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St. Olaf Choir set to embark on West Coast tour

The St. Olaf Choir, conducted by Anton Armstrong ’78, embarks on its 2023 national tour to the West Coast starting in late January. The ensemble’s 75 singers will perform in 11 cities from Sunday, January 29, through Friday, February 10, 2023, presenting concerts in some of the nation’s finest churches and concert halls in a four-state tour of Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington. The choir will also perform a pre-tour concert in Rochester, Minnesota, on January 22. 

The St. Olaf Choir has set a gold standard for choral singing for more than a century, and this year’s members are excited to continue the touring tradition.

“We seek to be a transforming force in society through choral performance, bringing understanding, mercy, justice, peace, and hope to a world that desperately cries out for these things,” Armstrong says.

Tickets for the St. Olaf Choir tour dates are on sale now, available online or by phone at 800-363-5487.

We seek to be a transforming force in society through choral performance, bringing understanding, mercy, justice, peace, and hope to a world that desperately cries out for these things.St. Olaf Choir Conductor Anton Armstrong ’78

This marks Armstrong’s 33rd year as conductor of the St. Olaf Choir. He is the fourth conductor to lead the ensemble during its 111-year history. In addition to his role as a professor of music at St. Olaf College, Armstrong is in demand in the international choral scene as a guest conductor and lecturer. Like his three predecessors, Armstrong carries forward the international reputation of the St. Olaf Choir, an ensemble that is rooted in St. Olaf College’s tradition of faith and commitment to a global perspective.

The St. Olaf Choir is internationally renowned for its unique combination of advanced choral singing and the presentation of challenging choral programming, with a vast repertoire that on this tour includes sacred and secular choral standards, traditional hymns, new compositions, spirituals, and more. The program will include pieces by living and traditional composers including Eric Whitacre, Rosephanye Powell, Kim André Arnesen, Moses G. Hogan Jr., and St. Olaf Choir founder F. Melius Christiansen.