Education Report

The Chorus gave 2 outstanding performances of the ‘Deus Ex Machina’ program, at Union Theological Seminary on the Upper West Side, and at St Paul’s Carroll Street. The program highlights included our second commission from Composer-in-Residence Dale Trumbore, a 2019 edition of ‘Messiahs: False and True’ by former Composer-in-Residence Rex Isenberg, originally composed in 2014 for Cantori New York.

MAY

With our Season’s original programming under our belt, the Chorus began rehearsals on the pieces they would be singing in June as the lab choir for the Choral Chameleon Summer Institute conductor.

The Ensemble gathered in at Carriage House Studios, in Stamford CT to record four of the pieces from the ‘Storytime’ program.

JUNE

The Lycée Français de New York, a bilingual school in Manhattan, once again extended their invitation to Choral Chameleon to perform in their June concert. This year, the Ensemble took up the mantle, performing parts of the ‘Storytime’ program.

For the ninth time, Choral Chameleon held a Summer Institute for Composers and Conductors. The Ensemble provided the lab choir for the composers, and for the second time, the four student conductors were in the good hands of the Chorus. As we have come to expect, the Institute’s intensive format and high teacher-pupil ratio garnered terrific results from our 15 talented students.

SUMMER INSTITUTE 2019

This may have been the most successful Institute yet. As always, many continuing collaborative relationships with artists were forged in that experience. One prime example of this year is composer, Derek Weagle, who expressed that he had a pivotal experience working with Choral Chameleon Ensemble and immediately joined the full Chorus in the fall with a palpable eagerness to get as deeply involved in our activities as possible.

We continue to be successful in our use of the Chorus to train the conductors, maximizing podium time. It’s made a huge difference in the overall health of our organization to have the Chorus involved in the Institute.

We’re looking forward to the opportunity to celebrate the Institute’s 10th Anniversary with a regular season concert comprised of many of the Institute’s “Greatest Hits” from the last ten years. It continues to be Vince’s goal to pur-sue a publishing endeavor in conjunction with the Institute, to provide as a service that honors the very best of the work written for us each year during this time. Although the process is unfolding very slowly, it’s important to note that the slow speed is mostly because we want to be as thoughtful, respectful, and mindful about it as possible, in order to set something up that will be in everyone’s best interests: CC, the publisher, and the composers.

This year, we welcomed several international students again: two from Portugal and one from Canada, all of whom wrote exquisite new choral works and have also done their best to keep in touch with us. They were joined by several other new students from around the US as well as a host of alumni - some returning for the second or even third time.