Rene Clausen is an American Composer and the conductor of the Concordia Choir in Moorhead, Minnesota since 1986. He is also the professor of music at Concordia. Before he was a world-renowned composer and conductor. He was birthed in 1953 and raised in California and eventually moved to Iowa, and graduated from Wilton Senior High School in Wilton and then went on to St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. There he received his Master of Music Performance and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Illinois, in Urbana. Before Concordia in Moorhead, Rene was a professor at West Texas State University and Wichita State University. One interesting thing about Dr. Rene Clausen did is that. In the summer of 1998, Rene established the first Rene Clausen Choral School held on the campus of Concordia College. There were around sixty three participants from twenty seven states. This was much more than a reading workshop this was an intense five day program for choral conductors focusing on conducting and rehearsal technique as well as performance practice issues, elements of choral ensemble, tonal development and daily reading sessions of new music. Some of his compositions have been performed by The King’s Singers, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the American Choral Directors.Some of his most famous pieces included the “MEMORIAL” and “Crying for a Dream” for the American Choral Directors Association. In 1996, he was named the Paul J. and Eleanor Christansen Chair in Choral at Concordia. His work of “Life and Breath: Choral Works by Rene Clausen” a 13- track recording by the Kansas City Chorale was awarded two Grammy Awards in 2013, including Best Choral Performance. He has also conducted All-State choirs in more than fifteen states. His compositions and arrangements are published by Roger Dean Publishing Company, E.C Schirmer, Shawnee Press in the Mark Foster Catalog, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Hal Leonard, and Walton and Augsburg Fortress. I personally have sang a bunch of Dr. Rene Clausens work but one of my favorite ones would be Jabberwocky. Jabberwocky is performed as SATB. We performed it for a contest and it was one of my favorite ones it has an upbeat tempo and it is quite fast which I like. This piece makes me think of the Rocky Horror Picture Show music and how bizarre it is. This song does not have any instrumentation besides piano. Another song I personally liked was Requiem. I sang this song with the Minnesota All State Lutheran Choir. Requiem was one of my favorite pieces from all of the music that we sang on the tour. Requiem made me think about church and church music it was a very strong sounding song and very powerful. I also like how it started slower and eventually gained some speed. This song also does not have instrumentation that I could find besides piano.The last song I chose was a Jubilant Song this song is one of the music pieces that we sang last year. Jubilant Song was sang in SABT. We sang Jubilant Song last year as well. It was very powerful sounding. This song I also could not find any instrumentation on besides piano.