Music MakerBy Anita Cirulis

DAN ROSS

Kimberly Utke Svanoe retires after three decades at NWC

Kimberly Utke Svanoe was just 22 when she signed her first teaching contract with Northwestern College. Fresh from graduate school on the East Coast, where she’d earned a master’s degree in choral conducting, she was hired to direct the A cappella Choir after Professor Lawrence Van Wyk retired.

“It’s uncommon to have a female conduct a touring Christian college choir in the Midwest. They’re predominantly conducted by men,” says Svanoe, who retired in May after 33 years at NWC. “I think it’s a distinctive of Northwestern College that they weren’t afraid to put a woman in that capacity.”

Svanoe wasn’t afraid to accept the job either. Born into a Norwegian/German family in Maddock, N.D., she credits her prairie girl background with her forthright way of getting to the heart of the matter. That background also helped her win the choral position at Northwestern. The dean who hired her told her that, although she had concert experience in Boston, she could understand the rural student who has talent because she herself was from North Dakota.

Svanoe’s own musical talent was evident at an early age. She started piano at age 5 and cello when she was 9, adding voice lessons in high school. Originally interested in becoming a concert pianist, she switched her emphasis to choral conducting after her first year of graduate school.

“I realized I wanted to make music with people,” she says of the hours alone in a practice room that a career as a pianist would require.

Svanoe credits God’s call with bringing her to Northwestern—and keeping her at a place she deeply loves. “Next to raising my son, Will, Northwestern has been my life,” she says.

During Svanoe’s years at the college, she helped coordinate music for chapel services; supervised more than 50 vocal music student teachers; gave voice, violin and cello lessons; and taught conducting, music methods and music survey courses. She also directed the Symphonette and Women’s Choir for more than three decades and the A cappella Choir from 1977 to 2000, visiting 24 states and four countries during national and international tours.

Now retired from Northwestern, Svanoe is embarking on a new phase in her career: teaching music at Sioux Falls Christian School, where she will continue discovering and developing musical talent—this time in what will, in some instances, be the children of her former students.