Repertoire

Articles

Your Desert Island Discs

Chorus America Staff | Impact/Value, Repertoire, Singing, Symphonic

If you were stranded on a desert island, what choral music recording would you take with you? When we asked this of some 600 choral singers, many of them thought the question was—how to put this delicately?—ill-advised. Read more

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Vance George: My Life in Choral Music So Far

Vance George | Conducting, Impact/Value, Profile, Repertoire

Vance George, former director of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, reflects on a lifetime of musicmaking. Read more

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Do Choral Concerts Need To Be More Visual?

Sandra Bernhard | Audiences, Innovation, Marketing/Public Relations, Repertoire

Stage director Sandra Bernhard and conductor Stephen Coker consider ways choruses might enhance the concert experience by using visuals and storytelling techniques. Read more

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Gregg Smith Singers At 50

Kelsey Menehan | Composing/Commissioning, Conducting, History, Repertoire

A look at the Gregg Smith Singers' astounding legacy of supporting new choral music in America. Read more

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What Is A Chorus?

How We Define Choral Music - Now and Then

Tom Kelly | History, Impact/Value, Repertoire

And what exactly is choral music? Music claimed by choruses is often not choral in origin—it becomes choral music when a chorus sings it. Read more

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Switching the Dial On Choral Music

John D. Sparks | Impact/Value, Repertoire

Even with many more choices, you hear less and less vocal music on the radio - why, and what can you do about it? Read more

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Sacred Texts in a Secular World

A Word To Nonbelievers and Believers

Michael Steinberg | Composing/Commissioning, History, Repertoire

What should we do when a piece of music offends a whole group of people? Read more

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Your Concert As Feast: Notes on Programming

George Gelles | Conducting, History, Operations, Repertoire

Never program down to your audience, and never assume that your audience isn't ready to be challenged by fresh interpretations of familiar pieces, by works from the canon that unjustly have been ignored, by the music of today and tomorrow. Read more

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Say Little and Do Much: An Interview with Steve Reich

Victoria Looseleaf | Composing/Commissioning, Profile, Repertoire

With his finger still firmly affixed on contemporary music's pulse, Minimalist composer Steve Reich, at age 68, creates rich, rhythmic universes of hypnotic sound. Recently hailed by the Village Voice as "America's greatest living composer," the New York-born maverick's works cover the gamut—from his early taped speeches in 1965 to his and video artist Beryl Korot's 2002 digital video opera, Three Tales. Read more

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Studying Bach with Mel Gibson

Tom Hall | Composing/Commissioning, Diversity, History, Repertoire

Performances of Bach's Passions, particularly in light of the attention that Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ has received, present an opportunity for Christians and Jews to confront issues of religious intolerance, the role of the arts, and how the arts might, advertently or inadvertently, promote intolerance. We can use our role as musical leaders to engage in this important dialogue on religious intolerance. Read more

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Resources

The Choral Works of Hamish MacCunn (1868–1916)

Jennifer Oates | Audiences, Composing/Commissioning, Conducting, History, Performance, Repertoire, Research/Data, Singing

This issue provides insight into the music of Hamish MacCunn, Scottish romantic composer, conductor, and teacher. Jennifer Oates gives us a complete listing of MacCunn's choral works, including audio file examples. Read more

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David Hamilton’s Music for Choir and Instrumental Ensemble

Chorus America Staff | Composing/Commissioning, Conducting, Performance, Rehearsal, Repertoire, Singing

Research Memorandum Series No. 202 This issue provides insight into the music of David Hamilton, prolific composer and music educator from New Zealand. Jennifer Morgan Flory gives us a complete listing of Hamilton's works for choir and intstrumental ensemble. Read more

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John Corigliano's Of Rage and Rememberance

Community and Ritual in the Age of AIDS

Chorus America Staff | Repertoire

American Choral Review 54 includes an analysis of John Corigliano's work inspired by the AIDS crisis as well as reviews of summer festivals. Read more

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The Choral Works of Stephen Chatman

Chorus America Staff | Conducting, Repertoire, Research/Data

Research Memorandum Series No. 201. This issue provides insight into the music of Stephen Chatman, internationally known Canadian composer and teacher. Graeme Langager gives us a complete listing of Chatman's published and unpublished choral compositions. Read more

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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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Additional content: Ambassadors of Peace

Kelsey Menehan | Community Outreach, Impact/Value, Profile, Repertoire, Singing

Examples of concert programming that are designed on themes of peace or reconciliation. Partner piece to "How Choruses Have Become Ambassadors of Peace." Read more

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28 American Master Choral Composers

A Repertoire and Recording Listing to Support NEA's American Masterpieces

Chorus America Staff | Composing/Commissioning, Conducting, Government/Policy, Repertoire

Celebrating America's greatest choral composers, this publication provides repertoire and recording lists for 28 composers from Billings to Whitacre. Read more

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A Repertoire Reference Guide of Twenty-First Century Works for Male Chorus

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

Research Memorandum Series No. 199 Read more

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The Choral Music of Ruth Watson Henderson

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

Research Memorandum Series No. 198 Read more

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Two Composition Lessons from Handel

Chorus America Staff | Composing/Commissioning, Conducting, Education, History, Repertoire, Research/Data

Handel’s practice of borrowing from other composers allows us the opportunity to probe into the great composer’s style and creative thought processes. A number of scholars have shown without question that the majority of Handel’s borrowings transform his source materials into new creations entirely his own. But what does “entirely his own” really mean? Read more

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Events

San Gabriel Valley Choral Company Presents "Tell It!"

