Photo by Megan Lu
In honor of Black History Month, St. Olaf hosted “A New Era of Conductors” panel featuring Dr. Anton Armstrong ’78, Dr. Joseph Jefferson, Dr. Henry Dorn, and Dr. Chung Park. The latter three of the these conductors are new additions to the college within the past two years. Before the event, the public was asked to submit questions for the conductors to answer about the new directions of the 120-year-old St. Olaf music department.
Armstrong started the panel by giving a brief background on what it means to be music educators at St. Olaf and college history. “The 2023-2024 school year marks the formal establishment of the St. Olaf Music Department,” Armstrong said. He explained the purpose of music at St. Olaf and the department’s separation from the Music Organizations Office. Armstrong said, “The St. Olaf College Music Department devotes itself to the cultivation of music in the lives of our students and our broader community.”
The next part of the panel included the public’s pre-submitted questions for the new conductors. The questions centered around many different aspects of conducting, such as difficult parts of being a conductor, favorite composers, programming strategies, and questions of identity.
One of the obstacles of being a conductor and a person of color that the directors discussed was a lack of representation. Jefferson is the new jazz conductor at St. Olaf. He expressed surprise at how few African American jazz conductors there are at the collegiate level. “It’s about nine of us in the country,” Jefferson said. This is especially surprising as jazz is a form of music created by African Americans. Dorn added on to this, saying hat “there is a very small percentage that are in head conductor jobs.” In response to the same question, Park said, “I thought if you worked hard you had the same shot as everyone else, and come to find out later that I didn’t.”
Each conductor talked also about the importance of working with students. “I want to create the next generation of leaders,” Dr. Park said. In following with Armstrong’s overview, the conductors stressed the importance of music as an act of service for us and for each other. Each conductor has exciting new developments in store for their students and ensembles and it is clear that the future of St. Olaf music is going in an exciting direction.
