Voice T HE
#RediscoverHarmony Stories Strategic Planning Today Music Education Partnership Grants
Bringing Audiences Back to Choral Performances
Volume 45 Number 1 Fall/Winter 2021
Voice T he
This publication is supported with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
contents F E A T URES
10 | Feeling Safer in the Concert Hall:
What’s Bringing Audiences Back to Choral Performances
by Don Lee
20 | #RediscoverHarmony Stories: How Singing Brings Us Together
by Kenny Litvack
28 | What Strategic Planning Looks Like Now
© MG Pictures
Editor Liza W. Beth Publisher Catherine Dehoney Managing Editor Don Lee Art Direction DLG Design, Inc. The Voice is published by Chorus America, Washington, DC. Copyright ©2021 by Chorus America. All rights reserved. ISSN 1074-0805. Reproduction or translation of any work herein without the express permission of Chorus America is unlawful. ———— Subscriptions and Membership Subscriptions available through membership in Chorus America. ———— Advertising For information on advertising contracts, rates, and specifications, please contact Mike Rowan at mike@chorusamerica.org or 202.331.7577 x251. ———— Editorial The Voice welcomes your letters, commentary, photos, and article submissions by email. Send to voice@chorusamerica.org or Editor, The Voice, address below. ———— President & CEO Catherine Dehoney Vice President of Communications and Membership Liza W. Beth Programs and Membership Manager Karyn Castro Associate Director of Philanthropy André Coleman Information and Digital Asset Manager Casey Cook Director of Finance and Operations Anne Grobstich Erps Director of Member Services and Programs Christie McKinney Annual Fund and Corporate Engagement Manager KellyAnn Nelson Associate Director of Communications Mike Rowan Music Education Grants Program Officer Kim Theodore Sidey
columns 3
From the President & CEO
A New Opportunity to Support Choral Music Education
by Catherine Dehoney
D E P A R T ME N T S 4
Chorus Connections Member News, Events, & Announcements
by Caitlin Patton
C h o r u s A m e r i ca 32 36 36
2021 Honor Roll of Contributors Ad Index Board of Directors
2022
DETA ILS On Bac COv k er!
Chorus AmericA Conference
ONLINE | April 7–8 In-person | Summer 2022 Chorus America 1200 18TH STREET NW, SUITE 1250 Washington, DC 20036 202.331.7577 Fax 202.331.7599 www.chorusamerica.org
On the Cover: The Guelph Chamber Choir rehearses outdoors for an October 2021 concert. [Credit: Sandra Pitts]
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Sing JOY CONNECTION INSPIRATION FUN with BCI again SUMMER 2022
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KATHERINE FITZGIBBON
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from the president & ceo
A New Opportunity to Support Choral Music Education Chorus America’s first regranting program will support collaborations between community organizations and schools.
W
hat a difference a year makes! This fall, it has been wonderful to witness the choral field’s steady, careful return to in-person activity for the 2021-22 season. To all our member choruses celebrating being together for rehearsals and having concerts with real, live audiences, please know that Chorus America recognizes the hard work and determination it takes to do so safely. We are celebrating with you! Chorus America is also celebrating another important milestone. After a solid year of planning, we are proud to launch our first regranting program, the Music Education Partnership Grants (MEPG). Thanks to a new funding partnership, we will award over $900,000 this grants cycle to support collaborations between community organizations and elementary, middle, or junior high schools during the 2022-23 school year in certain geographic regions. This first foray into grant-making based in access, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) is an exciting and significant step for our organization. MEPG directly advances one of Chorus America’s key strategic goals: to advocate for and promote strategies to ensure all children have access to music education. On a personal note, establishing a regranting program is also the realization of one of my long-time dreams for Chorus America. As a vibrant hub of networking, information, research, and advocacy for the choral field, Chorus America is ideally positioned to help foundations and other funders increase their reach and impact. By partnering with us, funders can leverage the myriad benefits of group singing to accomplish their goals in education and community-building. In this case, Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies (MACP) awarded us a special grant to help explore regranting as a way of increasing
access to music education and promoting non-arts learning and cultural literacy. The geographic target areas in this initial grant cycle reflect MACP’s commitment to serving organizations in specific U.S. and Canadian regions where music engagement opportunities for students may be limited: British Columbia & Northwest, Central Appalachia, the Southwest, and the Upper Midwest. For future grant cycles, we will work to identify additional funding partners and expand the geographic scope of the grants. It has been enormously gratifying to create a grant-making program steeped in ADEI principles from the get-go. To ensure that the MEPG program upholds our organization’s values and deep commitment to ADEI, Chorus America engaged a group of 12 Community Advisors who helped co-create the grant guidelines for the program. Alysia Lee and Diana Sáez, two Chorus America board members who also served as Community Advisors share more about their experience on p. 5 of this issue. Speaking as someone who has navigated more than her fair share of traditional grant processes, I believe the outcomes of this co-creation are pretty remarkable. The MEPG program is likely quite different from other funding opportunities choruses may have applied for in the past. Some of the most notable features include: • An inclusive approach to program eligibility: Community advisors brought attention to the need for an inclusive definition of choral singing that includes traditions and styles outside of North and Western Europe. • Relatively simple application requirements and opportunities for relationship-building: Rather than lots of tedious grant-writing, the MEPG application requires answering five, brief narrative questions either in writing or through audio recordings. Finalists will have the opportunity to give more detail about their projects in a virtual session with panelists. • Prioritizing equity: This grant program is committed to serving partnerships in specific communities where music education opportunities may be limited by socioeconomics, systemic racism, and/or geography. The evaluation tools prioritize projects that serve students representing historically marginalized communities, are BIPOC-led, and serve economically distressed regions. • Commitment to transparency: Chorus America will share scores and anonymized feedback on all projects and will provide updates to applicants throughout the grants cycle. • Prioritizing diversity on the review panel: Chorus America is prioritizing recruiting panelists who bring diverse lived experiences, teaching experience, and musical expertise. The application portal is open now, and applications are due January 28, 2022. More information about the Music Education Partnership Grants can be found at chorusamerica.org/musiced-grants. Please join us in sharing information about this new funding opportunity with your colleagues. After such a long period of careful planning, we are eager to begin working with community organizations to advance choral music education together.
