Carl Schalk is Distinguished Professor of Church Music Emeritus at Concordia University, River Forest, Illinois, where he taught for some thirty years. He is the recipient of several honors, including the Wittenberg Award from the Luther Institute, Washington, D. C. (1999); the Distinguished Composer Award from the American Guild of Organists (2002); a Fellow of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada (1992); Honorary Life Member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (1995).

He is author/editor of these recent publications:  Key Words in Church Music (2004); Music in Early Lutheranism (2001); God’s Song in a New Land ((1995); Source Documents in American Lutheran Hymnody (1996). These books, his choral publications, and several recordings are built on the vast experience he holds being a choir director, composer, church musician, and musicologist.