Dr. Paul Brandvik, Pillar of BSU Choral Music Tradition, Dies at Age 88

December 22, 2025

A photo of Dr. Paul Brandvik at a concert celebrating BSU choir's 85th anniversary in 2022. He has white hair and wears a grey suit coat with a white shirt underneath. He is seated, and waving to a crowd wiht his right hand. Behind him, a group of BSU choir alumni are applauding him.

Above: Dr. Paul Brandvik following a performance at a 2022 concert celebrating the 85th anniversary of BSU’s choral music programs.

Dr. Paul A. Brandvik, professor emeritus of vocal music and director of choral programs at Bemidji State University from 1967–1998, died December 16 at the age of 88.

Dr. Isaac Lovdahl, who has been director of choral programs at BSU since 2024, said that Brandvik’s influence is difficult to summarize.

“I have known the name ‘Paul Brandvik’ since I was a teenager. To say he was an important part of not only the Minnesota choral landscape, but also the national choral landscape is an understatement,” Lovdahl said. “For myself and for my predecessors here at BSU, we stand on the shoulders of the giant of choral music that is Paul Brandvik.”

Brandvik joined the BSU faculty in 1967, succeeding the retiring Carl O. Thompson, who founded the school’s vocal music programs in 1937. Under Thompson’s guidance, Bemidji State had established its reputation as an outstanding institution for choral music. According to Dr. Ron Gearman’s 2003 book, “Music in the Pines,” Thompson sought “a person who could carry on and upward from where he left off.”

Over the next 31 years, Brandvik more than delivered on Thompson’s wish. Until his own retirement in 1998, Brandvik developed BSU into one of the most highly renowned collegiate choral programs in the region. Under his direction, Bemidji State toured Europe in 1970 — a first for any BSU musical group. In 1977, that tour grew into a new program called EuroSpring. What began as an opportunity for BSU musicians to enrich their studies with cultural and environmental experiences in England and Italy, EuroSpring continues today as BSU’s signature study-abroad experience for all students.

In 1969, Brandvik founded Bemidji State’s Madrigal Dinners, which grew into a beloved holiday tradition and were hailed as “Dr. Brandvik’s greatest innovation.” During the 50 years BSU produced the Madrigal Dinners, hundreds of students and thousands of guests in Bemidji and beyond were transported to the 15th Century for an English Yule banquet as an unofficial kickoff to the holiday season. BSU student performers clad in period-authentic costumes delivered memorable performances as the royal court, minstrels, singing waiters and more, guided by a ring-leading jester, while guests enjoyed a holiday-themed meal. During Brandvik’s final Madrigal Dinners in 1997, students delivered 10 performances — six in Bemidji, three in Minneapolis and one in Duluth — for more than 4,500 guests. Even in retirement, Brandvik continued to give seminars and clinics on Madrigal Dinners and published nearly two dozen scripts for their production.

Beyond the thousands of students he taught at Bemidji State, Brandvik also worked tirelessly to bring choral music to Minnesota high school students. In 1979, he founded ChorFest, an annual choral music invitational that continued into the early 2000s. He also served as choir director at BSU’s annual MusiCamp eight times between 1972 and 1998. Additionally, he conducted all-state choirs in Arkansas, Minnesota and Montana and the Nebraska Honors Choir.

In addition to his numerous other honors and awards, Brandvik earned the Burlington Northern Distinguished Teaching Award in 1991 and the F. Melius Christiansen Award for his contributions to choral music in 1993. In 1999, he was inducted into the Minnesota Music Educators Hall of Fame.

Brandvik conducted or taught in more than 100 festivals or workshops in the United States and abroad, including eight years teaching in Belgium with the International Choir Conductors Course. He was also an active composer with more than 50 published choral works, and he published “The Compleat Madrigal Dinner Booke” which served as a guide for many other directors of Madrigal Dinner-style performances across the country.

Lovdahl said he gratefully accepts the responsibility to ensure current Bemidji State University students understand Brandvik’s legacy.

“We sing Paul Brandvik’s arrangement of ‘My Friends We Now Must Leave Thee’ every year at our Christmas in the Pines concert,” Lovdahl said. “I have been able to talk about Paul and the legacy he has left for us each year as we prepare for that concert.”

Lovdahl said the Bemidji Choir will continue to honor Brandvik by performing his arrangement of the traditional Irish piece, “In the Palm of His Hand,” during their upcoming spring tour.

After retiring in 1998, Brandvik joined the Bemidji Alumni Choir — first formed as a part of a master’s thesis project by BSU alumna Sarah Aamot — as founding artistic director in 2000. Mark Carlson ’75, a former student of Brandvik’s who later directed the BSU Alumni Choir himself, grew close with Brandvik in his post-Bemidji State era. Carlson said that during his nearly decade and a half as Alumni Choir director, he met with Brandvik frequently.

“I would ask for coaching on certain pieces or other things I was working on, and he was always gracious with his time,” Carlson said. “I learned much more than music from Paul. He supported and mentored me for my whole life, personally and professionally.”

Carlson has already begun coordinating a choir of BSU alumni to sing at a January 2 celebration of life for Brandvik. The celebration will be held at the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, 700 Snelling Ave., St. Paul, Minnesota. Visitation begins at 10 a.m. with the service beginning at 11 a.m. Participating choir members will rehearse from 8:45–9:15 a.m. A light lunch will follow the service.

Carlson believes the choir for the service is likely to reach nearly 80 voices, a testament to the impact Brandvik made on generations of BSU students.

In Gearman’s book, Joseph Vene, an adjunct instructor in voice at BSU for more than 30 years and a 2000 recipient of BSU’s Outstanding Alumni award, said of Brandvik: “His performing groups became the standard by which others would be judged. Dr. Brandvik’s offerings were always musical, artistic and deeply felt, and they brought many a timeless moment to audiences everywhere.”

In 2000, friends of the Bemidji Choir and members of the BSU Alumni Choir started the Paul Brandvik Choral Scholarship Endowment Fund. Since its inception, the fund has provided scholarships for 22 students.