Catherine Dehoney President & CEO, Chorus America www.chorusamerica.org
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Premieres
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ewly commissioned pieces by 15 composers and emerging songwriters figure prominently in a mixed-media art installation called AloneTogether (pictured), which aims to illustrate the experiences of children through the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City (YPC) will give live performances at High Line Nine Gallery in Manhattan that also involve spoken word, poetry, sculpture, video art, music, and film. “AloneTogether is a dynamic multi-media project that will give viewers a powerful and intimate portrayal of the emotional strength, resilience, and joy YPC choristers faced over the past year and a half,” says artistic director Francisco J. Núñez, who conceptualized and curated the project. “It was important to us to help our youth process their emotions—from
confusion to fear to hope—through art while allowing listeners and viewers a glimpse into their hearts and minds during this time.” The installation runs November 20–December 19. Singers from the Boston Children’s Chorus will take to the stage in December at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard
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e welcome your news and photos any time. Post them to the Member News area of our website at bit.ly/CAmembernews. Submit news to the Voice: voice@chorusamerica.org You may also post your concert and auditions announcements at bit.ly/ChorusAmericacalendar.
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The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
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n September 11, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus sang as part of a 20th anniversary memorial service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City to remember the 343 FDNY firefighters killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11.
New Music Education Partnerships Grants Program Launches
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horus America’s much-anticipated Music Education Partnerships Grants program has launched, releasing funding guidelines and the application portal for its inaugural cycle of grants for the 2022–23 school year. Through a new funding partnership, the program will provide $900,000+ in grants supporting collaborations between community choruses and elementary, middle, or junior high schools to increase access to choral music education. In the program’s inaugural year, organizations across four regions of focus for this funding partnership are eligible to apply: British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, Central Appalachia, the Southwest, and the Upper Midwest. Applications are due January 28, and full details are available at chorusamerica.org/music-ed-grants. Upholding Chorus America’s values and ADEI principles was an essential part of developing this new initiative, and board members Alysia Lee and Diana Sáez shared some of this process in a new post on our High Notes blog.
to making sure this is done in a way that upholds our organization’s values and the principles of access, diversity, equity, and inclusion. To that end, Chorus America engaged a group of 12 Community Advisors to guide the team in co-developing the grant guidelines for this new funding opportunity. Community Advisors brought a wealth of expertise and diverse lived experiences to this work and shared their personal perspectives as classroom educators, touring artists, conductors, grant-makers, researchers, and arts administrators. Representing regions across the U.S. and British Columbia, Community Advisors have expertise in a diversity of musical traditions and deep understanding of music education access.
It’s no secret that these have been difficult times for choruses and choral music educators lately. It’s why, as board members of Chorus America, we are delighted to share some wonderful news—the launch of Chorus America’s Music Education Partnership Grants.
Chorus America staff met with Community Advisors in a series of small-group conversations to understand community needs, project priorities, and barriers to accessing funding. The new grants program was shaped by these conversations and refined through a multi-stage draft process. Co-creating these guidelines with staff was critical, as they will ultimately influence how we distribute funding and support choral music education access.
This is Chorus America’s first endeavor into grantmaking and the team at Chorus America is committed
We’re delighted to share outcomes of this work, which you can read more about at bit.ly/CAGrants-ADEI.
