One of seven child­ren born to an itin­er­ant Swed­ish Lu­ther­an min­is­ter, Alex­is ded­i­cat­ed his life to the mu­sic of the church as an organ­ist, com­poser, ar­rang­er, sing­er and chor­al con­duct­or. His ear­ly studies and po­si­tions led him from Rock Is­land, Il­li­nois, to Is­hpem­ing, Mi­chi­gan, to Lin­coln, Ne­bras­ka, where he stu­died at the Un­i­ver­si­ty School of Mu­sic and served as or­gan­ist at the First Lu­ther­an Church (1911-1914). Dur­ing this time, he tra­veled Amer­i­ca and Swe­den with three of his four bro­thers as the Alex­is Male Quar­tet. They gave con­certs that in­clud­ed vo­cal so­los, du­ets and quar­tets; or­gan, pi­a­no and flute works, as well as dra­ma­tic re­ci­ta­tions. His stu­dies in or­gan, voice and com­po­si­tion con­tin­ued at the Roy­al Mu­sic­al Con­serv­a­to­ry in Stock­holm, Swe­den, after which he re­turned to Amer­i­ca for a church or­gan­ist post in New Br­itain, Con­nec­ti­cut. In 1916, he ac­cept­ed the po­si­tion of or­gan­ist and choir­mas­ter at First Lu­ther­an Church in St. Paul, Min­ne­so­ta, where he and his wife, Ol­ga Ma­ria Grund of Ish­pem­ing, Mi­chi­gan, raised their three children. In ad­di­tion to his du­ties at First Lu­ther­an, he served as pro­fess­or of mu­sic at the Min­ne­so­ta Coll­ege’s School of Mu­sic, and at Pha­len Lu­ther Sem­in­a­ry. Ger­hard al­so taught pri­vate­ly and per­formed pub­lic­ly through­out the Amer­i­can Mid­west as an or­gan­ist and sing­er. He was a mem­ber of the St. Paul Fed­er­a­tion of Lu­ther­an Bro­ther­hood’s Male Quar­tet, and was a Fel­low of the Amer­i­can Guild of Or­gan­ists.

Music

1. Ishpeming
2. Seraphim
3. St. Ingrid