For Singers

Chorus America champions the dedicated choral singer by developing online resources and tools to advance skills and promoting connections between singers. We recognize that choral singing is the most popular form of participation in the performing arts, that choral singers are active and engaged citizens, and that children who sing have greater academic success and social skills.

Articles

There’s No Place Like Chorus for the Holidays

There’s No Place Like Chorus for the Holidays

Kelsey Menehan | Civic Engagement, Singing

Instead of participating in a traditional holiday chorus concert this year, one singer finds community in a different sort of musical gathering. Read more

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Online Music Resources for Choral Singers

Online Music Resources for Choral Singers

Daniel Molkentin | Rehearsal, Singing, Technology

Looking for an obscure piece of music? The lyrics to a song in French? Sheet music for Handel's Messiah? These online resources will help you find what you need. Read more

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4 Techniques for Memorizing Lyrics

4 Techniques for Memorizing Lyrics

Mark Bosnian | Performance, Rehearsal, Singing, Technique/Tool

Having trouble getting the words to stick in your mind? Here are several strategies for succeeding at memorization. Read more

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How to Learn a New Piece of Music

How to Learn a New Piece of Music

Mark Bosnian | Rehearsal, Repertoire, Singing, Technique/Tool

Four steps to ironing out those tricky passages so that you hit the mark at performance time. Read more

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Postcards from Tour: Singing Leavitt’s Requiem in Paris

Postcards from Tour: Singing Leavitt’s Requiem in Paris

Cory Davis | Performance, Singing

One choral singer travels to France with a hundred others to perform the European premiere of a new requiem setting by Paul Leavitt. Read more

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Singing in Tune

Singing in Tune

Chloe Veltman | Audiences, Health, Performance, Rehearsal, Science, Singing

The anatomy of choral intonation and techniques for improving it. Read more

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Rach On! Performing Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil

Rach On! Performing Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil

Grant Gershon | Performance, Repertoire, Singing, Technique/Tool

An a cappella masterpiece of staggering beauty and power, Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil (or Vespers) presents many challenges for the choral singer. Grant Gershon, music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, chose the piece to open his 10th Anniversary season with LAMC. We talked with him about the work and how he prepared his singers to perform it. Read more

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Verdi's Requiem: Under the Influence

Verdi's Requiem: Under the Influence

Jeffrey Baxter | Composing/Commissioning, History, Repertoire, Singing, Symphonic

Composers don't exist in a vacuum; they are continually influenced by their predecessors and peers, their culture and society. Here, we look at some of the influences (and influencers) reflected in Verdi's Requiem. Read more

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What Every Chorus Should Know About Its Singers

What Every Chorus Should Know About Its Singers

Chorus America Staff | Impact/Value, Management/Leadership, Participation, Singing, Volunteer

What do choral singers wish their chorus managers and music directors knew about them? What would make singers' experience in the chorus more enjoyable, more meaningful, more fun? Read more

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Brutally Honest: Complaint Choirs Around the World

Brutally Honest: Complaint Choirs Around the World

Jan-Marie Petersen | Innovation, Participation

It is a truth universally acknowledged that people like to voice their frustrations to anyone who will listen. The idea of "complaint choirs" arose out of this cathartic need, and since 2005, groups have been popping up all across the globe. Here's a look at some of our favorite videos. Read more

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Resources

Warm-Ups for What Ails You: Tuning Problems

Warm-Ups for What Ails You: Tuning Problems

Rebecca Achenbach | Singing, Technique/Tool

Improve your intonation with these exercises from choral conductor and voice teacher Rebecca Achenbach. Read more

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Warm-Ups for What Ails You: Vocal Fatigue

Warm-Ups for What Ails You: Vocal Fatigue

Rebecca Achenbach | Singing, Technique/Tool

Choral conductor and voice teacher Rebecca Achenbach offers simple warm-up exercises to help you keep singing and singing. Read more

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Kent Tritle on Monteverdi Vespers

Kent Tritle on Monteverdi Vespers

Kent Tritle | Conducting, Performance, Repertoire

Conductor Kent Tritle, who conducted Monteverdi's Vespers at the 2011 Berkshire Choral Festival, offers his insights on the challenges of singing this seminal choral work. Read more

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Kent Tritle: Choral Singing Is a "Health Club for the Soul"