How Chorus America Centered ADEI in Our New Grant Program by Alysia Lee and Diana Sáez
University to appear in a world-premiere musical featuring Idina Menzel. WILD: A Musical Becoming is a new fable about a mother and daughter confronting the climate crisis on their family farm, created by playwright V (formerly known as Eve Ensler), with music by songwriters Justin Tranter and Caroline Pennell. Performances run December 5–January 9. Members of the four choral ensembles at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, joined the school’s artists-in-residence, the Princeton Singers, for an October concert featuring the premiere of Steven Sametz’s new work, “For the Earth.” Lehigh students created the futuristic story, described as “a warning and a plea for us to heed concerns about climate sustainability.” A new composition dedicated to caregivers opened the Houston Chamber Choir’s (HCC) second concert this season, on November 6. An ensemble of singers drawn from Houston’s healthcare community, led by M.J. Gallop, minister of music at Houston’s First Congregational
Church, premiered “Hymn for Strength,” composed by Todd Frazier, director of the Houston Methodist Center for Performing Arts Medicine. The center and the choir partnered in the program, titled To Bring Comfort, which concluded with Brahms’s German Requiem, performed by the HCC and artistic director Robert Simpson. An October 15 performance by the Atlanta Master Chorale, its first concert in 19 months, featured the premiere of “And I Saw a New Heaven” by music director Eric Nelson. Commissioned by a church in St. George, Utah, “in memory and honor of those of our saints who have gone before,” this setting of a passage from the book of Revelation calls for organ, violin, and cello accompaniment. It is also published in an alternate version for venues with no access to an organ. To highlight its Christmas concerts, the Phoenix Chorale has commissioned British composer Cecilia McDowall to write a new piece, Trinity Triptych, in honor of the centenary of the chorale’s home venue, Trinity Episcopal u
L at es t A DE I Wor k : N ew L ea r ning L ab , Resou rces
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fter a sold-out spring debut that started a waiting list for future offerings, Chorus America hosted an encore cohort for the ADEI Learning Lab, October 1—November 1. Twenty-four participants took part in this online program designed for White choral leaders seeking to address structural racism in their organizations and become better allies and accomplices to their BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) colleagues. The Learning Lab teaches foundational knowledge in access, diversity, equity, and inclusion while confronting Whiteness and White supremacy. Chorus America also recently compiled a list of recommended ADEI resources for reading and discussion. The collection of resources was part of a post on our High Notes blog about advice for leaders who are wondering where to start in exploring topics of access, diversity, equity, and inclusion within their choruses. The full blog post and list of resources can be found at bit.ly/CA-ADEI-start.
2 0 2 2 C horu s A me r ica C onfe r ence Updat e
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he Chorus America staff is hard at work planning for the 2022 Chorus America Conference. Current plans include an online event on April 7-8 to continue accessibility and flexibility, as well as an in-person event in Summer 2022 to take full advantage of networking possibilities and provide additional content. We can’t wait to share more details when we re able, and are excited to reintroduce in-person gathering as part of our Conference structure this coming year.
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chorus connections Cathedral. The work is a setting of three “O” antiphons: O Magnum Mysterium, O Nata Lux, and O Virgo Virginum. Two world premieres representing unsettling times in American life were part of The Crossing’s November 21 concert in Philadelphia. Justine F. Chen’s Shallow Breath and Stealth, based on Jena Osman’s book Motion Studies, portrays a couple contending with a world obsessed with data collection. In an autobiographical work, Choral Music, composer Gabriel Kahane recalls the anxieties of adolescence, along with the inspiration he experienced as a high school choral singer. The Capital Hearings presented two world premieres at its October 23 concert in Washington DC. Nicholas Ryan Kelly’s “Infinite Horizon” was the winner of the ensemble’s 2021 Young Composers Competition, setting John Gould Fletcher’s poem “The Calm.” The group also gave the first live performance of “And the Phoenix,” collaboratively written, composed, and arranged by ensemble members from their homes during the pandemic. n
Awards
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ichael Bussewitz-Quarm has won an American Prize in Composition in the choral music category (major works, professional division) for The Unarmed Child, commissioned by the Eugene (Oregon) Concert Choir. Written in response to gun violence against children, the mass-like ninemovement work features settings of original texts by author and historian Shantel Sellers as well as poetry by Christina Rossetti and Rabindrath Tagore. The Twin Cities PBS telecast of its annual Welcome Christmas concert earned VocalEssence an Upper Midwest Regional Emmy Award in an October 9 ceremony (received by artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle, pictured). The concert was part of VocalEssence’s 52nd season. Out of the Ashes of Holocaust, a composition 6
The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
I n M emor iam orchestra, became the title piece of our fourth and last all-Schafer CD recording and the focus of our Schafer/85 Birthday Celebration in July 2018. Over the years, Murray spent a lot of time with the choir and me, including most of the CD recording sessions. He would sit in on rehearsals for premieres and special events like the 12 allSchafer concerts at EXPO86 in Vancouver, finetuning occasional details and once asking us to invent words that he could use in his next piece.
Composer R. Murray Schafer, who popularized the term “soundscape” and pioneered the study of music’s relationship to the acoustic environment, died August 14 at the age of 88. Jon Washburn, founder and conductor emeritus of the Vancouver Chamber Choir and frequent collaborator with Schafer, shares his reflections on his relationship with Schafer and his impact on the choral field.
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n my 48 years as conductor of the Vancouver Chamber Choir (VCC), my greatest privilege was to be a colleague, friend and champion of the great and genius Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer. “Our Murray Schafer,” as we often thought of him, revolutionized choral music and choral notation during that time and we were honoured to partner with him in so much of it. Between 1971 and 2019, we sang, toured and recorded 478 performances of 29 choral works large and small by Schafer. Twelve of these works were commissioned and premiered by the Vancouver Chamber Choir. The Love that Moves the Universe, a sublime work for chorus and
inspired by his family’s story of survival in Nazi-occupied Greece, has earned Joshua Fishbein the 2021 Edwin Fissinger Choral Composition Prize from North Dakota State University’s (NDSU) Challey School of Music. Fishbein, an adjunct faculty member at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, receives $1,500 and performances of his prizewinning piece in Minneapolis and Fargo. The award honors the legacy of composer and longtime NDSU choral conductor Edwin Fissinger. St. Louis-based conductor, music educator, and consultant Maria Ellis has been honored for her work as a radio host. In its annual awards ceremony, the Missouri
He joined the Choir in Helsinki, Finland in 1992 as part of Erkki Pohjola’s first remarkable International Choral Espoo festival. VCC joined him and other Canadian professional choirs for several collaborative events in Toronto sponsored by Lawrence Cherney’s Soundstreams organization. And we shared Murray’s repertoire and events with our sister organization in Japan, the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus and its conductor Chifuru Matsubara, who is a major Schafer supporter. I think that time will prove that singing, recording and championing Murray’s ground-breaking choral music was among the highest contributions the Vancouver Chamber Choir and I made to the choral art—local, national and international— during the years that I was privileged to conduct them. To me personally, it was a wonderful chance to know and work together with a truly creative genius, and to help him leave his unique stamp on the musical history of our country and our era. I miss him tremendously already, but look forward to November of this year, when the Choir and I will sing our last premiere of a never-before-heard work by the late and lamented R. Murray Schafer.
Broadcasters Association named an episode of Bach and Beyoncé, her weekly program on Classic 107.3, St. Louis, first-prize winner in the Radio Opinion/Commentary category. The episode featured a “soundtrack” responding to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. n
Appointments and Retirements
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n September 15, Robyn Hilger (pictured) assumed leadership of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) as its new executive director. Hilger spent several
©Simon Fowler
years as a music educator, earning recognition as Oklahoma’s State Teacher of the Year in 2006 and serving a decade later as executive director of El Sistema Oklahoma. Immediately prior to joining ACDA, she was director of community engagement for an individual and family services organization, ReMerge of Oklahoma. A classically trained clarinetist, Hilger earned a bachelor’s degree in instrumental music education at Oklahoma City University and a master’s in school administration from the University of Central Oklahoma. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) has chosen French contralto Nathalie Stutzmann (pictured) to succeed Robert Spano as its next music director. The daughter of opera singers, she built a considerable reputation as a vocal soloist, and she remains active as a singer, but a keen desire to move beyond the contralto repertoire led her to conducting. Three years ago, Stutzmann became chief conductor of the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Norway, and she takes over this season as principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. As a singer, she says “I am also thrilled about the prospect
of working with the ASO Chorus, which is one of America’s finest choirs.” Adriana Marcial (pictured), who has served for the past year as interim executive director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC), has earned a long-term appointment to the position. Prior to joining SFGC in 2019, Marcial was executive director of the Joe Goode Performance Group, a San Francisco dance-theater company. For the first time in its history, SFGC will be led by two women of color. Marcial is Mexican American; artistic director Valérie SainteAgathe was born in Martinique. Adam Reinwald (pictured) has become the second artistic director of the Twin Citiesbased a cappella ensemble Kantorei. He succeeds founding conductor Axel Theimer, who led Kantorei for 33 years. Reinwald was a member of Cantus for 17 years and more recently was assistant conductor of the National Lutheran Choir. The Cincinnati Youth Choir (CYC) has announced Jocelyn Moses-Mputu (pictured) as
the new director of its Choral Academy, a free after-school program for children in grades 3–6, operated in collaboration with the city’s May Festival and Vocal Arts Ensemble. Moses-Mputu brings with her more than 15 years of experience in elementary music, including service as intermediate choir and drama director for the Mason City School District, northeast of Cincinnati. The Bel Canto Youth Chorus of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem has chosen a new director for its Preparatory Choir, which draws from grades 3–5. Elizabeth Kane (pictured) teaches music at Bridgewater Raritan Regional School District in north central New Jersey and is completing a doctorate of musical arts in music education at Boston University. Arts and nonprofit consultant Janette Davis (pictured) is the new executive director of The Singers—Minnesota Choral Artists. Davis has been owner and principal consultant at the FlightDeck One Group, Minneapolis, where her clients included composers Jocelyn Hagen and Timothy Takach, and president and founder of Bridgeview u
GRADUATE CONDUCTING PROGRAM Bard Conservatory of Music
All students receive ample podium time working with community, collegiate, and professional ensembles including: Bard Conservatory Orchestra Bard College Community Orchestra Bard Chamber Singers
information
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845-752-2409 bard.edu/conservatory conservatoryadmission@bard.edu
co-directors
James Bagwell and Leon Botstein
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chorus connections
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The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
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ounder and director Alexander Lloyd Blake (pictured) and tenor David Morales of LA-based choir Tonality were invited to appear on The Kelly Clarkson Show to speak about the ensemble’s new album, America Will Be, and the organization’s mission of social justice.
