René Clausen

In my senior year of high school, I was lucky enough to be able to work with René Clausen.  He was the conductor of PMEA's Regional Choir two years ago. Along with conducting the Concordia Choir, he is the associate professor of music at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.  His undergraduate degree is from St. Olaf College and received the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in choral conducting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In all, Clausen has written or arranged 33 choral pieces.  His style is sometimes classified as Neo-Romantic, but his simpler pieces have the same structure as a Classical or Baroque piece with hints of Romantic expression, utilizing many traditional chord progressions.  Clausen's most popular harmonies are his use of tone cluster chords.  

O My Luve's Like a Red, Red Rose was one of the pieces that Clausen conducted at Regional choir.  He told us that he wrote this song in less than 24 hours!  He had decided spontaneously that he wanted to do something special for his wife on their anniversary.  Here is a video of this song, sung by the Concordia Choir: