Soloists and Featured Artists

The St. Croix Valley Chamber Chorale is a unique artistic organization dedicated to providing classical, contemporary, jazz, and sacred vocal performances of the highest caliber. Our programs consistently reflect the rich cultural heritage of the St. Croix Valley while exploring and examining, through music, ethnic diversity represented throughout the Twin Cities area. The Chorale is widely regarded as one of the leading arts organizations in Washington County and the St. Croix Valley.

Carol Carver, founder and artistic director of the Valley Chamber Chorale is at home in the many facets of choral music. Carol spends her days as choral development editor for Augsburg Fortress Publishers, Minneapolis, MN, works part-time as traditional worship coordinator and choral director at Trinity Lutheran Church, Stillwater, MN, and part-time with the Valley Chamber Chorale. Carol has studied choral and church music at Augustana College, Rock Island, IL, the Hochshule fur Musik in Frankfurt, Germany, and graduate school at the University of Minnesota. Many summers have been spent studying with many of the world's finest conductors, including David Willcocks, Jon Washburn, John Rutter and Eric Ericsson.

KrisAnne Weiss, mezzo-soprano, made her professional operatic debut as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro in 1998 with Michigan's Pine Mountain Music Festival. She has performed major roles in The Magic Flute, Falstaff, and the title role in Rossini's La Cenerentola. Her roles with the University of Minnesota Opera Theater include Mother Marie in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, and Meg Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Among Ms. Weiss' concert appearances are solos in Bach's St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, Mozart's Coronation Mass and Requiem, and the premiere of an orchestral arrangement of Grieg's Haugtussa. In June of 2002, she returned to her alma mater, Lawrence University, as the mezzo-soprano soloist for Mozart's Mass in c minor. She has performed excerpts from Carmen with the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in St. Paul and will be a featured soloist with the orchestra again in November, performing Dominick Argento's song cycle Casa Guidi In March of 2003, she will perform the alto solos in Bach's B minor mass with the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee.

Also an accomplished recitalist and chamber musician, Ms. Weiss has given many solo recitals in the Twin Cities, and can be heard in frequent recital collaborations with other local musicians. She appeared with the Bakken Trio in the first concert of their 2001-2002 season, performing Ned Rorem's Santa Fe Songs; she is also a member of the Ted Mann Vocal Quartet, an elite University of Minnesota ensemble that presents concerts of vocal chamber music, art song, and opera. In collaboration with her teacher Glenda Maurice and pianist Ruth Palmer, she presented a program of art song and poetry at Ted Mann Concert Hall in February of 2002. On February 8, 2003, this performing team will also present the world premiere of Amy Lowell: A Rare Pattern, a theatrical composition written for them by Edie Hill.

Ms. Weiss' numerous awards include first place in the 2000 Schubert Club Competition, the 2000 Schubert Club-Hunter Scholarship, and the 1999 Roy A. Schuessler Prize in Graduate Voice. She was a University Fellow in her first year at the University of Minnesota, and continues to hold graduate assistantships in both musicology and performing. In addition to her professional work, Ms. Weiss is currently pursuing a D.M.A. in Voice Performance at the University of Minnesota under the direction of her teacher, Glenda Maurice.

Steven Amundson is in his twenty-second year on the faculty of St. Olaf College where he currently serves as Professor of Music and Conductor of the St. Olaf Orchestra.  The orchestra is recognized as one of the finest collegiate symphonies in this country.  Under Amundson's direction, the St. Olaf Orchestra has toured widely throughout the United States and Europe, and has been featured on Austrian National Radio, National Public Radio (including a November, 2001 appearance on Garrison Keilor’s A Prairie Home Companion), National Public Television, and at regional and national music conventions.

Amundson has held conducting posts at the University of Virginia, Tacoma Community College, and as Music Director of the Tacoma Youth Symphony before his arrival to Minnesota in 1981.  He is the founding conductor of the Twin Cities' based Metropolitan Symphony (formerly the Central Chamber Orchestra) which he led for five years.  He also served as Music Director and Conductor of the Bloomington (MN) Symphony from 1984 – 1997.  He has held posts on the conducting faculty for the Interlochen National Arts Camp, the Lutheran Summer Music Program and has served as guest conductor for many All-State and Honors Orchestra festivals throughout the United States.  Amundson remains active as guest conductor of professional ensembles in Minnesota including recent appearances with the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

An active composer and arranger, Amundson is published by MMB Music and the Neil A. Kjos Music Co.  His orchestral works have received over 170 performances by university, civic and professional orchestras including the Atlanta, Cincinnati, Columbus, Detroit, Omaha, Portland (Maine), and Virginia Symphonies.

A 1977 graduate of Luther College, Amundson obtained the Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University and did further studies at the University of Virginia, the Aspen Music School and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.  He has enjoyed the tutelage of notable conductors including Maurice Abravanel, Milan Horvat, Erich Leinsdorf, and Bernard Rubenstein.

In the 1980 International Conducting Competition hosted by the Mozarteum and Austrian National Radio, Amundson placed first earning the Hans Haring Prize.  In 1992, the Minnesota Music Education Association named him "Minnesota Orchestra Educator of the Year."  In the fall of 1995, Amundson received the Carlo A. Sperati Award from Luther College in recognition of his meritorious achievement in the field of music.

Amundson was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up near Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  He is married to Jane Amundson, a secondary mathematics educator.  They have two children, budding violinists Beret, 10, and Karl, 7.

Manny Laureano began his musical studies in the New York City public school system and received his Bachelor of Music Degree from the Juilliard School in 1977. He was appointed principal trumpet of the Seattle Symphony, a post he held for four years before serving in his current position as principal trumpet with the Minnesota Orchestra.

As a conductor, he has worked with a variety of ensembles, ranging from having been Music Director of the Calhoun-Isles Community Band to a guest stint with the Minnesota Orchestra for a week of Young Persons Concerts. Manny conducts the Minnesota Youth Symphonies' Symphony Orchestra, is the brass and woodwind coach for the MYS Repertory Orchestra and has served as Co-Music Director of MYS since 1987.

Manny served as the Music Director of the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra from 1987 through the spring of 1996. During his tenure as Music Director for the MSO, he commisioned a number of new works for that orchestra by composers from the Twin Cities and across the US. He continues to do so with the MYS as well.