2024 Northcutt Lecture presents Dr. Anton Armstrong
Each spring the School of Music welcomes a leading scholar in the area of church music to Baylor's campus for the Northcutt Lecture Series. The Northcutt Lecture is made possible by an endowment from Cassandra Northcutt and the late LeGrande Northcutt of Longview, Texas and remains of the most prestigious lectures on church music in the world.
This year we welcomed to Baylor Dr. Anton Armstrong as the 2024 lecturer. Anton Armstrong, 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 Calvin College Alumni Choir, the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus, and the St. Cecilia Youth Chorale. He is the longest tenured conductor of the St. Olaf Choir’s 112-year history. Dr. Armstrong is a graduate of St. Olaf College and earned advanced degrees at the University of Illinois (MM) and Michigan State University (DMA). In January 2006, Baylor University selected Anton Armstrong from a field of 118 distinguished nominees to receive the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching. He spent February-June 2007 in residency at Baylor University as a visiting professor. He is editor of a multicultural choral series for Earthsongs Publications and co-editor (with John Ferguson) of the revised St. Olaf Choral Series for Augsburg Fortress Publishers. Dr. Armstrong currently serves as Chair of the National Board of Chorus America and has returned to serve on the National Board of The Choristers Guild. Dr. Armstrong has frequently conducted ensembles and appeared before regional, national, and international gatherings of the American Choral Directors Association, International Federation of Choral Music, Music Educators National Conference, Choristers Guild, American Guild of Organists, Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, Organization of American Kodaly Educators, and the Orff-Schulwerk Association.
Dr. Armstrong's lecture was titled "Music, Vocation and Transformation." During his presentation, he explored the importance of music in shaping inidvidual vocational discernment as found in parochial higher education as well as in the setting of corporate worship through choral/instrumental music and congregational song. As a life-long Lutheran, Dr. Armstrong acknowledged Martin Luther’s perspectives on the dynamic nature of music that have had a powerful influence on his teaching and life’s work as a conductor, music educator, and church musician.
Outside of his lecture, Dr. Armstrong made appearances in numerous music classes and choral ensemble rehearsals.
View a recording of this lecture below: