Composer
Professor and Musician

Dr. Carl F. Schalk

Dr. Carl F. Schalk is currently Distinguished Professor of Music Emeritus at Concordia University, River Forest. This is an apt title for a composer of his stature; indeed, he has more than earned the adjective “distinguished.” A teacher, composer, musicologist, author, and international clinician and lecturer, Dr. Schalk has generously served Lutheran churches in the United States and around the world with his leadership and, of course, his beautiful hymns. Dr. Schalk has written over eighty hymn tunes and carols, many of which appear in over thirty denominational hymnals around the world.

Dr. Schalk graduated from Concordia River Forest in 1952 and went on to earn graduate degrees from the Eastman School of Music and from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Prior to joining the faculty in River Forest in 1965, where he taught for more than 30 years, Dr. Schalk served several parishes. At River Forest, Dr. Schalk instructed undergraduates and graduate students and was instrumental in establishing that institution’s Master of Church Music degree, a program that now boasts some 140 graduates. All the while, too, he has served as the Assistant Director of Music at Grace Lutheran Church, adjacent to the River Forest campus.

Schalk is a Fellow of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada and an Honorary Life Member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. He was the editor of Church Music magazine from 1966 to 1980 and served on the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship, Hymn Music Committee, which prepared the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978). He presently serves on the Music Advisory Committee of Concordia Publishing House and sits on the Board of Directors of the Lutheran Music Program, which sponsors intensive musical study opportunities for high school age musicians. He is currently at work on a history of music in early Lutheranism, together with a companion volume of musical compositions.