Fall 2011 Conference

October 6-8, 2011

IDACDA is proud to present Dr. Axel Thiemer as our headliner at the Fall 2011 Conference at the Church of the Big Wood in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Dr. Axel Theimer is Professor of Music at Saint John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict, where he has taught for more than four decades. A native of Austria and a former member of the Vienna Boys Choir, he received much of his early training in Vienna at the Academy for Music and Performing Arts before continuing his studies at Saint John’s University, where he earned his B.A. in 1971. He completed graduate degrees at the University of Minnesota — an M.F.A. in choral conducting as a student of Dr. Thomas Lancaster, and a D.M.A. in vocal performance as a student of Roy Schuessler.

At CSB/SJU he directs the Chamber Choir and the SJU Men’s Chorus and teaches choral techniques and vocal pedagogy. An active recitalist, he has presented master classes, workshops, and seminars at state, regional, national, and international conferences, and has conducted all-state choirs, honor choirs, and choral festivals throughout the United States as well as in Europe and the Far East.

Theimer is founder and music director of Kantorei, a Twin Cities choral ensemble, and of the Amadeus Chamber Symphony, a chamber orchestra serving Central Minnesota. He is co-founder and past music director of the National Catholic Youth Choir, and he serves on the faculty and as executive director of The VoiceCare Network. His original compositions and arrangements for men’s, women’s, mixed, and children’s choirs are published by Alliance Publications.

His work has been widely recognized in his adopted state: he received the Minnesota ACDA Choir Director of the Year Award in 2001, was inducted into the Minnesota Music Educators Association Hall of Fame in 2004, and received ACDA-Minnesota’s F. Melius Christiansen Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.