Faculty

Dr. Paul A. Torkelson
Professor of Music; Director of Choral Activities
Office FAC 119
Phone (319) 352-8412

Dr. Paul Torkelson is director of choral activities at Wartburg, where he earned his Bachelor of Music Education degree and sang with the Wartburg Choir. 

He holds a Master of Music degree from Kansas   State University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Colorado.

Dr. Torkelson conducts the Wartburg Choir and teaches advanced conducting and medieval and renaissance music history. His articles have been published in the Research Memorandum Series of the American Choral Review, and in 1984 he received the Louise Goucher Memorial Scholarship from the American Choral Foundation for work in madrigal performance. He presented a session at the 1998 ACDA North-Central Division Convention on Renaissance performance practice, discussing rhythmic complexities in the music of early Reformation composers. He is a frequent guest clinician at state ACDA conventions, and has conducted several All-State Choirs throughout the United States. In 1996, he conducted the 50th anniversary Iowa All-State Choir, and In 1998 he conducted the North Central ACDA Collegiate Honor Choir in Minneapolis, MN sharing the podium with Anton Armstrong. In the summer of 1998 and 2000 he conducted the Iowa Ambassadors of Music on a three week European tour.

Under his direction, the Wartburg Choir has performed at the American Choral Directors Association national convention in 1987, and the North Central regional convention in 1988, 1992 and 1998. In 1989, Dr. Torkelson made his conducting debut with the Manhattan Philharmonic Orchestra and the Wartburg Choir in concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The Wartburg Choir, under his direction toured Europe in 1987, 1991 and 1995, performing sixteen concerts including a solo concert in the Festsaal at the Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, Germany.

During the month of February 2007, Dr. Torkelson traveled to Cape Town, South Africa to work with musicians at the Simon Estes School. He spent several school days observing classes and listening to choirs and various instrumental groups including percussion ensembles. He was able to meet with the faculty and discuss learning styles and teaching techniques, especially their use of solfege for reading since they had few trained keyboard players. He also taught voice lessons and observed singers who were studying both classical and popular, (i.e. broadway) literature. Dr. Torkelson was able to visit other high schools in the city and meet their faculty and attend various programs.

Dr. Torkelson was invited to conduct at the Heritage of Gold Festival in New York City held at Riverside Church, a large neo-gothic cathedral. He participated from March 21-25 and April 12-16, 2007. The festival included over 1000 singers from choirs in the United States and around the world. Dr. Torkelson worked with various choirs after their concerts, critiquing them and working with them to improve their sound. He also conducted a select 100-voice chorale chosen from the schools for the final concert. Each school participating in the festival had received straight one ratings in their high school contests, and went through two adjudications to be selected for the competition. Other judges included Mack Wilberg (conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir), Anton Armstrong (conductor of the St. Olaf Choir), Weston Noble (former conductor of the Luther College Nordic Choir), and Doreen Rau (conductor of the Toronto Children's Choir and the University of Toronto Choirs), to name a few. Dr. Torkelson has been asked to return for two festivals this next year, and was invited to conduct two all-state festivals this year in Indianapolis, Indiana and Las Vegas, Nevada.

During the past year, Dr. Torkelson conducted 10 other festivals around the Midwest including Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa.