Dr. Christopher Aspaas, Assistant Professor of Choral/Vocal Music at St. Olaf College, received his Ph.D. in Choral Music Education at The Florida State University in Tallahassee, his M.M. in Choral Conducting from Michigan State University in East Lansing, his B.M. in Voice Performance from St. Olaf. Christopher has served on the faculties of Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington and Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and conducted collaborative performances of Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, the Duruflé Requiem, and J. S. Bach's Mass in B Minor.

At St. Olaf, Aspaas conducts the Viking Chorus, an 85-voice ensemble of first-year student men, and the Chapel Choir, a 120-voice ensemble specializing in the performance of oratorio and larger multi-movement works. Last April, the Chapel Choir performed the Walton Coronation Te Deum, Mendelssohn Psalm 42, and Barber Prayers of Kierkegaard. In addition to conducting, he teaches choral literature, choral conducting, applied voice, and is active as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. In February, Aspaas traveled to Muscat, Oman to lead more than 180 students from 7 international schools in the 4^th Annual TAISM Choral Festival. This spring, Aspaas will serve as the guest conductor for Magnum Chorum, leading two concerts and preparing the ensemble for a collaborative performance at the National AGO Convention in June.

Aspaas is also in demand as a tenor soloist, performing Bach cantatas with Helmuth Rilling and the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, the Evangelist roles in the John and Matthew Passions of Bach with the Bach Collegium of Fort Wayne, Ind., and other solo roles with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic in Russia..

Dr. Axel Theimer, a native of Austria, where he was a member of the Vienna Boys Choir, is now in his 39th year on the music faculty at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict. He received much of his training in Vienna, continued his studies at Saint John’s University and completed graduate degrees at the University of Minnesota - MFA in Choral Conducting and DMA in Vocal Performance. At St. John’s and St. Ben’s he directs the CSB/SJU Chamber Choir and SJU Men’s Chorus and teaches choral conducting, applied voice and vocal pedagogy.

He is an active recitalist, has presented master classes, workshops and seminars for state, regional and national and international music conventions and conferences and has conducted All State Choirs, Choral Festivals and Honor Choirs throughout the United States, Japan and China.

In addition to his professional activities at SJU and CSB he is founder and music director ofKantorei (www.Kantorei.net),a Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) choral ensemble,of Amadeus Chamber Symphony, a chamber orchestra for Central Minnesota musicians and audiences and is music director of the National Catholic Youth Choir (www.CatholicYouthChoir.org). He is on the faculty, and is currently Executive Director of The VoiceCare Network (www.voicecarenetwork.org) In 2001, he received the MN - ACDA Choir Director of the Year Award and, in 2004, was inducted to the Minnesota Music Educators Association’s "MMEA Hall of Fame".

Original compositions and arrangements for Men’s Chorus, Women’s, Mixed and Children’s Choir are published by and available from Alliance Publications, Inc. Fish Creek, WI. (www.apimusic.org).