Pasadena, CA 91101

San Gabriel Val... | Adults/Seniors, Audiences, CA News, Community Outreach, Conducting, Performance, Repertoire, Singing

The San Gabriel Valley Choral Company presents a concert entitled “Tell It!” Complete with soloists and instrumentalists, this rousing concert features folk songs, spirituals, and American classics by Aaron Copland, Stephen Foster, and more. Tickets are now available at the cost of $9 to $15 for two performances: June 8 at 6:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Monrovia and June 15 at 5:00 p.m. at All Saints Church in Pasadena. More information can be found at www.choralcompany.org or by calling 626-579-2433. Read more

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San Gabriel Valley Choral Company Presents "Tell It!"

Monrovia, CA 91016

San Gabriel Val... | Adults/Seniors, Conducting, Families, Performance, Repertoire, Singing

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Breath of Inspiration: An evening of Gospel, Classical, Jazz and More!

111 S Grand Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90012

iris@DCINY.org | Adults/Seniors, Audiences, Children/Youth, Composing/Commissioning, Conducting, Diversity, Education, Families, General, Marketing/Public Relations, Participation, Performance, Repertoire, Schools, Singing, Symphonic, Venue

An evening of triumphant music! Members of Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra, Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony and Gwen Wyatt Chorale (CA) provide an entertaining palette of unique genre-bending sounds. From Gospel to Classical, these passionate, energetic artists perform with a supreme gusto and enthusiasm that is sure to delight and entertain audiences of all ages and tastes. Read more

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Choral Arts presents Life Stories: The Choral Music of Eric Barnum

Seattle, WA

Choral Arts | Audiences, Children/Youth, Community Outreach, Composing/Commissioning, Conducting, Education, General, Performance, Repertoire

An extraordinary concert devoted to the luminous harmonies and deep spirituality of one of America's foremost choral composers, Eric Barnum. This program features many of Barnum's most alluring works and includes the Seattle premiere of "Human Heart", performed as a combined finale with six exceptional student choirs. During the evening, Choral Arts will also premiere "Chronologic", its annual Finding Your Voice poetry contest commission. For more information visit: http://www.choral-arts.org/concerts/life-stories.html Read more

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Voce Chamber Singers presents "Summertime..."

432 Van Buren Street, Herndon, Virginia

Joan Winter Skerritt | Adults/Seniors, Audiences, Families, Performance, Repertoire, Singing

Voce welcomes the sultry months with a concert featuring the summer section of Haydn's “The Seasons” along with selections by Gershwin, Brubeck, Piazzolla and many more, all with a summertime theme. Read more

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Voce Chamber Singers presents "Summertime..."

Reston, Virginia 20191

Joan Winter Skerritt | Adults/Seniors, Audiences, Families, General, Performance, Repertoire, Singing

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Tim Sharp Talk on "High Lonesome" Bluegrass Mass

Salem, Oregon

diltis | Repertoire

Tim Sharp will lecture on the folk-hymns and musical tradition of the American South that together form the basis of "A High Lonesome Bluegrass Mass: Come Away to the Skies". This presentation previews Festival Chorale Oregon's performance of the bluegrass mass on May 19 in Mt. Angel, Oregon, with Tim Sharp on banjo joining the bluegrass musicians. Read more

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Choral Journey to the East

5 Thomas Circle, NW Washington, DC 20005

Children's Chor... | Audiences, Children/Youth, Families, Performance, Repertoire, Venue

Join Children's Chorus of Washington, the finest children's chorus in our nation's capital, on its "Choral Journey to the East" on Sunday, May 12 at 4:00pm at National City Christian Church. The concert will feature all CCW's ensembles joined by Erhu and Guzheng players, for a program of songs from various countries in East Asia. Read more

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The Great American Sing

4310 County Road 137, St. Cloud, MN 56301

Great River Chorale | Adults/Seniors, Audiences, Children/Youth, Community Outreach, Education, Families, General, Marketing/Public Relations, Participation, Performance, Repertoire, Schools, Singing

Music by the people and for the people! Read more

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Concert: The American Choral Tradition

545 Meadow Road, W. Windsor, NJ

Princeton Pro Musica | Adults/Seniors, Audiences, General, Performance, Repertoire

Princeton Pro Musica closes its 34th concert season with a celebration of The American Choral Trandition on Sunday, May 19, 2013 at 3pm in the Princeton Meadow Event Center. Read more