Beyond the Background: The Vital Role of Symphonic Choruses

Strengthening the Chorus-Orchestra Relationship

“Many notable orchestras evolved from the robust choral societies that defined cultural and civic life in the late-19th-century United States (SLSO), for example, was initially established as the St. Louis Choral Society in 1880, while the St. Louis Symphony Society formally emerged only a decade later. In the modern era, SLSO has sprouted two distinct choral formations: the SLSO Chorus, founded in 1976 as an equal partner with the orchestra and now led by Erin Freeman; and the IN UNISON Chorus, led by Kevin McBeth, which was formed in 1994 through partnering with local Black churches to strengthen the SLSO’s ties with the community.” “The identity of the SLSO Chorus is rooted in this shared history and excellence,” says Freeman. “My goal is to double down on that. I also embrace the idea that a strong culture and community make for a better artistic product, and a strong artistic product makes for a better culture and community.” She adds that the singers should be valued as “a huge asset in terms of being advocates for the organization. They come to concerts, they post on social media and contribute to the perception of how important an orchestral institution can be to the community at large.” Freeman sees reimagining the rehearsal process itself as a crucial way to strengthen the relationship with an orchestral partner outside actual performance. In November, for example, when she was preparing the SLSO Chorus for Mozart’s Requiem, Freeman suggested going further than usual into expressive details at the first read-through. “It forced those who had the piece committed to memory to interact with the music in a different, fresh way. I posted markings online and asked the singers to transcribe them. Just the act of doing so, of writing into their scores, […] made such a difference when it came time for the live performance.” “I’ve felt a mandate to integrate all aspects of SLSO’s artistic life under one umbrella,” says CEO and president Marie-Hélène Bernard. “The two choruses work in tandem as a team. They are not considered as a second. Whether they’re volunteers or professionals, it’s important to make sure that our singers have meaningful artistic experiences that can stretch their own art form.

Independent Yet Intertwined

This interdependency is not limited to the familiar model of symphonic choruses that operate under the organizational umbrella of an orchestra. The May Festival Chorus represents a unique variant rooted in the tradition of 19th-century choral societies. Founded in 1873 as an enthusiastic response to the wildly popular massedchoir festivals in England, the May Festival paved the way for the formation of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) in 1895. The May Festival Chorus functions under a shared-services agreement as the official chorus of the CSO as well as of the Cincinnati Pops, though it is a separate organization with its own board of directors. The May Festival Chorus performs with the CSO not only during the storied festival but as part of the orchestra’s regular season. “The May Festival is an important part of the city’s annual cultural calendar, and the chorus and CSO are tied in the public perception, because they often appear together,” says Matthew Swanson, artistic leader of the May Festival Chorus and its related choral ensembles. These engagements with the May Festival as well the CSO and Cincinnati Pops seasons “give a wide berth to the repertoire we can explore, with the advantage of more calendar time,” Swanson points out. CSO’s incoming music director Cristian Măcelaru is “passionate about works that would be good for the orchestra and the chorus to do together in Cincinnati,” while a rotating director for the May Festival—Renée Fleming this year—introduces another perspective for repertoire discussions.

Value through Enhancing Community Connections

The 250-voice Minnesota Chorale is another important independent nonprofit chorus that at the same time serves as the official chorus for the Minnesota Orchestra. It also entails a family of choirs—including two youth choirs and a chorus for seniors— covering singers from ages 8 to 80. Both in-house and fully independent symphonic choruses share a recurring challenge in Chorale artistic director Kathy Saltzman Romey’s view: whenever a chorus stands behind an orchestra, “audiences oftentimes see us as one organization.” So how can choruses establish the unique value they contribute? “Through our work within the community, in civic collaborations and educational partnerships, and the fact that we are very relational,” Romey says. For example, Music Director Thomas Søndergård will lead the Minnesota Orchestra and Chorale in Puccini’s Turandot this May. Romey had organized a free open rehearsal as part of a program dubbed InChoir that she initiated in 2002. The goal—which Romey was able to accomplish without having a budget set aside for the initiative—is “to allow community members to participate in the process and experience of singing side-by-side with a symphonic chorus. I provide our guests with a score, and we walk through the work together with the Chorale. I discuss the meaning, historical background, and some of the performance practice issues we are exploring.” The Twin Cities region, she adds, is a highly active choral community with many different types of choruses. “Many of our singers come from collegiate programs, where they have experienced more chamber repertoire than symphonic choral works. Offering the greater community an opportunity to step into a rehearsal and actively participate in our process has been valuable, both for us and for them.” The Minnesota Orchestra also occasionally allows the Chorale to open rehearsals during the performance week so that audiences can “further see the process involved with mounting any given project.” It’s about putting a face to our experience and this repertoire."

