Axel Theimer

Axel Theimer (/ˈɑːksɛl ˈtaɪmər/; born March 10, 1946) is a conductor, composer, singer, author and professor at the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University (CSB/SJU) in Minnesota.

He is an acknowledged expert on healthy vocal production for solo and choral singing, and the effect of conducting gesture on vocalists and instrumentalists.

In the farm-like setting, Theimer's earliest exposure to music included singing folksongs around the campfire, while hiking, and at evening gatherings.

Theimer began taking piano lessons at age four in the village of St. Johann, about an hour's walk down the mountainside every other week.

After high school he was a student at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna until he moved to the United States to begin his tenure on the music faculty at CSB/SJU.

Kantorei presents concerts at churches in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area and collaborates with schools as a part of its “Singing for a Lifetime” educational outreach program.

His solo recitals, while focusing frequently on the art song repertoire by Beethoven, Brahms, Frederick Loewe, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss and Hugo Wolf, also include major literature by Samuel Barber, Gabriel Fauré, Gerald Finzi, Bohuslav Martinů, Francis Poulenc, Peter Warlock and others.

Cloud State University music departments’ 2008 presentation of Stephen Paulus’s Holocaust memorial oratorio To Be Certain of the Dawn.

[8] He has been the director of the VoiceCare Network, a professional association offering seminars and training to music educators, choral conductors, voice teachers and singers.

He received the Alumni Achievement Award from Saint John's University in 1997[3] and, in 2004, was inducted to the Minnesota Music Educators Association (MMEA) Hall of Fame.