Paul Althouse

Paul Althouse, professor of music and director of choral activities for more than 30 years, retired from Connecticut College in 2012.

Professor Althouse taught music history surveys for both majors and minors, as well as courses in the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic areas. In music theory, he has taught the first three courses in the theory sequence for majors, as well as a senior seminar in form and analysis. He teaches Music 102, the history survey for non-majors and Music 247, part of the major's history sequence.

Widely recognized for his expertise as a conductor and his role as a recorded music critic, Althouse has bridged the fields of music history and performance. He began conducting choral groups while at Harvard University and continued with the founding of the Yale Bach Society. He has now led the Connecticut College choral groups for more than 30 years. Althouse has conducted most of the monuments of the choral literature, including Requiem settings of Mozart, Verdi and Brahms; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; Bach's St. John Passion and B-Minor Mass; and Stravinsky's Les Noces and Symphony of Psalms. The Chamber Choir has presented a program of love songs and a concert of 20th-century masterpieces. In the Fall of 2003, the Choir presented Going for Baroque, Choral Masterpieces by Monteverdi, Schütz, Purcell and J.S. Bach.

Althouse's love of musical performance was sharpened in his doctoral dissertation, which dealt with the performance of Carl Loewe's ballads. His publications began in 1976 when he was asked to contribute to American Record Guide (ARG). His association with ARG has continued to the present and included a period as Executive Editor. His reviews have also appeared in Opus, Schwann, and Stereophile, the latter publishing his overviews of complete recordings for Handel's Messiah and Bach's B-Minor Mass.

In total, his body of work comprises more than 900 record reviews, three feature-length reviews, sixteen articles and nine book reviews. The articles include extensive entries on Brahms and Schubert in a book, Classical Music: The Listener's Companion.