Composer, conductor, singer and pianist Dawn Lenore Sonntag (b. 1962) has composed chamber music, songs, choral works, and orchestral music. Sonntag's composition teachers have included Alex Lubet, Claude Baker, Igor Karaca, and Burkhard Kinzler. Her choral works have been performed by college, community, and church choirs in Germany, France, Norway, and across the United States. In addition to her compositional activities, Sonntag has performed nationally and internationally as a soprano soloist and collaborative pianist specializing in German and Norwegian art-song repertoire. A self-taught pianist until the age of 18, Sonntag began formal studies in trumpet and piano performance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she also studied voice and choral conducting, completing undergraduate music studies at the University of Texas at El Paso. Sonntag holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from Ohio State University, a Master of Arts degree in vocal performance from Antioch University, Tübingen, Germany, and a graduate-level artist's diploma in piano performance from the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik, Heidelberg, Germany, where she was winner of the Inge Pitler Lied competition in both piano and voice. Sonntag has held teaching appointments in music theory at the University of Minnesota and the College of Saint Catherine. Currently, she is Assistant Professor of Music at Hiram College, where she heads the theory and composition department.
