<p>DD has sung in high quality choirs since second grade but is NOT interested in majoring in music, much less in vocal performance. She wants to continue her choral singing in college and would prefer to sing in a top notch auditioned choir that welcomes and has room for non-majors -- in a school that is not religiously affiliated, so St. Olaf's is out. She enjoys the challenge of learning and singing New Music, at least once in awhile. Her stats are too low for Pomona, whose MP3 clips on their web site sound amazing.</p>
<p>Has anyone heard Illinois's Knox College choir in person?</p>
<p>Other LAC choirs? Scouring YouTube has been only slightly successful.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t rule out St. Olaf’s just because it has a religious affiliation. Religion is just not in your face there at all. Many of its students have no religious affiliation, many others are agnostics, and others are atheists, Bhuddists, Unitarian, Hindu . . . and they love it there. The agnostic daughter of close friends who are Hindu is a senior at St. Olaf and she thinks it is the best school anywhere. I think that the vast majority of US students would find St. Olaf’s midwestern sensibilities, its work ethic, its rural location, its students’ strong humanitarian impulses, and its whitebreadedness far more repulsive than its religious affiliation. The only effects that I have observed that its religious affiliation has on the school climate are a respect for humanity, the intellect, the arts, and the environment.</p>
<p>violindad; thanks for taking the time to reply. I will show your post to DD. I do not consider myself a Christian, but the beauty of the St. Olaf’s clips on YouTube are almost enough to convert me. Rural location and <em>whitebreadedness</em> are also concerns. . . .Nothing is perfect, is it?</p>
<p>Visits to diverse schools are often a good idea. I suspect that your daughter might either love or hate a place like St. Olaf if she were to visit. McGill was at the bottom of my son’s list until he visited it; he had only applied in order to humor me and only visited because it was on the way back from another school; the visit took McGill to a tie with another school at the top of the list and son ended up at McGill and absolutely loves it there. </p>
<p>Sorry, I don’t know enough about choral programs at good LAC’s to offer other suggestions. Many of the good choral programs are at religiously affiliated schools or at large public universities. Hopefully others will provide some good suggestions.</p>
<p>Luther’s Nordic Choir is also regarded highly in this area, though where I am (near St. Olaf), kids interested in choir seem to choose Concordia.</p>
<p>I’d definitely recommend your daughter not rule out St. Olaf purely because of religious affiliation. We are not religious and have visited the campus quite a bit recently and not once felt any kind of pressure. </p>
<p>Northfield is a cute and quirky town, and St. Olaf is a beautiful campus. I drove up the hill the other day and there were two bald eagles soaring above the trees … I did wonder if they’d been flown in for special effect, though ;-)</p>