Curtis Dale Anderson

1962 -

Curtis Anderson, a singer and conductor, has taught at five academies during his career as a music teacher in the Seventh-day Adventist school system. A student of Lynn Wickham, he is known for the quality of his voice teaching and choral work.

Anderson was born and raised in Hutchinson, Minnesota, one of three children born to Wesley and Harriet Andersen Anderson. He and his siblings, Kimberly and Clinton, were raised in a home where music was an important activity. Their father was a self-taught musician who played guitar and sang and their mother a talented singer who had sung in choral groups in her academy years under Milo Hill and at Union College under J. Wesley Rhodes.

Although members of the family are primarily singers, Curtis learned to play French horn starting in fifth grade, and his sister, Kimberly, piano and baritone saxophone. All three children attended Maplewood Academy, located in Hutchinson, and all three have pursued music teaching as a career. Curtis was particularly inspired during his academy years by music teacher Stephen Zork.

Following graduation from MWA in 1980, Curtis enrolled as a music education major at Union College, where he pursued serious voice study with Lynn Wickham and sang under his direction in the Unionaires, the school's select choral ensemble. Following graduation from UC in 1985, he taught music at Mt. Ellis Academy in Montana for two years and then at Ozark Academy in Arkansas for four years.

In the next nine years, Anderson taught at Chisolm Trail Academy in Texas for five years, and San Diego Academy in California for four years. In all his positions after leaving UC, he directed the choir, band, and handbell groups as needed and taught lessons. In 1999 he became choir director and voice instructor at Upper Columbia Academy, where he presently resides.

While teaching at UCA, he pursued graduate study at nearby Eastern Washington University, where he completed an M.A. in choral conducting under Randall Wagner. Anderson is married to Bridget Weed and they have one son, P. Ronnie.

ds/2011

Source: Biography sheet completed by Curtis Anderson, May, 2011