Dale Warland

Dale Warland, the man behind the celebrated Dale Warland Singers, has distinguished himself not only as a choral director but also as an arranger, composer, guest conductor, and festival adjudicator. Through his uncanny ability to draw from choristers a tonal sophistication in which a tensile inner core is always warmly, softly sheathed, he has achieved sounds envied by fellow choral conductors. The accuracy of intonation he obtains from his singers is another source of wonder, whether from his own ensemble or choirs he periodically guest conducts.
Warland was born on April 14, 1932, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. He chose St. Olaf College for his university training, a school with an honored choral tradition. After graduating from St. Olaf in 1954, Warland served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force and founded the Scott Male Chorus at Illinois’ Scott Air Force Base. Following his active-duty years, Warland enrolled at the University of Minnesota for his master’s degree and served as the minister of music for the University Lutheran Church in Hope, Minnesota. In 1960, Warland entered the University of Southern California School of Music for his doctorate in music. In 1963, he joined the faculty at Humboldt State College, and in 1965, doctorate completed, he became chairman of the music department at Keuka College.
By the time he had reached his mid-thirties, Warland had begun to make a name for himself. He returned to Minnesota to become director of choral activities at Macalester College in St. Paul. That same year, he served as an assistant to Robert Shaw at the Meadowbrook School of Music and was engaged to prepare the chorus for Penderecki’s Passion According to St. Luke, for its American premiere in a production led by the composer. In 1971, Warland was awarded a Ford Foundation grant to study with two of the world’s finest choral directors. He traveled to Sweden to work with Eric Ericson and to England to train with David Willcocks, then-director of music at King’s College, Cambridge.
Warland founded the Dale Warland Singers in 1972, debuting at the Walker Art Center. In 1976 and 1977, Warland worked with Norman Luboff to produce two recordings with his new ensemble and, in 1977, he took his singers on a tour of Scandinavia. By 1980, Warland had initiated a subscription series with his Singers and was appointed to the choral panel of the National Endowment for the Arts. Warland resigned from Macalester College in 1985 to devote himself to his ensemble but did bring the college’s concert choir with his Singers to perform in Germany during Bach’s 300th anniversary celebrations. A grant from the Major Jerome Foundation in 1987 enabled Warland to inaugurate the Dale Warland Singers’ New Choral Music Program for Emerging Composers, a venture that led to significant additions to the choral literature.
Given the St. Olaf College Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1988, Warland gained still more celebrity when his Singers performed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Among his other honors was the first Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence. The Dale Warland Singers disbanded in 2004, allowing Warland to focus more on composing, arranging, and teaching, along with frequent guest conducting appearances. Among his compositions are Benedicamus Domino, commissioned by the Utah Chamber Artists, and Always Singing. Guest engagements have taken Warland across Europe and to Japan.
Warland’s recordings have mostly been with his Singers on Gothic Records. Among these are Walden Pond, which was nominated for a Grammy Award, and Lux Aurumque. In 2019, Gothic Records released Hodie!, a reissue of live recordings, the second volume of its “Dale Warland Singers Live Series.” ~ Erik Eriksson