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Contributions of the Class of 1891: Anthony C. Lund

Another prominent alumnus of 1891 was Anthony C. Lund, son of apostle Anthon H. Lund. Speaking as class valedictorian (https://archive.org/stream/commencementexer1891brig#page/38/mode/2up), Lund called on his fellow students to help “water a part of God’s vineyard.” Taking this call to heart, he served both the Church and the University over the course of his career–first as a music professor at Brigham Young University and later as conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Anthony C. Lund

Lund was born on February 25, 1871 in Ephraim, Utah to Anthon H. and Anna Christina Anderson Lund. He attended schools in Ephraim, as well as taking organ lessons from the age of eight. In 1888 he came to the Brigham Young Academy to study didactics, graduating with the Normal Class of 1891 as valedictorian. Shortly thereafter he travelled to the Leipzig Conservatory of Music where he studied from 1891 to 1893. He later returned to complete his coursework in Leipzig, stating on his return in 1899 that he could now “feel myself able as a vocal teacher.”

At Brigham Young University, Tony Lund served as professor of music from 1893 to 1899, and again from 1902 to 1915. During this time he was able to establish a strong teaching program, and conducted at numerous concerts that brought positive attention to the school. Near the end of his service, he described the music program in the Banyan as follows:

The B.Y.U. Music Department has twenty-six representative students teaching school music. A similar number of choir leaders are doing splendid community service. It numbers among its singers several in important places in opera in Europe and America. Its weekly recitals by teachers and pupils have disseminated as much culture as any organization in the West.

Amid his teaching responsibilities, Lund also spent a year as president of the Brigham Young University Alumni Association (1904-1905).

However, in 1916 Lund was appointed to head the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City, replacing Evan Stephens.

A small collection of papers on Lund are available in Special Collections amid his wife Cornelia’s papers (MSS 279 box 4 folder 4), in addition to his faculty file (UA 909 box 110 folder 29). A brief biography may also be found in T. Earl Pardoe’s Sons of Brigham (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1969).

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