Kent Tritle: Choral Singing Is a "Health Club for the Soul"

Kent Tritle | Health, Singing

Conductor Kent Tritle talks about power of choral music to change the world, the importance of taking choral music "into the trenches," and how older singers can keep their voices healthy and strong over many years of singing. Read more

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Virtual Voice Lesson: Singing Legato

Virtual Voice Lesson: Singing Legato

Shauna Fallihee | Rehearsal, Singing, Technique/Tool

In a series of video lessons, soprano soloist and voice teacher Shauna Fallihee guides you in the essential steps to freeing your natural voice and singing with ease. Read more

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Warm Up with the San Francisco Festival Chorale

Warm Up with the San Francisco Festival Chorale

Jimmy Kansau | Singing, Technique/Tool

Are you tired of the same rehearsal warm-ups every week? Do you want to try some different exercises for a change? Sing along with the San Francisco Festival Chorale. Read more

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Virtual Voice Lesson: Getting to Know Your Instrument

Virtual Voice Lesson: Getting to Know Your Instrument

Shauna Fallihee | Rehearsal, Singing, Technique/Tool

In a series of video lessons, soprano soloist and voice teacher Shauna Fallihee guides you in the essential steps to freeing your natural voice and singing with ease. Read more

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How Massage Can Benefit Singers

How Massage Can Benefit Singers

Chorus America Staff | Health, Singing

Have you ever considered that singing can be a remarkably athletic activity? According to Beth Keltz, a licensed massage therapist, singing requires just as much athleticism as playing baseball or football. Beth and colleague Carly Greenwood, who work with the singers at the Berkshire Choral Festival, explain the benefits of massage for singers. Read more

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Soloist Contract

Soloist Contract

Chorus America Staff | Legal/Licensing, Operations, Performance, Sample/Template

Use this basic sample letter of agreement to hire vocal or instrumental soloists (or a guest ensemble). Read more

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Singer Information Form

Singer Information Form

Chorus America Staff | Operations, Recruitment, Sample/Template, Singing

Use this template as a guide for collecting useful information about new and returning singers during auditions. Read more

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Events

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

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The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass

The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass

110 Wilson Downing Rd, Lexington, KY 40517

Lexington Chamb... | Audiences

The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass by composer Carol Barnett Lexington Chamber Chorale with a bluegrass band, The New Ky String Ticklers Also featuring Memories, a commissioned work by Earlene Rentz, and other Kentucky works   Read more

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A Breath of Spring

A Breath of Spring

245 West 77th Street @ West End Avenue

J.Clarke | Audiences

Melodia Women's Choir of NYC presents A Breath of Spring, featuring works for women's choir and four French horns, with special guests Genghis Barbie French Horn Quartet.  Read more

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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

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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

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Sacred Songs, Psalms and Celebrations

Sacred Songs, Psalms and Celebrations

1740 Route 130 North, North Brunswick, NJ

Faith Knabe | Audiences, Community Outreach, Families, Performance, Singing

Philomusica Concert Choir, Dennis Boyle Music Director/Conductor, is pleased to announce its Spring concerts on Saturday, May 18 at 8 pm and on Sunday, May 19 at 4 pm at Our Lady of Peace Roman Catholic Church, 1740 Route 130 North, North Brunswick, NJ.  The choir will perform both a capella and accompanied by Shea Velloso at the organ. Read more

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“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

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 “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

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Music of the SPIRIT FESTIVAL: Singing City

Music of the SPIRIT FESTIVAL: Singing City

Centre St., Pittsburgh, PA

Donald J. Rasely | Audiences

Join Music Director Manfred Honeck for the inaugural Music for the Spirit Festival as he explores the relationship between spirituality and music in an extra-ordinary city-wide series of concerts, lectures, and special events.  Through Music for the Spirit, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra demonstrates its deep commitment to the power of music to promote and spread a spiritual and universal language. Read more

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GLORIA!  Chorus, Organ and Brass

GLORIA! Chorus, Organ and Brass

60 Forest Park Avenue, Larchmont, New York

H.Joyce Duffy | Audiences

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Dialogue

Questions During Rehearsal?

Questions During Rehearsal?

Anonymous | Rehearsal, Singing

Singers, does your conductor allow questions during rehearsal? What are the pros and cons from your perspective? Read more

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