Robert Scholz

b. 1939 - d. 2021

Born in Chicago, and educated in the Lutheran School system there, Robert Scholz sang in school choirs and was inspired to become a choral director by the example of Gerhard Schroth. He studied piano beginning at age eight, and later took up organ. As a student at St. Olaf College from 1957-1961 he sang under Olaf Christiansen and Kenneth Jennings, and studied voice and piano.

He continued his education at the University of Illinois where he earned a Master of Music degree in musicology in 1967 and a Doctor of Musical Arts in choral conducting in 1969. While at Illinois, Scholz conducted the University Chamber Choir and was Minister of Music at First United Presbyterian Church of Urbana.

Scholz taught at Campbell College in North Carolina from 1963-1965 and joined the St. Olaf faculty in 1968. At St. Olaf he conducted the Chapel Choir, the Viking Chorus, and the Chamber Choir and also taught voice, choral conducting and choral literature. He has directed many major choral works with the Chapel Choir and St. Olaf Orchestra.

Other duties on campus involved assisting in the planning of the annual St. Olaf Christmas Festival, founding the St. Olaf High School Summer Music Camp, and planning and directing Conferences on Theology and Music.

As a composer and arranger, Scholz's compositions have been published by MorningStar Music, Mark Foster, and Augsburg-Fortress. Many of his arrangements are heard in the annual St. Olaf Christmas Festival. In 1994 Scholz's edition of Johann Pachelbel's Magnificat in B flat was published by Mark Foster. Edited from a manuscript now located in Oxford, England, the work has never before been printed and is probably one of Pachelbel's most significant choral works.

Robert Scholz was a well-known as a choral clinician and festival director. He was active in ACDA of Minnesota, and a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the Minnesota Composer Forum, Phi Beta Kappa, and Pi Kappa Lambda.