St. Olaf music ensembles release six new digital albums through St. Olaf Records
In celebration of St. Olaf College’s Sesquicentennial, St. Olaf Records will release six new digital albums over the next six weeks, beginning July 19, 2024. Each Friday, a new digital album will debut, featuring music by the St. Olaf Band, St. Olaf Choir, or St. Olaf Orchestra, with each ensemble releasing a total of two digital albums each. These new releases will be available to stream and download on platforms that include Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube, etc.
“Since its founding, St. Olaf Records has provided listeners throughout the world the opportunity to hear its renowned ensembles through the release of vinyl albums, cassette tapes, and CDs,” says Jean Parish, director of college relations for music organizations. “In 2021, we transferred our back catalog of more than 80 CD titles to digital platforms through our distribution partner, Naxos, and we are thrilled to now be distributing never-before-released material from our Ambassador Ensembles. Celebrating the college’s sesquicentennial with these new releases not only honors the long-standing tradition of musical excellence at St. Olaf College, but also the future of music at St. Olaf by entering the digital landscape with current and future material.”
These six new albums mark the first new releases by St. Olaf Records in more than a decade apart from the label’s annual recording of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival. The recordings were made live-in-concert between 2012–2023, and feature: Steven Amundson, St. Olaf Orchestra conductor, 1981–2022; Anton Armstrong, St. Olaf Choir conductor; and Timothy Mahr, St. Olaf Band conductor, 1995–2023. Each album holds a collection of recordings identified by each conductor as standout performances by their ensemble, and each album centers around an artistic motif, emotional journey, or musical theme.
These albums also celebrate the college’s 150th anniversary and its rich musical tradition, and serve as a nod to the future of St. Olaf Records and the release of new and exciting music that will continue on the Hill. Along with the support of the St. Olaf Music Organizations Department, these releases would not be possible without the dedication and technical prowess of the college’s Broadcast Media Services Department, the artistic vision and consultation of Brian Newhouse, longtime managing director of Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media’s classical programming, and the ear and craft of Lawrence Rock, audio director of the New York Philharmonic.
Read more about each release below, and make sure you listen to each release every week on your music platform of choice!
Every Wound Healed – St. Olaf Choir, Anton Armstrong
Release Date: July 19, 2024
Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music
Every Wound Healed is the first standalone release from the St. Olaf Choir since 2013 and marks St. Olaf Records’s first-ever digital-only offering. The album features works by Stacey Gibbs, Charles Forsberg, and St. Olaf alumni Abbie Betinis ’01 and Margaret Burk ’13, among others. The album also features one of the St. Olaf Choir’s most-requested selections, When Memory Fades, a contemplative and comforting work about dementia, arranged by Eric Nelson with text by Mary Louise Bringle.
Scandalous – St. Olaf Orchestra, Steven Amundson
Release Date: July 26, 2024
Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music
Scandalous features three major works performed by the St. Olaf Orchestra under the leadership of Steven Amundson, who conducted the ensemble from 1981 until his retirement in 2022. The album opens with all six movements of Béla Bartók’s Dance Suite, a dramatic work inspired by Hungarian folk music and originally commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the formation of Hungary’s capital, Budapest. The album closes with The Overture to School for Scandal by Samuel Barber, and a standout recording of Silvestre Revueltas’s lively and bold Sensemaya.
Blue Beyond the Glass – St. Olaf Band, Timothy Mahr
Release Date: August 2, 2024
Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music
Blue Beyond the Glass presents three bold composers writing for a world-class concert band and demonstrates the dynamism of the St. Olaf Band under the direction of longtime conductor Timothy Mahr, who retired in 2023. The album opens with Jodie Blackshaw’s Symphony No. 1 (“Leunig’s Prayer Book”), inspired by four prayers from Australian poet Michael Leunig; movement titles are derived from each prayer, celebrating the arrival of a new season. The album continues with To Gold in Broadest Blue, by St. Olaf alumna Jocelyn Hagen ’03, a dazzling tour de force inspired by the composer’s home state of North Dakota; Hagen’s music is grounded in possibility, tranquility, and peace. The album closes with the 2021 world premiere performance of Leah Primiani’s Glass Ceiling, a captivating work that portrays a day in the life of the working woman and the continued fight for gender equality in the workplace.
She Restores My Soul – St. Olaf Choir, Anton Armstrong
Release Date: August 9, 2024
Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music
She Restores My Soul showcases the St. Olaf Choir and conductor Anton Armstrong at their most tender and powerful. The album opens with Bobby McFerrin’s 23rd Psalm, an ethereal transcription written in dedication to his mother, and closes with Olaf Christiansen’s The Song of Peace. The heart of this release centers around three movements from Eric Whitacre’s Sacred Veil in his recent collaboration with poet/lyricist Charles Anthony Silvestri. This intimate and compelling score centers around the loss of Silvestri’s wife, Julie, who died of ovarian cancer at age 36 and shares a story of courtship, love, grief, and the search for solace.
Dedication – St. Olaf Orchestra, Steven Amundson
Release Date: August 16, 2024
Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music
Dedication honors St. Olaf Orchestra conductor Steven Amundson, who served and educated students at St. Olaf College for more than 40 years. The album’s primary work is Edward Elgar’s renowned Enigma Variations. Elgar wrote his own dedication for the piece: “To my friends pictured within,” a nod to the work’s main theme and 14 variations that symbolize individuals in his closest circle. Bookending the Elgar are two of Amundson’s own compositions, Gratia Viva, which evokes gratitude as a means of enriching one’s life experience; and Handprints, which pays tribute to the legacy of those who support the greater good, particularly through music.
Earth and Heavens Shaking – St. Olaf Band, Timothy Mahr
Release Date: August 23, 2024
Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music
In Earth and Heavens Shaking, the St. Olaf Band and conductor Timothy Mahr deliver powerful performances from three innovative voices composing for concert band: Satoshi Yagisawa, Omar Thomas, and James Lee III. The album begins with Yagisawa’s Hymn to the Sun – With the Beat of Mother Earth, commissioned for the Tokai City Wind Music Band’s 40th anniversary with the mission to “express our enthusiasm for progress.” Next is Thomas’s Of Our New Day Begun, written to honor the nine people who lost their lives during an act of domestic terrorism at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. This blistering and uplifting composition incorporates the melody of Lift Every Voice and Sing and musical elements rooted in the Black American church tradition. Closing the album is Lee’s Ancient Words, Current Realities!, commissioned by Timothy Mahr and the St. Olaf Band and premiered at the CBDNA National Conference in 2013.