Most musical ensembles of great renown have some large institution behind them. Not so with the St. Olaf Choir. Its home is a tiny college, but its stage is the world.
St. Olaf Choir director Anton Armstrong says the choir’s success also is built on a foundation of support that goes back to the very beginnings of the college.
“Music has been essential in the curriculum since its inception. There was a hymnal that was one of the required textbooks back in 1874,” he says.
And he says that support has been consistent ever since. Some numbers tell the story, too. In a total enrollment of around three thousand students, Armstrong says about one thousand participate regularly in music. That includes 600 or so in various choirs, including the flagship St. Olaf’s Choir.
Armstrong says that that commitment, and the music program itself, is part of what drew him as a student decades ago. How an African-American New Yorker came to be at a college in Minnesota -- where, he jokes, even the food was white -- well, it’s a long story. What’s important, he says, is what he found once he looked past the external differences.
“And the values were the same as I was being taught in my black home, in my black neighborhood in New York: you strive to do your best. You honor God and your family. And you use your creative skills, and the gifts that you’ve been given to the highest order and for something more than yourself,” he says.
Armstrong is in his 27th year as director the choir. He’s only the fourth director in its history. That’s unusual, but Armstrong says what makes the choir special is the tradition he and they inherited.
“Well, the St. Olaf Choir really was one of the pace-setting choirs of the turn of the 20th century in revitalizing choral singing in the United States. Here are a bunch of kids from this little cow town -- literally – from southern Minnesota, but their conductor had a vision for how sacred choral music could be elevated to the same level of artistry and respect among the public that certainly the great orchestra music of the time was valued,” he says.
But Armstrong says what really has kept the tradition strong at St. Olaf’s is another part of that vision each director has carried on.
“That this music could make a difference not just for high artistry and entertainment in the best sense of that word, but that the message of these concerts could be transformative for the listener,” he says.
Armstrong says that’s certainly true this year -- maybe more so than he originally thought.
“The program this year is having a great impact far beyond musical artistry. There’s a very powerful social message. I planned this program back in September, long before I knew the results of the November 2016 elections; but this program is having a profound influence already on our listeners -- that we are trying to communicate a message of hope, of faith, of love,” he says.
Part of the choir’s fame is based on its technical excellence. Armstrong says that drive for perfection goes back to the choir’s early days, and he strives to continue that today. But, he says, it’s never been an end in itself.
“If the choral ensemble unity is not there, people will hear that. If they can’t understand text, that bothers them. If it’s out of tune, that bothers them. But when those things are eliminated to the degree that you have such a well-honed discipline among the singers and instrumentalists – we have a chamber ensemble in this concert -- that people can’t be distracted by that, then the power of the text and the music really comes through,” he says.
Armstrong says he tries to instill that search for excellence in service to something greater in his students. He says that’s part of what makes them, and the choir, so special.
