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Biography:
Anton Armstrong, the Harry R. and Thora H. Tosdal Professor of Music at St. Olaf College, became the fourth conductor of the St. Olaf Choir in 1990 after ten years in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he had served on the faculty of Calvin College and led the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus and the St. Cecilia Youth Chorale. Dr. Armstrong is a graduate of St. Olaf College and earned advanced degrees at the University of Illinois and Michigan State University. In June 1998, he began his tenure as conductor of the Oregon Bach Festival Youth Choral Academy.
He is editor of a multicultural choral series for Earthsongs Publications and co-editor of the revised St. Olaf Choral Series for Augsburg Fortress Publishers. Recent scholarly work includes a chapter entitled “Practical Performance Practice in the African American Slave Song” in Volume One of the series Teaching Music Through Performance in Choir. He is also featured, with Dr. André Thomas (Florida State University), as co-clinician on the educational video Body, Mind, Spirit, Voice.
Active nationally and internationally as a guest conductor and lecturer, Anton Armstrong was honored in June 2003 to serve as the first Peter Godfrey Visiting Professor of Choral Music at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. In the summer of 2001, Dr. Armstrong conducted the World Youth Choir sponsored by the International Federation of Choral Music with concerts in Venezuela and the United States. He has frequently conducted ensembles and appeared before regional and national gatherings of the American Choral Directors Association, Music Educators National Conference, Choristers Guild, American Guild of Organists, Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, Organization of American Kodaly Educators, the Orff-Schulwerk Association and the Australian National Choral Association.
He has guest conducted such noted ensembles as the Utah Symphony and Symphony Chorus, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Westminster Choir, the American Boychoir, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has also collaborated in concert with Bobby McFerrin and Garrison Keillor.
