Charlie Baird, DHS '12, Named to St. Olaf's College Choir

A news release from St. Olaf's College:

Darien High School Class of 2012 alumnus Charlie Baird has been named to the world-renowned St. Olaf Choir. 

Baird, a tenor and a class of 2016 music education major at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, joins the ensemble for the 2014-2015 academic year.  Baird will perform throughout the year with the St. Olaf Choir, including its 2015 East Coast Tour, highlighted by performances at Carnegie Hall and Yale University.  

The St. Olaf Choir, with 75 mixed voices, is the premier A cappella choir in the United States. For over a century, the choir has set the standard for choral excellence and has remained at the forefront of choral artistry.

Conducted since 1990 by Dr. Anton Armstrong, the ensemble serves as a model for choirs of all levels. The St. Olaf Choir performs classical, sacred and world music, presented by singers like Baird who commit to balancing full academic course loads with rehearsals five days a week -- and to performing all concerts entirely from memory.  

Baird is currently a member of the St. Olaf Cantorei, one of seven co-curricular choral ensembles at St. Olaf.  He also performs with The Limestones, St. Olaf’s premier male six-voice A cappella group.

In his freshman year, Baird sang with the Viking Chorus, the school’s all male freshman ensemble.  Since arriving at St. Olaf in the fall of 2012, Baird has also been a member of both the St. Olaf Men’s Track and Field Team and Cross Country Team, which in 2013 won the National DIII Championship, the first national athletic title in St. Olaf history. 

At Darien High School, Baird won the class of 2012 Choral Music prize, and was a four-year member of the Tudor Singers select choral ensemble.

The St. Olaf Choir has a long tradition of innovation. In 1920 it became one of the first choirs to regularly tour the nation, performing in major concert halls across the country and overseas.  Later that same decade the Choir began recording and performing on air when radio was in its infancy.

The annual  “St. Olaf Christmas Festival” – featuring the St. Olaf Choir, six other co-curricular choral ensembles and the St. Olaf Orchestra - has aired on national and international television and radio for more than 30 years. 

Today, millions of viewers nationally tune in to the Festival on PBS; it is also simulcast to hundreds of movie theaters across America.

Touring, recording, and broadcasts continue to be major components in the artistic life of the St. Olaf Choir. Its ever-growing discography now features 27 discs, and its annual tour brings its artistry and message to tens of thousands of people across the nation and around the world.  

The ensemble has taken 14 international tours and performed for capacity audiences in the major concert halls of Norway, France, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, and the Twin Cities.  Its 2015 East Coast Tour features two performances in the Darien area:  February 5 at Yale University and February 6 at Carnegie Hall.

The St. Olaf Choir has been featured in numerous symphonic collaborations, including most recently, performances of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem for Voices, Orchestra and Organ, Opus 9, with the Minnesota Orchestra. 

The St. Olaf Choir has performed and under the direction of world-renowned conductors Sir Neville Marriner, Neemi Jarvi, Sir David Willcocks, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Andreas Delfs, Helmuth Rilling, and the late Robert Shaw.