Articles

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.

Aiming to foster a more welcoming and connected choral community in the city of our 2019 Conference, Chorus America has been bringing representatives of Philadelphia-area choruses together since last October for a series of workshops and online learning activities called “Voices of Change: Building a More Inclusive Choral Community.” Led by Nicole R. Robinson, a music educator and the founder of the consulting firm Cultural Connections by Design, the project is intended to support choruses in considering diversity, equity, and inclusion in their work and to explore strategies for increased communication and collaboration between different kinds of choruses.

How can choruses explore music from cultures other than their own in a respectful way? Rollo Dilworth’s research provides a framework for thinking about cultural appropriation and its intersection with choral music.

One of the most important ways to encourage the health of choral music is for choruses to become involved in the process of commissioning and premiering new works. Chorus America has been democratizing this process for over a decade through its Commission Consortium program, which enables a wide variety of choruses to participate in this exciting work. Recently, the concert tour company Classical Movements became a leading partner of this program—a development that promises to enhance the program’s reach. Here’s a look at the Commission Consortiums opportunities for 2019.

Last fall, Indiana University music professor, conductor, and composer Dominick DiOrio took a sabbatical to travel across the United States to observe a wide spectrum of professional vocal ensembles, from small to large and from nascent to established. After attending rehearsals and performances and meeting with artistic directors, executives, and singers, he was left with the sense that, at their core, these professional choruses have more in common with their community counterparts than he imagined. 

Two leaders of very different choral organizations share their experiences with this programming focus.

As nonprofits evolve, what they need from their board members shifts. Some choruses reach a point where they consider bringing in people from the community to augment their own internal leaders. If you’re thinking about that, here are some factors to consider.

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.

Churches are the traditional performance venue of choice for many choral music organizations. But as rental costs rise and competition for event space becomes tighter, choruses are feeling the squeeze. Here are a few innovative, affordable solutions they’ve found.

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.

Planned giving, also referred to as gift planning or legacy giving, is the act of making a commitment to give a charitable organization a gift, typically as part of a donor’s will or estate plan. It’s something that many choruses are interested in pursuing, but don’t know where to start or worry that the process will be complicated.