The 2022-23 season is Anton Armstrong’s 33nd year as Conductor of the St. Olaf Choir, marking him as the longest tenured conductor in the ensemble’s storied 111 year history. He is the Tosdal Professor of Music at St. Olaf College, becoming the fourth conductor of the St. Olaf Choir in 1990 after ten years in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he served on the faculty of Calvin University and led the Calvin Alumni Choir, the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus and the St. Cecilia Youth Chorale. He is a graduate of St. Olaf College and earned advanced degrees at the University of Illinois (MM) and Michigan State University (DMA). 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. In June 1998, he began his tenure as founding conductor of the Oregon Bach Festival Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy. Dr. Armstrong currently serves as Chair of the National Board of Chorus America.

During the 2022-23 season Anton Armstrong will serve as Conductor of the 2022 Montana All State Choir and the 2023 North Dakota All State Choir. Additionally, he will lead choral festivals at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY.; Orchestra Hall, Chicago, IL.; Meyerson Symphony Hall, Dallas, TX, Baltimore, MD; concluding with an international choral festival in Assisi and Rome, Italy in June 2023. He will also serve as a guest lecturer and clinician at the University of Illinois and Biola University, CA.

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, National Association for Music Education, Choristers Guild, American Guild of Organists, Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, Organization of American Kodaly Educators and the Orff-Schulwerk Association. In recent years he has guest conducted such noted ensembles as theTabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square, the Utah Symphony and Symphony Chorus, the Utah Voices and Salt Lake City Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Westminster Choir, the American Boychoir, The Houston Chamber Choir, The Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati and The Phoenix Chorale. He has also collaborated in concert with Bobby McFerrin and Garrison Keillor.

In March 2017, The St. Olaf Christmas Festival, one of the oldest musical celebrations of Christmas in the United States begun in 1912 by F. Melius Christiansen, founder of the St. Olaf College Music Department was featured by invitation in two major performances at the National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association at Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis, MN. Since 1990, Anton Armstrong has served as Artistic Director of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival which features nearly 600 student musicians who are members of five St. Olaf Choral ensembles and the St. Olaf Orchestra.

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. In March 2007 Anton Armstrong was the first recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the American Boychoir School and in October 2009 he received The Distinguished Alumni Award from Michigan State University. In June 2013 Dr. Armstrong received the Saltzman Award from the Oregon Bach Festival. The festival’s highest honor, the Saltzman Award is bestowed upon individuals who have provided exceptional levels of leadership to the organization. In the Fall of 2014, The St. Olaf Choir and Dr. Armstrong received a Regional Emmy for the PBS television program Christmas in Norway with The St. Olaf Choir. In 2021, Anton Armstrong was named an Honorary Life Member of the National Collegiate Choral Organization. Honorary Life Members are recognized as members of the choral profession who have devoted their life to the enhancement and artistic growth of the choral art. The award recognizes those leaders in the choral profession who have mentored young conductors, inspired singers, supported music educators in the arts, and shared their talents and gifts in the United States and abroad. In the fall of 2022, Dr. Armstrong received the Distinguished Legacy Award, from the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the 2022: 50 Over 50 Honoree in the Arts Award from AARP-Minnesota and the Pollen Midwest.

David Winkler has enjoyed a multi-faceted career in music for over 40 years.

A graduate of the University of North Texas and the University of Texas at San Antonio, he has served as pianist, orchestra director, and minister of music in churches in Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. A composer, arranger and orchestrator with several hundred published pieces, Mr. Winkler served on the orchestration design committees for five major hymnals. He has been a guest conductor/clinician for several major music conferences, and he has twice been nominated for a Dove award for Best Instrumental Recording for his collaborations with Fletch Wiley. As an educator, he has taught piano and guitar privately, and was an adjunct faculty member at Williamson Christian College and Trevecca Nazarene University. He is also a long-time member of the Metro Instrumental Directors Conference.

