Rene Clausen Life and His Musical Calling

Rene Clausen is an American Composer and the conductor of the Concordia Choir in Moorhead, Minnesota since 1986. He is also the professor of music at Concordia. Before he was a world-renowned composer and conductor. He was born in 1953 and raised in California and graduated from Wilton Senior High School in Wilton, Iowa and then went on to St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Then he received Master of Music Performance and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Illinois, in Urbana. Before Concordia in Moorhead Rene was a professor at West Texas State University and Wichita State University.

One interesting thing about Dr. Rene Clausen did is that. In the summer of 1998, Rene established the first Rene Clausen Choral School held on the campus of Concordia College. There were around sixty three participants from twenty seven states. This was much more than a reading workshop this was an intense five day program for choral conductors focusing on conducting and rehearsal technique as well as performance practice issues, elements of choral ensemble, tonal development and daily reading sessions of new music.

Some of his compositions have been performed by The King’s Singers, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the American Choral Directors.Some of his most famous pieces included the “MEMORIAL” and “Crying for a Dream” for the American Choral Directors Association. In 1996, he was named the Paul J. and Eleanor Christansen Chair in Choral at Concordia. His work of “Life and Breath: Choral Works by Rene Clausen”( 13- track recording by the Kansas City Chorale) was awarded two Grammy Awards in 2013, including Best Choral Performance. He has also conducted All-State choirs in more than 15 states. His compositions and arrangements are published by Roger Dean Publishing Company, E.C Schirmer, Shawnee Press in the Mark Foster Catalog, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Hal Leonard, and Walton and Augsburg Fortress.

I personally have sang a bunch of Dr. Rene Clausens work but one of my favorite ones would be Jabberwocky. Jabberwocky is performed as SATB Another song I personally liked was Requiem. I sang this song with the Minnesota All State Lutheran Choir The last song I chose was a Jubilant Song this song is one of the music pieces that we sang last year. Jubilant Song was sang in SABT.