Education

B.A. St. Olaf College; M.M. University of Minnesota; D.M.A. Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University

Areas of Expertise

Music of Edvard Grieg, double bass, orchestral performance, and chamber music

Rolf Erdahl

Music
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Rolf Erdahl, double bass,  performs widely as a chamber musician and subs for the Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Minnesota Opera.  He teaches bass at Gustavus Adolphus College and at the Lutheran Summer Music Festival.  Previously Principal Bass of the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony and Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, he has subbed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and performed with the Breckenridge Music Festival, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Honolulu Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Miami Beach Basstet, and White Noise Chamber Players.  He has taught bass at the University of Manitoba, Ball State and Wichita State Universities, the Sewanee Music Festival, and the North Carolina Governor's School. He graduated from St. Olaf College, the University of Minnesota, and the Peabody Conservatory. Fulbright and Scandinavian-American Foundation Scholar studies in Norway culminated in his doctoral dissertation on the music of Grieg. Eugene Levinson has been his major teacher.  He has also studied with Peter Lloyd, Bruce Bransby, Paul Ellison, Hal Robinson, and James Clute.

Rolf and his wife, oboist Carrie Vecchione, present oboe/bass duo recitals and educational programs regionally and across the nation. The Vecchione/Erdahl Duo's efforts have effectively created a new duo literature for oboe/English horn and double bass.  Their Pages of Music with Rolf and Carrie educational programs link music and children's literature for schools, libraries, and bookstores.  They are roster artists with Young Audiences of Minnesota, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra's CONNECT Program to the schools, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra's Community Engagement Program, and Minnesota Orchestra's YPSCA.  Their debut duo CD, "It Takes Two . . ." was released by Centaur Records.  Awards include a 2006 American Composer's Forum Encore Grant supporting repeat performances of Andrea Clearfield's Three Songs for Oboe and Double Bass after Poems by Pablo Neruda, 2007 and 2009 Subito Grant in support of recording projects, and a 2007 Jerome Composers Commissioning Program Grant for a new work for oboe and bass by Margaret Griebling-Haigh, Askelad and the Seven Silver Ducks.  Their website is www.oboebass.com.

Dr. Erdahl is also the organizer and an annual participant in the Chamber Music Coffee Concert series at the Lakeville Area Arts Center

Contact Information

Music
Gustavus Adolphus College
800 West College Avenue
Saint Peter, MN 56082

Phone: 507-933-7364
E-mail: rerdahl@gustavus.edu