The music of Minnesota began with the native rhythms and songs of Indigenous peoples, the first inhabitants of the lands which later became the U.S. state of Minnesota. Métis fur-trading voyageurs introduced the chansons of their French ancestors in the late eighteenth century. As the territory was opened up to white settlement in the 19th century, each group of immigrants brought with them the folk music of their European homelands. Celtic, German, Scandinavian, and Central and Eastern European song and dance remain part of the vernacular music of the state today.
Morten Johannes Lauridsen is an American composer and academic teacher. A National Medal of Arts recipient (2007), he was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1994 to 2001, and is the distinguished professor emeritus of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, where he taught for fifty-two years until his retirement in 2019.
Eric Edward Whitacre is an American composer, conductor, and speaker best known for his choral music. In March 2016, he was appointed as Los Angeles Master Chorale's first artist-in-residence at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
The Dale Warland Singers (DWS) was a 40-voice professional chorus based in St. Paul, Minnesota, founded in 1972 by Dale Warland and disbanded in 2004. They performed a wide variety of choral repertoire but specialized in 20th-century music and commissioned American composers extensively. In terms of sound, the DWS was known for its purity of tone, intonation, legato sound and stylistic range. During their existence, the DWS performed roughly 400 concerts and recorded 29 CDs.
Dominick Argento was an American composer known for his lyric operatic and choral music. Among his best known pieces are the operas Postcard from Morocco, Miss Havisham's Fire, The Masque of Angels, and The Aspern Papers. He also is known for the song cycles Six Elizabethan Songs and From the Diary of Virginia Woolf; the latter earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1975. In a predominantly tonal context, his music freely combines tonality, atonality and a lyrical use of twelve-tone writing. None of Argento's music approaches the experimental, stringent avant-garde fashions of the post-World War II era.
Howard Lindsay Goodall is an English composer of musicals, choral music and music for television. He also presents music-based programmes for television and radio, for which he has won many awards. In May 2008, he was named as a presenter and "Composer-in-Residence" with the UK radio channel Classic FM. In May 2009, he was named "Composer of the Year" at the Classic BRIT Awards.
Magnum Chorum is a choral ensemble based in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Magnum Chorum performs sacred choral music in cathedrals and sanctuaries throughout the Midwest. The 65 voice auditioned choir presents concerts, commissions new sacred works, makes recordings, and provides music for worship. Founded in 1991 in the choral tradition of St. Olaf College, membership was originally limited to St. Olaf graduates, but since 2005, auditions are open to singers devoted to excellence in choral music. Magnum Chorum’s name is intended to convey the importance of the choir in expressing the divine and infinite through voice, music, and text.
Christopher Chiyan Tin is an American composer of art music, often composed for film, television, and video game soundtracks. His work is primarily orchestral and choral, often with a world music influence. He won two Grammy Awards for his classical crossover album Calling All Dawns.
Steve Heitzeg is an American composer whose works include compositions for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensemble, ballet, and film.
James Dixon Lavino is an American composer and songwriter, known especially for his choral music and his music for film and television.
Paul Salamunovich KCSG was a Grammy-nominated, American conductor and educator.
The Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus (TCGMC) is a choral group in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. The all-male chorus sings a variety of songs arranged for TTBB, ranging from Broadway show tunes to Latin motets to original compositions specially commissioned by the Chorus or written by its members.
Axel Theimer is a conductor, composer, singer, author and professor at the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University (CSB/SJU) in Minnesota. He conducts the professional a cappella choir Kantorei, the National Catholic Youth Choir and the Amadeus Chamber Symphony, and as of 2020 is in his 52nd year as a music faculty member at CSB/SJU, where he conducts CSB/SJU Chamber Choir and the SJU Men's Chorus. He is on the faculty and is executive director of the VoiceCare Network. He is an acknowledged expert on healthy vocal production for solo and choral singing, and the effect of conducting gesture on vocalists and instrumentalists. His choirs are known and praised for their particularly warm, natural, expressive and efficient sound.
The Choir is a BAFTA award-winning TV series following Gareth Malone as he tackles the task of teaching choral singing to people who have never had the chance, or experience to sing before.
Gareth Edmund Malone is an English choirmaster and broadcaster, self-described as an "animateur, presenter and populariser of choral singing". He is best known for his television appearances in programmes such as The Choir, which focus on singing and introducing choral music to new participants. Malone was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours, for services to music.
Abbie Betinis is an American composer. She has composed music for a variety of musical ensembles, and is best known for her choral music and other vocal works.
Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen is a 2012 documentary film about the American choral composer Morten Lauridsen,, National Medal of Arts recipient (2007) and most-performed living American choral composer.
The Anna Crusis Feminist Choir is the longest-running feminist choir in the United States, founded in 1975 by Dr. Catherine Roma, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ANNA Crusis is known for its dedication to social justice, focusing on a wide range of repertoire including feminist and LGBTQ+ themes, celebrating the strength, resilience, and solidarity of marginalized communities.
Jocelyn Hagen is an American composer. She composes primarily for voice: solo, chamber and choral, but also has composed for chamber, wind, and orchestral ensembles. She has explored large-scale multimedia works, electro-acoustic music, dance, and opera.
Hank Beebe was an American composer, known for his choral compositions, Broadway musicals, and most notably for his work through the 1950s to the early 1980s composing industrial musicals for the employees and shareholders of major American business corporations. His work during this period was documented in the 2018 American documentary film Bathtubs Over Broadway.
