CLINICIAN

Jonathan Laabs has been an active conductor, clinician, performer, and music educator throughout the Midwest and beyond. This past July, he began a post as the new artistic director and conductor of the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee. Previously, he held a position as Professor of Music and Music Division Chairman at Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minnesota, where he conducted the College Chorale and Women’s Choir and also taught courses in conducting, choral literature, and aural theory. In addition, he serves as Artistic Director and conductor of Canticum Novum, a Midwest-based chorus with performances centered around an annual intensive week-long retreat. 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 and co-conducted the opening Festival Concert in July 2024. 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.

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 Minnesota Valley Chorale.

CLINICIAN

Steven Springborn currently serves as Choral Director at Lakeside Lutheran High School in Lake Mills, Wisconsin. He conducts the Freshman Chorus, Cantate Choir, A Cappella Choir, and the Swing Choir. He lives in Jefferson, Wisconsin with his wife Amy and their four children.

Steven attended St. Croix Lutheran High School from 2000-2005 where he was involved with the choirs, bands, drama productions, and chapel services, studying under Casey Pufahl, Paul Kassaulke, Jeff Strehlow, and Thomas Hansen.

He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Martin Luther College in 2010 with a double major in Elementary Education and Secondary Vocal/Choral Music Education. After graduation he was assigned to Cross of Glory Lutheran Church and School where he taught in a general multigrade classroom and started the school’s music program. His family then moved to Waco, Nebraska where he served as the music director for Nebraska Ev. Lutheran High School for seven years before moving to Wisconsin where he now serves.

Steven is currently taking graduate classes at Concordia University, Mequon where he is pursuing a master’s degree in church music with an emphasis on choral music. He is also a published composer with both adult and children’s choral works published through Northwestern Publishing House.