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.
We asked the chorus leaders we interviewed for our 2018-19 Winter Voice article “Cause for Celebration” to pass along practical lessons learned from their experience planning anniversary seasons. The wisdom they shared ranges from knowing when to start to knowing when to stop.
North American choruses are anticipating a wave of major anniversaries in the coming years, and their leaders are hard at work preparing to mark the occasions. The most thoughtful celebrations honor a chorus’s past achievements, while laying the groundwork for an even stronger future.
In early 20th-century Chicago, the intersection of classical and gospel church traditions gave birth to the modern gospel chorus movement. This history has made Chicago the gospel choir capital of the world—and continues to have an impact on ensemble singing today.
In the last decade of the 20th century, the composer Morten Lauridsen wrote a series of pieces while serving a residency for the Los Angeles Master Chorale that have had a lasting and international impact. This year the choral world celebrates the 20th anniversary of the largest of these milestones, Lux Aeterna. What has given the Lauridsen aesthetic its power to connect and attract? And why does it continue to move performers, composers, and listeners?
There's a groundbreaking musical powered entirely by the human voice. In Transit is Broadway’s first a cappella musical, boasting a creative team that includes Frozen songwriter Kristen Anderson-Lopez and contemporary a cappella guru Deke Sharon. The show’s run is an exciting development for proponents of vocal music, and a prime showcase for actors with unique a cappella singing talents like James Snyder.
At 91, Kansas-born Kirke Mechem has often been called “the dean of American choral composers.” That does not mean he is slowing down, however.
After serving as a guest conductor with the Seattle Women's Chorus (SWC), Wendy Moy became friends with Dennis Coleman, who served as the artistic director for all of SWC's 14 years, as well as 35 years with the Seattle Men's Chorus. Now the director of choral activities and music education at Connecticut College and co-artistic director of Chorosynthesis Singers, Wendy spoke with the man she calls one of her mentors in the wake of his retirement about his career and the future of the choral field.
No other piece of music captivated iconic conductor Robert Shaw more than the Brahms Requiem. A symposium presented by Chorus America in honor of the Shaw centenary explored the conductor’s deep connection to this masterwork—and what it reveals about his approach to music and his legacy.
Faculty members and participants at Chorus America’s Robert Shaw Centenary Symposium reflect on the qualities that made Shaw a choral icon.
