This final issue before the American Choral Review transfers to a new home at the National Collegiate Choral Organization features a study of Bach’s use of rhetorical devices in Cantata Ich hatte viel Bekummnernis, BWV 21 and an interview with two singers from the ensemble New York Polyphony.
Repertoire
This edition of the American Choral Review focuses on the discipline and practice of conducting.
In this issue of the Research Memorandum Series, Dr. Sean Linfors provides a brief history of Stephen Paulus’ compositional career, discusses some of his most beloved pieces, and catalogs Paulus’ complete choral works.
Compiled by Dr. Jennifer Flory and Meagan W. Johnson, this issue highlights literature for treble choirs written by American composers in the last 30 years. The index is sorted by composer and will eventually be incorporated into a larger and more inclusive online database.
The lead article documents Shaw’s early years and his rise as a professional conductor with FredWaring and the Pennsylvanians, as well as his process of developing an understanding of choral music as an art. The issue also includes reviews of the documentary Robert Shaw: Man of Many Voices and a recent recording of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis by the Bach Collegium Japan.
In the Summer 2020 issue of Chorus America's magazine, the Voice, we published a number of special features that highlighted the choral community's response in the wake of COVID-19. Among countless affected performances during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic were eagerly anticipated world premieres—works such as Damien Geter’s African American Requiem with Portland, Oregon’s Resonance Ensemble (for more, see Secular Requiems) that explore timely and meaningful topics and involve collaborations, often spanning long periods, distances, or both. We asked several choruses about their premieres that were put on hold and their developing plans to find a way to share these new pieces of music with the world.

In the Summer 2020 issue of Chorus America's magazine, the Voice, we published a number of special features that highlighted the choral community's response in the wake of COVID-19. This section spotlights composers who have risen to the moment by creating new work in direct response to the pandemic, some in unique fashions.

Music’s prominence in the sacred sphere has shaped some of the most enduring genres of choral music in Western culture, such as the requiem mass. For more than a century, composers have found resonance in the requiem outside its traditional religious framework — a resonance that has acquired new intensity in recent years. Here is a look at four American composers of today who have adapted the idea of the sacred requiem to secular expressions that commemorate loss and encourage healing. Their music responds to a wide spectrum of inspirations—and perhaps has even more relevance in a world coping with suffering and loss in a new way.

The World Symposium on Choral Music is an eight-day festival held every three years, organized by the International Federation for Choral Music. The next symposium is scheduled for July 2020, to be hosted in Auckland, New Zealand. In anticipation of WSCM2020, symposium artistic director John Rosser, who also founded and directs the Auckland-based chamber choir Viva Voce, spoke with Chorus America about next year’s event and its theme, tangata whenua.

The Zamir Chorale of Boston is launching a new online resource intended to share the breadth and beauty of the repertoire that has been its specialty for 50 years. The chorale’s founder, Joshua Jacobson, explains why he believes choral music from Jewish traditions will be a welcome discovery for choruses of all kinds.