After living many years in Nashville, Tennessee, followed by a season in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, David and his wife, Cathi, have returned to their native Texas, where they make their home in Dripping Springs, just west of Austin. Presently David is also serving as the music associate at Great Hills Baptist Church in north Austin. The Winklers have four adult children and four grandchildren. David enjoys hiking, reading biography and history, and playing piano in an Austin-area big band. He also volunteers in a local prison ministry, and is the compiler of a Bible mini-book titled, "Jesus Said" (JesusSaid.world).

For the past seven years, Kenney Potter has served has Conductor and Artistic Director of the Charlotte Master Chorale. Under his leadership, the organization has received critical acclaim for artistic excellence and creative programming. Committed to music education, he serves as Professor of Music at Wingate University and has recently been named Editor of School and Concert music for ECS Publishing Group.

In addition to his work at Wingate and with the Chorale, Dr. Potter serves as Choral Conductor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. In demand as a clinician, he has conducted state-wide festival choirs for NAfME and ACDA in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia as well as in Nairobi, Kenya and Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a recipient of the Lara Hoggard Award for distinguished accomplishments in the field of choral music, given by the North Carolina ACDA, and is published composer, recently completing a full-length musical based on the early life of Robert Smalls. He holds degrees from Florida State University, Portland State University, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro resides in Charlotte with his wife, Heather, and their children, Syl and Calvin.

Heather Williams Potter is Director of Traditional Music for Covenant Presbyterian Church in Charlotte North Carolina, where she oversees traditional worship music planning, prepares Youth Singers and conducts two children’s choirs. Previously, Dr. Potter served as an Associate Conductor and then Artistic Director of the Charlotte Children’s Choir of Community School of the Arts. Dr. Potter has trained singers in the middle school, high school, and college classroom, and she taught music education methods courses for undergraduates. As a clinician, Dr. Potter has conducted treble ensembles for music conferences, festivals, and honor choirs and provided training for children’s choir directors and volunteers for various churches and organizations. She served on the Choristers Guild Institute faculty for ten years, and she has published articles relating to training young voices and developing choral programs in churches.
Dr. Potter holds degrees in music education and choral conducting from Furman University, Arizona State University, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Additionally, she has completed Level III in the Choral Music Experience certification course and holds Choristers Guild Children’s Choir Leadership certification.
Dr. Potter is a Past-President of the Choristers Guild National Board and served on the development team and advisory board for the Choristers Guild Institute. She served ACDA as the North Carolina and the Southern Division R&S Chair for Children and Youth Community Choirs. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband, Kenney, and their children Syl and Calvin.

Ms. Mahr holds a B.M. degree in flute performance and music education with a jazz minor from the University of Minnesota, Duluth. She earned a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance at Northwestern University, where she studied with Walfrid Kujala of the Chicago Symphony. In addition to flute instruction at St. Olaf, Ms. Mahr directs the St. Olaf Handbell Choir, the St. Olaf Chapel Ringers, and oversees the direction of the student-led Manitou Handbell Choir. Ms. Mahr is principal flute in the Mankato Symphony Orchestra and has a private flute studio in her home.

Ms. Mahr also directs 4 youth handbell choirs at her church, Bethel Lutheran in Northfield, ranging in age from 3rd grade to 12th grade. With all the bell choirs at St. Olaf and her church she is passionate about putting the absolute best music in front of them and spend many hours pouring over new music. Ms. Mahr loves to challenge ringers and have them learn to use their gifts to the best of their ability to serve others. In her spare time she walks daily with her husband and their dog. Ms. Mahr loves to bake, garden, puzzle, scrapbook, read and spend time with her two amazing grown daughters.

Marty Haugen is a liturgical composer and musician. He has written over 400 compositions for both Roman Catholic and Protestant congregations. His music is published by GIA, Augsburg Fortress and other publishers. After working as a full time parish musician for 15 year, for the past 35 years he has presented workshops and concerts across North America, Europe, the Pacific Rim and Asia for church musicians and anyone interested in the renewal of worship and the role of music in our faith/life journey. He lives in Eagan, MN.