director, Kelly remains involved with Encore, conducting four chorales and onboarding the new leadership team. Abby Lass (pictured) brings wide-ranging arts experience to her new role as executive director of Capella Clausura in Newtonville, Massachusetts, whose mission is to promote the performance of music created by women. Lass has worked for a variety of Boston-area cultural organizations and will continue in her role as director of digital programs and director of education at Newton Theatre Company. Cantare Con Vivo in Oakland, California, is welcoming Mary Finch (pictured) as its executive director. Previously, Finch was a singer and then chorus and dance personnel manager for the San Francisco Opera and the first director of fine arts advancement and recruitment at Eureka College, Eureka, Illinois. The Susquehanna Chorale in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, has brought back an alumnus to join the organization’s staff as it begins its 40th anniversary season. Sean Devine’s (pictured) early experience with the Youth Chorale inspired him to pursue music studies and perform professionally for 10 years. A change in career course—to nonprofit arts fundraising—led to Devine’s return to the chorale as director of development and marketing. The tenth anniversary season of Young Women’s Choral Projects of San Francisco
©Jessica Mironov
Center, a performing arts and event center in Ottumwa, Iowa. As its 10th anniversary season begins, the Washington DC-based professional vocal ensemble The Thirteen is bringing a new managing director on board. Todd Stubbs (pictured) succeeds Valerie Simonsen, who is relocating to Wisconsin. Stubbs’s 18 years of experience in arts administration includes his most recent tenure as tour coordinator and operations manager for the U.S. Army Field Band. In time for its 50th anniversary, the Bucks County Choral Society, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, has also named a new managing director. Kenny Litvack (pictured), a writer and a specialist in organizational management and marketing, recently completed a six-year term on the board of trustees for Princeton Pro Musica, serving as both vice president and president. Harmonium Choral Society in Morristown, New Jersey, has hired the first executive director in its 42-year history. A longtime supporter of Harmonium, Jody Marcus (pictured) comes to the chorus after holding positions as executive director at the Community Children’s Museum in Dover, New Jersey, and assistant director of the Morris County Tourism Bureau. Encore Creativity for Older Adults of Annapolis, Maryland, has named two new leaders. Joshua Vickery (pictured) has been appointed as chief executive officer, after serving as executive director of Central Florida Community Arts in Orlando, which he founded in 2010 and served as executive director. Brian Isaac (pictured), who also holds positions as founder/artistic director of Church Circle Singers (also in Annapolis) and artistic director of Alexandria (Virginia) Choral Society, joins as artistic director. Together, Vickery and Isaac take the leadership reigns from Encore’s retiring founder, Jeanne Kelly (pictured), who has grown the organization into the US’s largest nonprofit choral organization for older adults, serving an estimated 2,000 singers. While stepping down as artistic
(YWCP) will also be the last for founding director Susan McMane. McMane will retire following a concert in San Francisco on June 23, 2022, which will also serve as a send-off for the chorus’s summer tour of France. Under McMane’s leadership, YWCP has created six ensembles of more than 100 young women, ages 4 to 18. An interim director will succeed her next fall, at which time the organization will launch an international search for a new artistic director. After a decade as artistic director of the Choral Arts Society of Washington (CASW), Scott Tucker will step down at the end of the 2021–22 season. His accomplishments include the founding of two new ensembles, CASW’s Chamber Singers and its Youth Choir. Tucker is only the second conductor to lead the chorus; he took over in 2012 from founder Norman Scribner. The CASW board has already begun a search for its next artistic director. n
Releases
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concert film centering on a Bach motet and featuring the Pacific Chorale had its premiere screening August 21 outside Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, California. Filmed in the hall earlier this year with members of the chorale and the Pacific Symphony, The
Wayfaring Project interweaves Bach’s Jesu, meine Freude with 20th- and 21st-century choral and solo selections by Samuel Barber, Thomas Dorsey, Tarik O’Regan, Dolly Parton, Moira Smiley, and Randall Thompson. The Wayfaring Project is now available for viewing on YouTube. A November release on Cappella Records features a new work in the tradition of Rachmaninoff ’s All-Night Vigil. Benedict Sheehan’s Vespers is an Orthodox vespers performed in English by the Pennsylvania-based Saint Tikhon Choir, which Sheehan founded in 2015 to foster an American Orthodox choral tradition. Sheehan and the choir previously released his setting of the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom on the Cappella label. A documentary spotlighting three California youth choruses, composer/conductor Eric Whitacre, and new virtual choir technology premiered on YouTube August 25. Titled Sing Gently: Behind the Scenes with JackTrip and Eric Whitacre, the documentary aims to show how the isolation of the pandemic has affected young singers. The Gothic Catalog announces a new release by the East Carolina University Chamber Singers, directed by James Franklin: Appear and Inspire. Recorded in Greenville, North Carolina, the album includes John Rutter’s “Be Thou My Vision,” Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia, and James MacMillan’s “O Radiant Dawn,” as well as works by Poulenc, Martin, Duruflé, Elgar, Mendelssohn, and Pärt. An album featuring previously unreleased concert recordings is being released this fall by the Susquehanna Chorale, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Entitled Legacy, the two-CD set includes selecc a y Leg tions that have proven to be favorites during the chorale’s 40-year history. Sing On, a recording the Atlanta Master Chorale made before the COVID-19 pandemic and finally released in August, focuses on works Fanfare magazine describes as “tender, lyrical, and introspective,” including compositions by Timothy Takach, Eleanor Daley, Jake Runestad, and artistic director Eric Nelson. n
