A 1961 vocal music education graduate of St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, Robert Scholz also holds degrees from the University of Illinois in musicology (MM) and choral conducting (DMA). He attended the University as a Woodrow Wilson and Danforth Felloship scholar.
Before joining the St. Olaf faculty, Dr. Scholz taught at Campbell College in North Carolina, directed the Chamber Choir at the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana), and was director of music at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. At St. Olaf since 1968, Dr. Scholz conducted the Chapel Choir, Campus Choir (predecessor to the St. Olaf Cantorei), and Chamber Choir in addition to the Viking Chorus, and he taught voice, choral conducting and choral literature. His influence on the choral program at St. Olaf also included spearheading the design of the present choral course offerings. In addition, Scholz directed many of the larger works for chorus and orchestra with the St. Olaf College Orchestra and Chapel Choir in their annual spring concert and helped in planning the Christmas Festival for 37 years. In the Spring of 2006, Scholz served as guest director of the St. Olaf Choir while Anton Armstrong was on Sabbatical.
Scholz is a choral clinician, a composer and arranger with music published by Augsburg-Fortress, MorningStar, Mark Foster, and GIA. He directed the Northfield Chorale for 12 years and is a member of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and the American Composers Forum. In 1995 Scholz received the F. Melius Christiansen award for outstanding contributions to choral music from the ACDA of Minnesota.