Community Engagement

Ole Musicians are involved in a variety of community engaged projects including curricular and co-curricular experiences. Find out more about opportunities to make an impact!

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Our Philosophy:

The Music Department at St. Olaf College prepares musicians to be leaders who can actively transform our world through practicing and making meaning of music in community. We believe that music connects communities in a powerful way when it is intentionally shared across cultural and generational lines. The heartbeat of music making resounds in relationships between individual participants, musicians and their audiences, and musicians and their communities, on and beyond the Hill.

What do we mean by Community Engagement?

Our community engaged work in the St. Olaf College Music Department is rooted in this philosophy. Community engagement takes on different forms based on the interests, abilities, and goals of those working in musical partnership and is an integral part of our individual and collective vocations. Music, our field of study, serves as our way of connecting with our neighbors, being responsive to the world’s needs, and gaining a great deal in the process. We live into this vocation by building relationships with our neighbors and communities, listening deeply, and collaboratively musicking our way to stronger bonds, deeper understanding, and meaningful growth around shared goals—together.

Dr. Therees Hibbard
Associate Professor of Practice in Music
NYC Chorale Conductor

Dr. Leigh Ann Garner
Assistant Professor of Music Education
NYC Junior Singers Conductor

Singers in grades K-12, college students, and adults enjoy weekly rehearsals with nationally renowned directors and music educators, retreats, area performances, and tours appropriate to their ages and developing voices.

Dr. Dale Kruse
Associate Professor of Practice in Music
Music 268: Opera Creation Residency in the Schools (January Term)

Participants mentor elementary school students as they compose and perform their own original works, culminating in staged public performances.

Database for Historically Underrepresented Composers was constructed by:

Raina Swanson Edson ’23, BM Music Education, and

Dr. Karen Olson, Music Research and Instructional Librarian

Database Launch Instagram Post

Music Library Association Conference 2023 presentation:
“A Student-Led Solution to the DEI Discovery Challenge”

“Mapping Washington Conservatory Alumni in Black American Musical Life”

Dr. Louis Epstein
Associate Professor of Music – Musicology

Davis Moore ’23
BA Music and History

Ariana Raduege ’23
BA Music and Environmental Studies

Jack Slavik ’23
BM Music Education

Lizzie Gray ’25
BA Gender & Sexuality Studies and History

Dr. Rehanna Kheshgi
Assistant Professor of Music – Ethnomusicology

Ethical Local and Global Engagement Course
Music 237: Local & Global Musicking

Students study how musicians and music researchers impact society, addressing questions related to ethical musicking in an unequal world. Through a series of case studies, students experience hands-on workshops with local performers and design community engaged music research proposals. Studying local examples of engagement with music and musicians from around the world prepares students to carry out collaborative musical work wherever they are.

Dr. Rehanna Kheshgi
Assistant Professor of Music – Ethnomusicology

Somali Community Engagement ACE Course
Music 347: Somali Community Engagement through Music

Students explore how Somali diaspora communities have made important visible and audible contributions to the cultural landscape of Minnesota, while studying and learning to perform the interconnected arts of Somali poetry, music, and dance. Interactions with local Somali musicians and community leaders and collaboratively working to support the needs of a Somali community partner organization provides students with hands-on experience in community engagement.

BA in Music for Social Impact

Dr. Louis Epstein
Associate Professor of Music – Musicology

Dr. Rehanna Kheshgi
Assistant Professor of Music – Ethnomusicology

This major anchors the study of music in a performance-oriented commitment to community engaged learning, asking the foundational question:

“How can we develop and deploy our musical gifts to serve the common good?”

Arts and Democracy ACE Course
in Washington, D.C.
Interdisciplinary 242: The Arts and Democracy in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Louis Epstein
Associate Professor of Music – Musicology

Alyssa Melby
Program Director of Academic Civic Engagement

Students meet arts professionals in varied fields; visit galleries, museums, theaters, music and dance performances, arts and civic organizations; and develop strategies for practicing citizenship and democratic engagement through artistic expression.

Opera in Context
in GERMANY AND Austria
Music 266: Contextual Opera Study Abroad

Dr. Dale Kruse
Associate Professor of Practice in Music

Students explore and reflect on opera in the context of changing geo-political social ideology and worldview, the advances in stagecraft and technology, the human desire for beauty, and challenges brought by historical inequities.

Bridge Chamber Music Festival

Dr. Francesca Anderegg
Festival Artistic Director
Associate Professor of Music – Violin

The annual Bridge Chamber Music Festival brings world class musicians to a small town setting in Northfield, Minnesota. With a variety of classical and jazz ensembles we endeavor to thrill audiences with the power and emotion of an intimate performance environment featuring top tier musicians. Our generous donors and a Legacy Fund grant from the State of Minnesota allow us to offer these performances for free!

Korean Composers Festival

Dr. April Ryun Kim ’11
Festival Director
Assistant Professor of Music – Piano

The inaugural Korean Composers Festival was held in September 2023 on the St. Olaf College campus. The festival featured presentations and performances of music written by Korean and Korean diaspora composers of the past and present. The Festival will be held again in September 2025.

Access the 2023 Festival Program here.

Music Ensembles

Each year, around 500 students participate in the St. Olaf Christmas Festival that is rebroadcast around the country on PBS during the holiday season. Students involved in St. Olaf Band, St. Olaf Choir, and St. Olaf Orchestra tour nationally each year and internationally on a rotating basis.

Band Day and Choir Day offer K-12 musicians an opportunity to visit campus and work with St. Olaf conductors and students.

Sharing the Legacy of Spirituals

Dr. Emery Stephens, curator and performer
Assistant Professor of Music – Voice

“Sharing the Legacy of Spirituals” is a performance education project, funded by the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, on African American spirituals, interspersed with African drumming, dance, and narration through a collaboration between faculty, staff, and students from Carleton and St. Olaf colleges.