graduate study in choral conducting at Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale School of Music
with
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Master of Music Master of Musical Arts Doctor of Musical Arts
(visiting 2021–2022)
Jeffrey Douma, yale glee club David Hill, yale schola cantorum Masaaki Suzuki, yale schola cantorum
Full tuition scholarships for all admitted students plus additional merit-based awards available. Ample podium time. Abundant musical and interdisciplinary opportunities. Office of Admissions Yale Institute of Sacred Music, 406 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511 tel 203.432.9753 ism.yale.edu · ism.admissions@yale.edu
dford
Linda L. Te
or
, and Conduct
, Founder
Artistic Director
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Feeling Safer in the Concert Hall
What’s Bringing Audiences Back to Choral Performances To assess their audiences’ readiness to return to concert halls and theaters at this stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, choruses and other performing arts organizations are tracking nationwide audience trends and paying close attention to what they’re hearing directly from their patrons. They’re asking, what can we do to make the in-person experience as safe as reasonably possible? If we respond to common concerns, can we sell enough tickets to meet our budget? BY DON LEE
10 The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
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n August, the COVID-19 Delta variant surge caused a “dramatic deterioration” in audience willingness to attend performing arts events, according to Alan Brown, principal of the consulting firm Wolf/Brown. Between July and August, the percentages of vaccinated orchestra patrons who said they’re ready to go out fell from 60 percent to 39 percent. But more recent findings from Wolf/Brown’s Audience Outlook Monitor (AOM) showed a turnaround. In October, 53 percent said they were ready to attend in-person performances. Still, demand for tickets remains low, according to what Brown is hearing. In webinars with arts groups, which he joins
regularly, “we go around and everyone’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re down 30 percent. Yeah, we’re down 25 percent. Yeah, we’re down 40 percent,’ which is almost exactly what our data is saying.” Choruses are sharing that experience. Although they hear from many supporters who are eager to return, a significant number remain cautious. Brown’s survey findings tell him we should expect diminished demand through all of 2022. On the hopeful side, the surveys and concertgoing experiences so far this season are showing choruses and other performing arts organizations an immediate way forward. By responding to what patrons are saying about what it will take to bring them back to the concert hall, these choral leaders are discovering ways to both inspire their audiences and ensure their safety.
Early Signs of Ticket Demand in the Choral Field For choruses, conclusive evidence of ticket demand was hard to come by in early October as interviews were conducted for this story. The season is still relatively young, and the pandemic has accelerated an already-established trend toward last-minute ticket-buying. Nonetheless, despite the Delta variant, there are anecdotal signs of cautious optimism about audiences’ readiness to return. “There’s no question that we’re down in ticket sales,” says
Leela Breithaupt, executive director of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem (Pennsylvania). “But we feel hopeful that we will reach our goals.” In a survey of regular Bach Choir patrons conducted in late August, even as the Delta wave was peaking, 70 percent of the respondents said they were either very likely or somewhat likely to purchase tickets this season, according to marketing director Renée James. Although she estimates attendance was down 15 percent for the Santa Fe Desert Chorale’s summer season, executive director Emma Marzen says “demand has stayed relatively strong.” She reports that sales for the upcoming winter season are ahead of 2019 levels. Membership in the St. Louis Children’s Choirs (SLCC) is down from 450 to 310 this year, says artistic director Barbara Berner, which amplified her concern over attendance at three mid-October Family and Friends concerts. But response turned out to be “very robust,” she
says. “For this number of singers to sell over 1,000 tickets, I think that’s great.” In late August, when the Guelph (Ontario) Chamber Choir announced a free outdoor concert, tickets were gone within a day, says artistic director Charlene Pauls. “So, you know, I think the appetite is there.” At concerts in Tucson on October 16 and 17, the community chorus and orchestra Pro Musica Arizona “had maybe half of our normal audience,” says executive director Yvonne Dolby. “But we expected that, so we felt it was a success.”
