The Augustana Choir has a rich history spanning more than 100 years. The choir was founded in 1921 and chartered by the faculty of Augustana College to "serve God, the Church and our school" through choral music. In the words of the choir's founding conductor, Dr. Carl Youngdahl, the choir would "perform a cappella and could thereby appear in the smallest of churches as well as the largest and our concert would be a sermon in song." Today, the Augustana Choir continues to bring sacred choral music of the highest caliber to people around the region, nation and world.
The Augustana Choir has taken its mission most seriously and its traditions have been upheld and nurtured under the tutelage of conductors Dr. Carl Youngdahl, Dr. Arnold Running, Dr. Olaf Malmin, Dr. James Johnson, for a one-year term following the retirement of Johnson and Dr. Weston Noble. Dr. Paul Nesheim joined the choir as its fifth conductor on Sept. 1, 2012, and Dr. Russell Svenningsen was appointed as the sixth conductor of the Augustana Choir on June 1, 2022.
Members of the choir and our other choirs are auditioned from the student body of Augustana University and represent all academic majors. These singers are devoted to bringing their "sermon in song" to audiences anywhere in the world, from Carnegie Hall to the churches of the American prairies to the cathedrals of Europe. To be the inheritors of such a wonderful legacy gives the choir a profound pride in being able to continue the strong choral traditions of the colleges of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