How Independent Choruses Can Build Identity

The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (TMC) has likewise played a historically significant part in Canada’s music history, predating by three decades the founding of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO). While the TMC regularly partners with the orchestra, it remains “fully independent, with our own board and season,” according to artistic director Jean-Sébastien Vallée. “The orchestra has an interest in performing choral-orchestral masterworks, but it usually revolves around the same five works.” Vallée also founded a professional 24-voice choir within the TMC, the Toronto Mendelssohn Singers. The smaller choir performs two or three concerts of their own each season, such as a multimedia program in February juxtaposing settings of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks with Vivaldi’s Gloria. “The Toronto Mendelssohn Singers are the core of the TMC and need opportunities to perform by themselves to develop expertise as a chamber choir so that they can be better when they sing with a large ensemble.” The smaller ensemble helps broaden the TMC’s creative freedom in choosing repertoire by strengthening its backbone of expertise through such independent projects. The TSO benefits as well, since Vallée can supply a smaller elite group when the orchestra needs a professional chamber choir instead of the full choral apparatus— for example, for last November’s Brilliant Bartók program (including the complete Miraculous Mandarin). “We can rehearse for just a few hours and so respond to their needs with greater flexibility,” says Vallée. “We are professional not only in our music-making but in the delivery, the way we look, the planning, what goes on behind the scenes. We can also take care of hiring additional choral resources if needed, so that the TSO has to deal with just one chorus master. This has helped us to build a partnership where we have become the go-to provider.” This close relationship, however, can pose challenges for the TMC’s independent season since the TSO audiences often perceive the chorus as existing only in the context of the orchestra and don’t attend their separate concerts. “We have five full-time staff members versus the resources of a full marketing department for the TSO,” Vallée notes. Surveys have shown that TSO audiences do not perceive the chorus as an independent group. To counter this, Vallée and his colleagues have been experimenting with targeted messaging that highlights what the TMC has to offer in its own season apart from the orchestra. One approach has been to foster a deeper sense of connection with TMC audiences through workshops and special community events, such as meetings with the current season’s composer-in-residence, Aaron Manswell. While TSO music director Gustavo Gimeno tends to be most interested in opera and larger choral-orchestral masterworks, TMC’s contribution is “to bring what’s missing to the public—not necessarily new works but works that the orchestra feels they don’t have a place to perform,” says Vallée. Although it was initially founded in 1937 to partner with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir has long since operated as a fully independent ensemble. “We produce our own events but are also proud to be onstage with the Indianapolis Symphony,” says artistic director Eric Stark. “They’re the largest arts organization in the state of Indiana, with a $30 million annual budget. That’s good company to keep. Sometimes, we even hire the ISO to play for us to present Verdi’s Requiem or Bach’s Mass in B minor.” As an example of the latter relationship, Stark refers to the 2023 world premiere of their last major commission, Toward a Secret Sky, for which Augusta Read Thomas set texts by Rumi. “It was extremely ambitious and took years in advance to work out but resulted in a beautiful piece,” says Stark. “We approached the symphony and were able to make it work.” Another high-profile commission, Mohammed Fairouz’s Zabur in 2014, led to a commercial recording with the ISO; the ISC even toured with the work to Carnegie Hall, where they partnered with a New York-based ensemble. To highlight the unique value the chorus brings to the region, Stark strategizes innovative collaborations with other performing arts organizations as well. “We’re surrounded with potential arts partners who are also looking for exciting projects to take on together. Some of these have been mountaintop experiences: not just a Carmina Burana, but a Carmina Burana collaboration with our professional dance companies, or Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe with full choreography.” The San Diego Master Chorale similarly began life under the umbrella of an orchestral organization. It was founded in 1961 under the auspices of San Diego Symphony to serve as a “permanent choral affiliate” but with the expectation that it promote the choral arts through its own concert series as well. Since 1975, the Chorale has operated independently. Executive director Jen Rogers likens this origin story to “Eve being created from Adam’s rib—it’s a point of pride for the singers". With the return of San Diego Symphony to its renovated and dramatically improved indoor concert hall at the Jacobs Center this season, what form the orchestra’s relationship with the Master Chorale will continue to take remains to be determined. Rogers, who is known for transforming the Phoenix Chorale during her tenure as its leader, has increased the ensemble’s audience by 75 percent and ticket sales by 115 percent. She emphasizes the importance of “branding, messaging, consistent communication, and marketing” as essential tools to strengthen a chorus’s identity. “Orchestras tend to have a high staff turnover rate, so often there’s not a lot of institutional memory,” says Rogers. “The result is that the meaning of decades of history working collaboratively with an orchestra sometimes doesn’t carry over from one staff person to the next. It’s really important to know your organization’s history and to ensure that the orchestra’s staff has a sense of it as well.” Rogers believes it is essential to forge a unique identity and audience, regardless of how relationships with a partner orchestra develop in the future. “With Phoenix, I discovered that building relationships with your audience through communication and consistency is key,” she says. “Choristers are very connected, active people, from all walks of life, and their networks are vast.” To optimize relationships with orchestras, Rogers suggests accepting the fact that choruses will be “on the symphony’s time-table. That means you’ve got to come up with your own internal timeline and then communicate that clearly with the organization. It’s crucial to show up prepared.” Another good strategy is looking for gaps in what is being programmed regarding choral-orchestral repertoire. “Our audience in San Diego is actually growing. I think people are hungry for this music, and our singers want to do it,” says Rogers. “So, we are looking for a way to fill those gaps. We want to make sure that we remember who it is that we’re serving. The first group that we serve is the singers, and a close second is the audience."

