the Lutheran tradition favored by his
father.
Kenneth Jennings, who is a former member of the St. Olaf Choir, led the
ensemble from 1968 to 1990. He broadened the repertoire even further, reaching
beyond the traditional Western European music to Eastern European and Asian
music. He also introduced the occasional use of instruments.
During his first years as director, Armstrong has built on the Jennings’
tradition. Armstrong has continued to add to the repertoire, drawing in more
music from Eastern Europe, from Africa and from Latin, South American and
Jewish cultures.
Unlike his predecessors he is not a composer, so he has turned to
contemporary young composers for fresh compositions and arrangements for the
ensemble.
Tickets for the Marywood concert are $15. For more information, call
348-6268.