Dr. AnnMarie Olson Sharing Music with the World

Dr. AnnMarie Olson was exposed to music at an early age and has carried that passion into adulthood. Her father was a percussionist in the Minneapolis Symphony, played in a jazz combo, and was a band director. Classical, jazz and big band music became important parts of her childhood, and Dr. Olson remembers the thrill it gave her to listen to beautiful music on her parent’s collection of Vinyl and 78s.

When it came time to choose an instrument, she gravitated toward percussion like her father, but by the time she got to college, she found her voice. She began to sing and play percussion with the Liturgical Choir at the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul Minnesota, and during various church services.  Today, she sings in her church choir at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Austin, and sings and plays percussion with the Masterworks Choir at St. Edward’s University—a group mixed with students and community members that travels around the world.    

“I love the interaction with the students, and the gifts we can give to one another. To paraphrase our director, Dr. Morris Stevens, ‘When we come together as this little community, we enrich ourselves by the presence and spirit of each other. We nourish each other by artistic expression.’ In addition to local performances, The St. Edward’s Masterworks Choir tours every two years, and I’ve been delighted to sing with them on four tours, usually with a drum or tambourine tucked into my carryon!

We have performed in Scotland, Spain and Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and recently in the Baltic states; Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The Baltic tour was especially poignant as the Baltic states essentially “sang their way to freedom” from Soviet control. I am so blessed to have this opportunity to share music, and to expand my artistic expression beyond the dental chair!”