Balancing Autonomy and Partnership

As the artistic director of the Master Chorale of South Florida, Brett Karlin calibrates a fine balance of season offerings and engagements to maintain the ensemble’s independent identity: “We position ourselves as a community asset by producing a series of our own concerts that reflect our artistic vision. As a secondary priority, we entertain the opportunity for orchestral collaborations.” “The orchestral collaborations we choose typically end up being performances that we would not target for self-produced programming,” says Karlin. “They address holes in our own programming that we want to make sure are a part of the singers’ musical lives and are a part of the organizational, overall artistic direction.” For example, in March they joined with the New World Symphony, Florida Singing Sons, the Girl Choir of South Florida, and a trio of internationally celebrated soloists to perform Britten’s War Requiem. The collaboration came about from a newly evolving relationship with the orchestra under music director Stéphane Denève. Previously, Karlin notes, the New World Symphony had not been presenting choral-orchestral music for years. What can independent choruses do to help ensure they are appropriately valued— and compensated—for the artistic product they bring to the table? Karlin says that an indispensable strategy involves scheduling a meeting with “some of the key players and representatives from the orchestra so that they can understand very specifically and transparently the associated costs that the chorus takes on in mounting a large-scale performance. So, in this case, we had a candid phone conversation with the lead negotiator from the New World Symphony.” “My colleagues who are conductors of symphony choruses generally believe fervently that whether you have a volunteer-based ensemble or a professional ensemble, you can absolutely reach the same level of artistic product,” Karlin adds. “And we are all trying to make the best music possible.” As artistic director of The Washington Chorus (TWC), Eugene Rogers navigates a complex path of independence and collaboration. TWC regularly performs with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and collaborates with the Baltimore Symphony, Wolf Trap, and the National Philharmonic at Strathmore. Rogers, who spearheaded the new partnership with the National Philharmonic, explains that it differs from the more conventional collaborative model with the NSO. “We both put up money for the halls, promote together, and split the proceeds. We dream up ideas together trying to push the envelope.” As an example, he refers to the program that opened the 2023–24 season, pairing the East Coast premiere of Breaths of Universal Longings by James Lee III with Antonio Estévez’s Cantata Criolla, for which they partnered with the local Venezuelan community “to attract more Latinx audience members.” TWC’s independent organization “allows us freedom to architect a season based on our own vision and mission,” according to Rogers, while also contributing to the mission of the NSO and other partners. With that artistic freedom and range comes the challenge “to be very nimble” to adjust to the needs of orchestral partners— whether in terms of the size of the chorus, choices of tempo and interpretation, or even “the narrative of how these concerts are produced.” Rogers emphasizes his abiding lesson that “quality is your word. It is non-negotiable. Although we are an auditioned symphonic chorus, most of our members are not musicians by day. Yet we challenge these singers at a very high level to produce a first-rate product. This is the way you maintain these relationships.”

Reaffirming Values

For the past several years, overall trends in the choral field have been shaped by the ongoing recovery from the pandemic’s enforced silence. Yet the new uncertainty around federal funding has now been added to issues of unresolved contract negotiations—like the one that triggered the San Francisco Symphony Chorus strike—and looms as another source of potential disruption. A major difference in the dynamics between an orchestra and a chorus is that many orchestra players are employed in their positions full-time, in contrast even to singers in a professional choral organization, according to Jen Rogers. The result can be that choruses are considered an “after-thought” and are not valued in the same way. The need to reaffirm the essential role they play is stronger than ever. As symphonic choruses navigate a shifting artistic and financial landscape, their future will depend on proactive advocacy, innovative collaborations, and a bold redefinition of their role—not just as partners to orchestras, but as vital forces that can draw on their own bonds with the audience and community. Programs like the Minnesota Chorale’s InChoir could be expanded to encourage behind-the-scenes access for donors and board members—perhaps through VIP rehearsals and meet-and-greets with chorus leadership. In this way, they might be better able to understand how financial investment in the chorus has a direct impact on the quality of performances and audience reach. “The art itself is one of the best ways that we can advocate for ourselves as symphonic choruses,” says Jenny Wong. “First and foremost, we need to hold ourselves to the expectations that orchestral musicians do when we’re not only on stage but also in rehearsal, to let the music speak. We are the ambassadors for the whole symphony. Because of the many different people who some to sing in our chorus, we have a multitude of perspectives that helps us diversify our community and make ourselves more relevant to everyone who comes into the concert hall.”

Thomas May is a freelance writer, critic, educator, and translator whose work has been published internationally. The English-language editor for Lucerne Festival and US correspondent for The Strad he also writes for such publications as The New York Times, Gramophone, and Musical America