The audience at the Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s Bach at Noon concert in September
Three Protocols that Make a Difference Brown finds reasons for optimism in “a dramatic shift” in audience attitudes toward safety protocols. AOM surveys show a growing number of orchestra patrons would attend concerts at u www.chorusamerica.org
11
©Azy Scotten Photography
ProMusica Arizona performing in October
Feeling Safer in the Concert Hall indoor venues requiring proof of vaccination, masks, and distancing. With those measures in place, 73 percent of October survey respondents said they would be willing to go. Another 18 percent would attend even if no protocols were in place. The September–October shift in survey responses suggests to him “we’re slowly accepting that COVID is going to be part of the risk profile of going out to cultural events, maybe in perpetuity.” The lesson for performing arts organizations, he says, is to implement all three of the primary audience health safety protocols: proof of vaccination, masking, and distancing. This season’s initial concerts by the Bach Choir of Bethlehem tend to support 12 The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
Brown’s recommendation. In the choir’s own survey, James says 65 percent of respondents said they would feel comfortable attending concerts with the three protocols in place. Responding to that finding, along with a regional spike in COVID infection rates and lower-thananticipated attendance, the organization’s COVID committee decided to add a vaccine requirement ahead of its October Bach at Noon concert. “Now that we have made that a very clear policy, there has been a bump since we last looked at the ticket sales,” says Breithaupt. The Santa Fe Desert Chorale is making a similar shift. Through its summer season, “we had already been requiring full vaccination of all of our personnel internally,” says Marzen, but in September, the organization, guided by its safety committee,
decided to extend the requirement to audiences at its winter concerts. A few weeks later, after announcing it would accept proof of a negative PCR test as an alternative, “we noticed a slight uptick in sales,” Marzen says. Consistent with a September mandate from the province of Ontario, the Guelph Chamber Choir has implemented a vaccine requirement, and the move is also consistent with prevailing attitudes toward vaccination in Guelph, which Pauls characterizes as “a very progressive community.” By contrast, in Arizona, “we’re probably a little less strict than some states,” says Dolby. Pro Musica Arizona’s board has decided not to check concertgoers’ vaccination status unless the state requires it, she explains. “We’d like to have as much of a normal experience as possible.”
“The masks couldn’t stop [the joy in hearing the live sound]. I just felt a sense of triumph.” –Barbara Berner
Children and youth choruses couldn’t require that singers under 12 be vaccinated this fall as ages 5-11 weren’t eligible until early November. What did that mean for audiences? SLCC made their October concerts “totally open to families,” says Berner. No proof of vaccination was required. “We have lots of brothers and sisters in the program,” she explains, “and if the program is going to grow, you want other children to hear children.” In light of the singers’ unvaccinated status, Berner says the choirs instituted extra distancing precautions for their seating and their placement on the risers. The process of confirming concertgoers’ vaccination status was “a bit volunteerintensive” for the Guelph Chamber Choir
at its October 2 concerts, says Pauls, and the same was true for the Bach Choir when it instituted the practice on October 12 at its second Bach at Noon presentation of the season. When lines form outside, “we check people’s IDs and vaccination cards, either digitally or the actual cards, and then give them a wrist band,” says Breithaupt. “Then the line could move very quickly inside once we open the doors.” There have been no signs of pushback in either locale. “People felt safe,” says Pauls. In North American concert venues, masking has become a common protocol for audiences. All of the choruses represented in this story applied the practice in some form. Just in advance of its two mid-October performances, Pro Musica Arizona “had a few calls from ticket-buyers that were concerned” about audience safety, says Dolby, so the organization asked patrons to wear masks until seated. “I didn’t get any pushback at all, from anyone,” she says. “We had masks available if someone didn’t have one, and everybody was very cooperative.” At the Desert Chorale’s summer performances, masking was the most prominent protocol. Signage
in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis bore an image of a person wearing a mask, prompting patrons to stay masked, with nose and mouth covered, while in the sanctuary, says Marzen. The chorale’s health manager and operations director were on hand in case anyone needed further reminding, but “we really didn’t have many issues with that,” she notes. “I think by and large, our audience understood the reasoning and were happy to comply.” Some choruses are including singers in their masking protocols. In their two early October concerts, Pauls had members of the Guelph Chamber Choir (but not soloists) wear masks. “They hate it. Let’s be honest,” she confesses. But the audience was surprised that the concert space, which she describes as a “nice, medium-sized sanctuary,” blended the voices well, “and by and large the diction came through.” For SLCC, masks for singers provided another way to protect unvaccinated children. Some parents would not let their kids participate without that protection, says Berner, while others said, “‘We’re going to wait a year because our children just don’t want to sing in masks.’” But in the October performances, she u
www.chorusamerica.org 13
sensed “the joy in hearing the live sound” come through. “The masks couldn’t stop it. I just felt a sense of triumph.” Several choruses adopting the third main protocol, distancing, started by capping audience size—as low as 35 percent of capacity in the case of the Guelph Chamber Choir. The group kept it there even after Ontario raised its mandated limit to 50 percent. The Bach Choir chose to cap its September Bach at Noon concert at 50 percent. James devised a staggered seating pattern, directing people to alternating sides in each row of pews. “You just zigzagged your way down the church,” James says. “By doing that, there will be no one directly in front of you or directly behind you.” Distancing presents a particular challenge to performing arts organizations, says Brown, because of its effect on ticket revenue. Larger ones “need to sell 80 percent of their hall to make money. They can’t offer distancing.” But not doing it may also come at a cost. Respondents to AOM surveys “are telling us is that actually, a big chunk of them won’t go out without distancing,” Brown says.
