South Dakota Mines Music Center
Purchase tickets for the 2024 Sweetheart Dinner & Dance on February 16/17 https://cara.sdsmt.edu/events/dinnerdance
Give to music! Contribute to support music at Mines with Hardrockers Give!
At the South Dakota Mines, music is interwoven into the science and engineering curriculum,
allowing students to flourish in a diverse environment rich with talent, knowledge,
and passion. Music-making sparks the imagination, demands innovation, develops rigorous
self-discipline and intellectual flexibility - skills integral to success in every
field.
Our unique music ensemble courses and other offerings challenge our students to think
creatively and develop greater musical understandings through the study and performance
of all varieties of music, while gaining invaluable teaming and communication skills
that serve them well throughout their chosen careers. Our music program, created and
developed by former South Dakota Mines Director of Music Dr. James D. Feiszli, was
cited by The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and Carnegie
Foundation as the major reason for his being awarded the 2013 CASE-Carnegie Professor
of the Year for South Dakota.
South Dakota Mines music ensembles have performed at conferences, competitions, and festivals around the world. Students receive personalized instruction from faculty renowned and respected for their contributions to the music profession.
Music activities are housed in the Music Center, located in one of the most historic buildings on campus, on the southeast corner of the campus quadrangle. A focal point of campus life, the Music Center hosts concerts, recitals, classes, rehearsal rooms, and social events.
Related Links
More information
Being part of the South Dakota Mines music family continues after graduation. Our
music alumni maintain close ties, creating professional and personal networks that
continue to benefit them.
Eight alumni singers accompanied the South Dakota Mines choirs on their first European
concert tour in 1989, and the tradition has continued ever since. In 1993, 1996, 2001,
2006, and 2009 choirs composed of both students and alumni performed in Rapid City
and on tours to Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Ireland, winning awards and acclaim.
In 1999, the Alumni and Friends Choir, a vocal ensemble open to alumni, spouses, and friends of South Dakota Mines Music,
was formalized and has developed a set of repertory that they have since performed
at campus reunions, spring choral concerts, and special performance events in the
U.S. and abroad.
A&F Choir Performances
2013: Rapid City, SD - 80 alumni performed at the spring concert in celebration of
Dr. Feiszli's thirty years at South Dakota Mines
2004: Bellevue, WA – Meydenbauer Center
2002: Minneapolis, MN – Westwood Lutheran Church
2002: Rapid City, SD – South Dakota Mines Spring Concert
2001: Fort Collins, CO – St. Joseph’s Catholic Church
2001: Italy – Concert Tour
2000: Denver, CO – Moses Hogan Festival
2000: Rapid City, SD – South Dakota Mines Five-Year Reunion
The High Energy Machine (THEM)
Established in 1984 as a 1950s do-wop music group, THEM was soon performing in nearly every venue available from the Governor’s Hunt Club Banquet in Pierre to European festivals. THEM now soldiers on as an alumni ensemble, appearing in European tours and maintaining an active social network.
But music did not always have its own home on campus. For nearly 50 years, the gymnasium was the bustling center of campus life, housing concerts, theater performances, sporting events, dances, and commencement. When the King Center was constructed in 1976, athletics moved into the new complex, and so too did music. The space was then occupied by paleontology until a new paleontology building opened in 2011.
In the interim, music activities rapidly expanded, outgrowing their space in the King Center. With the old gymnasium now available, the space was repurposed and renovations began. Today, the music building is a thriving hub of concerts, rehearsals, lectures, meetings, and classes. Yet much work remains to be done: developing the lower floor into classrooms, adding audio infrastructure and performance lighting, extending concert hall seating and the stage, and renovating rooms into a recording studio and control room.
To achieve this vision of creating an exceptional performance facility for South Dakota Mines and the region, funding is needed. You can help make this dream come true by donating today. Contact Dr. Armstrong to learn more.
Our music ensembles have toured throughout the region, nation, and European continent. Until
1984, South Dakota Mines music ensembles prepared annual concert tours for high schools
within South Dakota and the surrounding states, even performing once in Mexico under
the direction of Charles Thielen. In the mid-1980s, the focus shifted to US performance
venues that presented educational opportunities such as state and regional conventions
of the American Choral Directors Association; the Music Educators National Conference
in Anaheim, CA; Grand Teton Choral Festival in Jackson Hole, WY. The South Dakota
Mines Master Chorale was chosen to represent South Dakota at the National Cathedral
in Washington DC during its dedicatory year in 1991.
In the fall of 1988, the Concert Choir embarked on the first European concert tour. Since that time, South Dakota Mines ensembles have traveled abroad every three to four years to Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Ireland where they took three first-place awards in the Association of Irish Musical Societies choral competition. In spring of 2016, the choir returned to Europe for a sixteen-day tour.
| 2016 | Italy & Germany |   |
| 2010-2011 | Switzerland & Germany |
 |
| 2006 |
Ireland |  |
| 2003 | Austria, Germany and Switzerland |
   |
| 2001 | Italy |  |
| 1996 | Germany & Italy |  |
| 1996 | Switzerland & Germany | |
Contact Us
| Dr. Haley Armstrong Director of Bands Music Center, Room 210 605-394-2433 Haley.Armstrong@sdsmt.edu |
Tammy Schnittgrund Director of University Orchestra Music Center 305 605-394-2433 Tammy.Schnittgrund@sdsmt.edu |
|
Dr. Gerrit Scheepers |
Andrea Horan Administrative Assistant Music Office 605-394-2433 Andrea.Horan@sdsmt.edu |