Photo by Sarah Schlicht - Fresh Frame Photography

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Jonathan Laabs

 Jonathan Laabs has been an active conductor, clinician, performer, and music educator throughout the Midwest and beyond. This summer marks his 11th as artistic director and conductor of Canticum Novum. He currently holds a position as Professor of Music and Music Division Chairman at Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minnesota, where he conducts the College Chorale and Women’s Choir and also teaches courses in conducting, choral literature, and aural theory.  

As a guest conductor and clinician, Mr. Laabs has twice conducted (2014, 2017) the National High School Honors Choir at the WELS National Conference on Worship, Music, and the Arts held at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In 2018, he was one of twelve international conductors selected as a fellow at the Chorus America Conducting Academy in Fullerton, California, where he studied and performed choral/orchestral works by Bernstein, Mendelssohn, and Mozart. He earned a master of music in choral conducting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he studied conducting with Dr. Zachary Durlam, conducted the University Chamber Choir, and served as a teaching assistant in the choral area.

Also an active soloist, Mr. Laabs’ performance highlights include Handel’s Israel in Egypt and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, an international tour to Argentina and
Uruguay of Mozart’s Requiem and Faure’s Requiem with Bel Canto International and the Texas Choral Consort, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs with the Falls Baptist College Orchestra and Chorus, and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Martin Luther College Choir and Orchestra.

Jonathan and his wife, Erin, currently live in New Ulm, Minnesota, along with their three children: Genevieve, Mariah, and Garrett.