About Collegium Musicum

The Collegium Musicum is an ensemble of St. Olaf College students that performs music of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras on historical instruments.

• Students in the ensemble learn to play and perform on instruments owned by the college – recorders, viols de gamba, sackbuts, dulcians, shawms, and harpsichords.
• Singers who perform with the group are drawn from the St. Olaf Chamber Singers.
• The Collegium collaborates with St Olaf Chamber Singers to present a concert of early music each semester and occasionally for other performances as well.
• The Collegium presents its concerts in Urness Recital Hall on the St. Olaf College campus.
• Typically each concert has a thematic focus for the repertory each semester and it is reflected in the concert. Sometimes the repertory focuses on the music of a particular country or city (for example, “Music from Elizabethan England” or “French Music from the Early Sixteenth Century”), sometimes on the music of a particular composer (“Lassus and Music at the Bavarian Court,” “Music from the Time of Schütz”), sometimes on a more general theme (“A Musical Celebration of Spring” or “Music of Love and Lamentation”).
• Membership in the Collegium Musicum is open to all students, both music majors and non-music majors. Students who are interested in performing in the ensemble should contact the director to arrange an audition and interview.
• If you are interested, but do yet not play an early historical instrument, you can learn in the ensemble. Students usually play the instrument most similar to their modern instrument.

Students who are considering coming to St. Olaf College and who are interested in early music performance are invited to contact the director via e-mail for more information or to answer any questions they may have about the early music ensembles.