St. Olaf Choir and Conductor Anton Armstrong Announce 2013 West Coast Winter Tour

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For the St. Olaf Choir and Conductor Anton Armstrong, national tours are a long-standing winter tradition, and early 2013 they will present 11 concerts on the West Coast starting at Seattle's Benaroya Hall on Wednesday, Jan. 30, followed by three concerts in Oregon, five in California and two in Arizona ... concluding in Tucson on Monday, Feb. 11. The tour also includes performances closer to home: Sioux Falls, S.D., Saturday, Jan. 26; Mason City, Iowa, Sunday, Jan. 27; and Stillwater, Minn., Saturday, Feb. 16.

The St. Olaf Choir and Armstrong present a concert at Benaroya Hall in Seattle set for 8 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 30. Tickets range in price from $42 to $16 and can be purchase online through Seattle Symphony website, or in person at the Benaroya Hall Ticket Office.

Founded 101 years ago at St. Olaf College by F. Melius Christiansen, the St. Olaf Choir is internationally recognized as a creative force behind America's a cappella choral tradition, and it has set a high standard for choral music performance. The ensemble's 2013 West Coast Tour features an eclectic program of sacred and secular masterpieces past and present, as well as dynamic music with a broad global perspective. Violinist Charles Gray, St. Olaf College Professor of Music - Violin and Viola, will travel with the St. Olaf Choir on this tour, performing in several works for chorus, violin and piano.

During the past century the St. Olaf Choir has been hailed for its artistry and beauty of sound. "As we embark on these next 100 years," Armstrong says, "we are striving to present music that is relevant for the day. While we celebrate and uphold the finest of the Western choral canon, we also need to be a voice representing contemporary music that speaks to today's human condition. For this West Coast Tour we will present music that brings a message of hope and faith that stirs our audiences to action."

The past three years the St. Olaf Choir's centennial celebration has featured new choral commissions. Among the new compositions the St. Olaf Choir and Armstrong are presenting on this tour is The World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt's Evening Prayer by Abbie Betinis, a young American composer who studied composition at St. Olaf College.

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