Conducting & Performing

Chorus America advances the artistry of choruses by providing masterclasses for choral conductors, sessions on repertoire and performance practice, convenings of artistic directors, research on conducting careers and transitions, information on performance trends and innovations, and forums for discussion of artistic issues.

Articles

A Capital Farewell for Norman Scribner

A Capital Farewell for Norman Scribner

Robin L. Perry | Conducting

DC's "dean" of choral conductors steps down and reflects on a career that spanned a half century in the U.S. capital Read more

  • Views (1,231)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
When Only Some Singers Are Paid

When Only Some Singers Are Paid

Don Lee | Management/Leadership, Performance, Professional, Singing, Volunteer

The experience of several professional core choruses demonstrates there are ways to gracefully handle the inherent tension that arises when paid singers are brought on board in a mostly volunteer ensemble. Here are eight tips from managers, conductors, and volunteer singers who have been through this process. Read more

  • Views (1,828)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
Transitioning to a Professional Core Chorus

Transitioning to a Professional Core Chorus

Don Lee | Management/Leadership, Performance, Professional, Singing, Volunteer

Adding paid professional singers to a volunteer chorus raises issues of fairness, finances, artistic prowess, and culture. We offer advice for managing the process from those who've been through it. Read more

  • Views (1,170)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (1)
Member Spotlight: KellyAnn Nelson and Christopher Eanes & the Young Professionals Choral Collective, Cincinnati

Member Spotlight: KellyAnn Nelson and Christopher Eanes & the Young Professionals Choral Collective, Cincinnati

Kelsey Menehan | Civic Engagement, Impact/Value, Participation, Performance

Many young professionals lose the choral experience they loved in school. KellyAnn Nelson and Christopher Eanes hit on a surefire draw: Invite 20- and 30-somethings to rehearse and perform in a local bar. Read more

  • Views (1,852)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
How To Maintain the Quality of Your Chorus from Year to Year

How To Maintain the Quality of Your Chorus from Year to Year

Kelsey Menehan | Conducting, Management/Leadership, Performance, Recruitment

Musical excellence attracts and retains excellent singers. If the choir never gets better, the best ones will find someplace else to sing. Here are seven strategies for maintaining and enhancing the quality of your chorus. Read more

  • Views (1,349)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
Creating a Conducting Video

Creating a Conducting Video

An Essential Part of a Conductor's Portfolio

David Hayes | Careers, Conducting, Education, Performance, Professional, Technique/Tool, Technology

Videos play a vital role in advancing the careers of conductors today, both as self-evaluation tools and as a way to easily showcase skills to others. We explore two types of conducting videos, the guidelines to create them, and how to use them to enhance your career. Read more

  • Views (1,543)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
Choral Music on the Radio

Choral Music on the Radio

A New Blend

Don Lee | Audiences, Impact/Value, Performance, Repertoire, Technology

Today's radio programmers are moving past the bad rap of early research and experimenting with a richer mix of choral and vocal music. Read more

  • Views (1,929)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
Chicago a cappella: Leveraging Repertoire To Build a Brand

Chicago a cappella: Leveraging Repertoire To Build a Brand

Matthew Sigman | Community Outreach, Marketing/Public Relations, Repertoire

A journey through the history of Jewish liturgical music alters a chorus’s path to the future. Read more

  • Views (1,092)
  • Favorites (1)
  • Comments (0)
Music To Die For: Why We Love Requiems

Music To Die For: Why We Love Requiems

Kelsey Menehan | Composing/Commissioning, Repertoire

From the sweet lyricism of Fauré to the populism of Brahms to the theatricality of Verdi, requiems remain the favorites of singers, conductors, and audiences alike. We talked with Kathy FitzGibbon, director of choral activities at Lewis and Clark College and head of faculty at the Berkshire Choral Festival, about the enduring appeal of requiems and the modern interpretations they have spawned. Read more

  • Views (1,241)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (2)

Resources

The Choral Music of Healey Willan: Part II

The Choral Music of Healey Willan: Part II

Chorus America Staff | Composing/Commissioning, Repertoire, Research/Data

Research Memorandum Series No. 188 Read more

  • Views (522)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
The Choral Music of Healey Willan: Part I

The Choral Music of Healey Willan: Part I

Chorus America Staff | Composing/Commissioning, Repertoire, Research/Data

Research Memorandum Series No. 187 Read more

  • Views (311)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
The Choral Music of R. Murray Schafer

The Choral Music of R. Murray Schafer

Chorus America Staff | Composing/Commissioning, Repertoire, Research/Data

Research Memorandum Series No. 184 Read more

  • Views (353)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)

