The St. Olaf Orchestra, is the touring symphony

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

of St. Olaf College,

Northfield, Minnesota Northfield is a city in Dakota and Rice counties in the State of Minnesota. It is mostly in Rice County, with a small portion in Dakota County. The population was 20,790 at the 2020 census. History Northfield was platted in 1856 by John W. N ...

. In addition to its annual domestic tours, the St. Olaf Orchestra has performed in Scandinavia, central and eastern Europe, China, and, most recently, South America. It has appeared in some of Europe's finest concert halls and performed with some of the world's most noted conductors and artists. Longtime Conductor Steven Amundson retired in 2022 after 41 years of leading the ensemble. The orchestra is currently under the direction of Chung Park and has been featured at national, regional, and statewide conventions, as well as multiple appearances on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

and

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

. In the summer of 2005, the Orchestra,

Choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

, and

Band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

, traveled on a joint tour to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, celebrating the college's Norwegian heritage and the centennial of Norway's independence. In May 2012, the orchestra toured China for the first time. The St. Olaf Orchestra won the 2013 American Prize in Orchestral Performance; most recently, they won the award in 2019. In February 2019, the orchestra had its debut performance at Carnegie Hall with violinist

Sarah Chang Sarah Chang ( ko, 장영주; born Young Joo Chang; December 10, 1980) is a Korean American classical violinist. Recognized as a child prodigy, she first played as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1989. Sh ...

and her priceless violin that cost almost as much as the orchestra's

celesta The celesta or celeste , also called a bell-piano, is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano (four- or five-octave), albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music box ( ...

. The orchestra went on a joint tour to

with the

St. Olaf Choir The St. Olaf Choir is a premier a cappella choir based in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1912 by Norwegian immigrant F. Melius Christiansen, the choir has been influential to other church and college choirs for its performance of unaccompanied ...

and Anton Armstrong in June 2019.

References

External links

St. Olaf OrchestraSt. Olaf CollegeSt. Olaf Records
University orchestras St. Olaf College {{US-orchestra-stub