Work As A Conductor
Jennings became noted for guiding and maturing the St. Olaf Choir from an ensemble rooted substantially in its early twentieth century formation to ascend as ranking among the world's most highly respected choral ensembles. A former student and colleague of Olaf C. Christiansen, Jennings understood and respected the choir's distinct Lutheran tradition in his programming. However, as the third director of the ensemble, he also modified the tradition of programming exclusively unaccompanied music. Jennings prepared the choir to record Ravel's with the Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of Stanisław Skrowaczewski, and during his tenure, he arranged for several notable conductors to rehearse and lead the St. Olaf Choir in concert, including Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, Bach specialist Helmuth Rilling, British organist Simon Preston, and Robert Shaw. Jennings led the choir on twelve international tours, most notably to France (where he led the St. Olaf Choir, Strasbourg Philharmonic and International Soloists in Bach's B Minor Mass for the Opening Concert of the 1972 Strasbourg International Music Festival), Norway (for the Bergen International Festival), and to Seoul, Korea (1988 Summer Olympics Arts Festival).
Since his retirement from St. Olaf in 1990, he has served as a visiting professor and choral conductor at Gustavus Adolphus College and The University of Arizona in Tucson. Jennings served as the guest conductor at anniversary concerts in honor of F. Melius Christiansen (the 125th in 1996 and the 135th in 2006).
Read more about this topic: Kenneth Jennings
Famous quotes containing the words work and/or conductor:
“The real risks for any artist are taken ... in pushing the work to the limits of what is possible, in the attempt to increase the sum of what it is possible to think. Books become good when they go to this edge and risk falling over it—when they endanger the artist by reason of what he has, or has not, artistically dared.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1947)
“I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say—I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”
—Harriet Tubman (1821–1913)