With a career in conducting, performing and teaching spanning over 35 years, Dr. Dale Kruse is currently an Associate Professor of Practice in Voice and Lyric Theater at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN where he teaches voice and leads the Lyric Theater program.  A firm believer in academic civic engagement, one class he teaches involves a month-long residency with 180 elementary students creating and performing their own original opera.  Previously he taught on the faculties of Gustavus Adolphus College, Wayzata High School, Robbinsdale Armstrong High School and Augsburg University.  For 12 years, he was the Music Director of Minnesota Opera: Project Opera, a nationally recognized voice training program he founded for singer’s grades 4 through 12.  Passionate about opera education, Dr. Kruse was Artistic Director of the Minnesota Opera Summer Opera Camp and the Children's Chorus Master for their mainstage productions.  Many of those students have gone on to careers throughout the music industry.  Former private students have made soloist debuts with prestigious companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Opera, San Francisco Opera, Sarasota Opera and in opera houses across Europe. He has served as President, Membership Chair, Auditions Chair and District Governor for the Minnesota NATS Chapter.  As a tenor, he was a regular performer with the Minnesota Opera, Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Prairie Home Companion, Berkshire Opera, Oregon Bach Festival, and Lyra Concert Baroque Orchestra.  Recent honors include conducting the 2015 Missouri All-Collegiate Honors Choir, First Prize of the 2016-17 American Prize for Conducting – opera/musical theater, community division for Memory Boy world premiere (Minnesota Opera: Project Opera), Jurist for “Opera for All Voices”, an exciting initiative bringing stories with purpose to all audiences that was commissioned by a consortium of companies led by Santa Fe Opera in association with San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Minnesota Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, San Francisco Opera, Sarasota Opera, and Seattle Opera, and 2024 Guest Conductor of the Robbinsdale School District Fall Festival at Orchestra Hall. He earned his degrees from Luther College (B.A), Drake University (M.M.), and the University of Minnesota (D.M.A.).