Events

Rachmaninoff Celebration: Sacred and Secular

Rachmaninoff Celebration: Sacred and Secular

213 West 82nd Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam)

Russian Chamber... | Performance

The Russian Chamber Chorus of New York (RCCNY) presents a second concert in its continuing celebration of Rachmaninoff's 140th birthday, including sacred and secular compositions that are among Rachmaninoff's most beautiful and least well-known in the US. In April, RCCNY honors the versatile genius of the great Rachmaninoff. His remarkable spirit is reflected in selections from Vespers and Choral Concerto, the mysterious melancholy of his famous Vocalise, the miraculous transformation of the soul and its renewal in the cantata Spring, and the deep emotions and poetic images of nature in Six Choruses for Women's Voices, written when Rachmaninoff was just 22 years old. Tickets: http://rccny.org/ConcertSchedule.html Read more

  • Views (79)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
The Philadelphia Singers Presents Philadelphia Premiere of “Tchaikovsky and Schnittke”

The Philadelphia Singers Presents Philadelphia Premiere of “Tchaikovsky and Schnittke”

18th and Benjamin Franklin Parkway

Theodora W. Ashmead | Performance

Spanning 100 years of Russian choral music, this concert presents two different worlds of sacred composition, one composed by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, his Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and the other a century later by Alfred Schnittke, his Choir Concerto. One an insider, the other an outcast, one composer commissioned by the Tsar, and the other composed under communist rule, while struggling to achieve artistic freedom. Hear why these pieces are so similar yet so uniquely different. This is the first time the works have been presented together in Philadelphia and it is also The Philadelphia Singers inaugural performance at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, a beautiful example of Roman-Corinthian architecture. Read more

  • Views (79)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
A Britten Centennial Celebration

A Britten Centennial Celebration

Fullerton, CA

Ryan McSweeney | Performance

Pacific Chorale and the John Alexander Singers pay tribute to the centenary of English composer Benjamin Britten (1913–1976), performing diverse selections from his choral output. Read more

  • Views (64)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir - Beethoven Missa Solemnis

Toronto Mendelssohn Choir - Beethoven Missa Solemnis

Toronto, Ontario

Toronto Mendels... | Audiences, General, Marketing/Public Relations, Performance, Professional, Symphonic

Immerse yourself in this grand symphonic work, an artistic testament to Beethoven’s spirituality. Read more

  • Views (78)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
Heritage Presents: 13th Annual Concert Sing On!

Heritage Presents: 13th Annual Concert Sing On!

4101 Nebraska Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016

Miriam Dixon | Adults/Seniors, Audiences, CA News, Children/Youth, Civic Engagement, Community Outreach, Composing/Commissioning, Conducting, Diversity, Education, Families, Fundraising, General, Impact/Value, Innovation, Management/Leadership, Marketing/Public Relations, Networking, Participation, Performance, Professional, Recruitment, Schools, Singing, Social Media, Symphonic, Venue, Volunteer

We Preserve the Past. We Inspire the Community. We Sing On. Join Heritage Signature Chorale for our annual concert which promises to stir your soul. Tickets may be purchased at www.heritagesignaturechorale.org or by phone (202) 808-0583. Read more

  • Views (306)
  • Favorites (1)
  • Comments (0)
The Son of Man

The Son of Man

Santa Clara and San Francisco, CA

Susan Rooke | Adults/Seniors, Audiences, CA News, Civic Engagement, Community Outreach, Composing/Commissioning, Conducting, Innovation, Performance, Repertoire

The Peninsula Women's Chorus and The Golden Gate Men's Chorus collaborate in a West Coast premiere. Read more

  • Views (115)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
New and Ancient Voices - Interpreting Nature in China and the US

New and Ancient Voices - Interpreting Nature in China and the US

251 Main St., Great Barrington, MA. 01230

Kathi | Performance

Crescendo’s first two commissioned works written by New England composers Read more

  • Views (99)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
Amens and Alleluias

Amens and Alleluias

10000 Candelaria Rd. NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico

PatriciaAFairchild | Performance

Soli Musica Celebrates Spiritual and Gospel Music Read more

  • Views (77)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
“Made in America!”

“Made in America!”

1501 W. Ingomar Road Pittsburgh, PA 1237

PCCsing | Adults/Seniors, Audiences, Composing/Commissioning, Conducting, Performance, Professional, Singing

  An exciting concert saluting America and celebrating American composers! Music by Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Morten Lauridsen and a new commissioned work by Dale Warland, plus spirituals, patriotic songs, folk songs and more! Read more

  • Views (117)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)
 “Made in America!”

“Made in America!”

384 Fox Chapel Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15238

PCCsing | Adults/Seniors, Audiences, Composing/Commissioning, Conducting, Performance, Singing

An exciting concert saluting America and celebrating American composers! Music by Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Morten Lauridsen and a new commissioned work by Dale Warland, plus spirituals, patriotic songs, folk songs and more! Read more

  • Views (116)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)

Dialogue

Questions During Rehearsal?

Questions During Rehearsal?

Anonymous | Rehearsal, Singing

Conductors, do you let your singers ask questions during rehearsal? What are the pros and cons? Read more

  • Views (691)
  • Favorites (0)
  • Comments (0)