©Enrico Lagasca
Feeling Safer in the Concert Hall
A Santa Fe Desert Chorale performance from the Summer 2021 season
Awareness of that attitude guided the Desert Chorale as it planned for its summer concerts. At the time, New Mexico required “six feet of distance, all the way around every party,” says Marzen. Because of that,
the Santa Fe Basilica became a natural choice: “That was the only venue that we utilized, as it was large enough to allow for that distancing,” says Marzen. SLCC gave their fall concerts in the Purser Center at
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“People are having great experiences and we really need to reflect that back to those who are who are not yet comfortable going out.” –Alan Brown Communicating protocols to audiences is as important as establishing them, Brown feels. “Somewhere along the line,” he says, “singing got identified as the most dangerous thing besides playing the trumpet,” which makes messaging about audience safety crucial. A Wolf/Brown survey on the reopening experience shows 66 percent of respondents sought out advance information about health safety policies and procedures to be implemented at performance venues. As Brown puts it, “Audience members are going to want to know, is there a vaccine requirement? What is the testing protocol? Is it safe to sit in the first row?” Chorus websites most often serve as the definitive source for that key information, and email blasts call attention to shifts in policy. The Guelph Chamber Choir listed protocols u
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Logan University, which has room for 1,200, but the largest of the three audiences was 460, says Berner. Because assigned seating “was going to be too complicated,” she says, “we just asked the audience to please leave two seats between family groups.” Once they are inside the venue, audiences are sending mixed messages about distancing protocols. Effective July 1, New Mexico lifted its distancing requirement for public gatherings, but the Desert Chorale stuck with its plans for the late July/early August concerts. Nonetheless, Marzen discovered “most of our patrons wanted to move up, get closer to the performers. She says “that felt comfortable to probably 90 percent of our audience members. But for those who didn’t feel comfortable, we maintained that six feet of distance.” At the September Bach at Noon concert, Breithaupt says people spaced themselves, but “it worked out beautifully. Everyone said they felt safe.” Respondents to the October AOM survey also found distancing less important than proof of vaccination or masking; only 22 percent said they consider it a requirement.
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A small ensemble from the St. Louis Children’s Choirs performs at an October donor event
Feeling Safer in the Concert Hall in its pre-concert promotional mailings, which normally focus on program content. The blurb included a paragraph detailing the main protocols, the projected length of the concert, the absence of an intermission, and more. Because of that messaging, says Pauls, “if there were any people who were not on board with what we had in mind, they didn’t show up. We didn’t have to deal with it.” Along with all of that, Brown encourages performing arts organizations to promote the AOM survey findings that people returning to in-person, indoor performances are having positive experiences. When asked how comfortable they felt, September respondents rated their experience between 4 and 4.5 on a scale of 1 to 5, Brown says. “People are having great experiences and we really need to reflect that back to those who are who are not yet comfortable going out.” Eventually, he predicts, people will realize that going to a concert hall or a theater is “among the safest places you could ever go because 95 to 99 percent of the people are vaccinated. I mean, that’s about as safe as it gets.” 16 The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
Lessons Learned from Returning Audiences By and large, the choruses represented in this article expressed satisfaction with the protocols they have instituted and with the way their audiences have responded. Just a few months into the season, they have already made some adjustments, and no doubt others are yet to come. Here’s a short list of what they have learned so far. Of the three main protocols, vaccine requirements appear to stand out as a difference-maker.
Since giving their initial performances of the season, both the Santa Fe Desert Chorale and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem instituted protocols requiring audience members to be vaccinated and/or tested. As noted earlier, both experienced bumps in ticket sales immediately after announcing the changes. James says demand “has been getting more and more robust, even out into spring.” The choir instituted the change in advance of its October Bach at Noon concert, making it clear in its messaging “that we were requiring vaccinations, and
everyone has to wear masks so that we can have full capacity,” says Breithaupt— meaning the 50 percent cap was removed. James says October attendance was up from September, not nearly returning to pre-COVID levels, she acknowledges, but “the good news is we’re growing our live audience again.” Audience behavior inside the hall indicates some may find distancing less important.
Although Brown says “a big chunk” of AOM survey respondents will not go to performances if distancing is not required, the behavior of audiences in Santa Fe and Bethlehem suggests the protocol is not
“There’s no question that we’re down in ticket sales, but we feel hopeful that we will reach our goals.” –Leela Breithaupt
about getting the ticket price at a price point that that will break even.” Instead, she intends to trust that the organization will identify other revenue sources to cover concert expenses. Use the in-person concert experience as a fundraising opportunity.
Bach Choir artistic director Greg Funfgeld at the September performance
crucial to some, possibly many, patrons when other safety measures are in place. Beware of raising prices to compensate for reduced ticket sales.
The Guelph Chamber Choir hoped to sell 60 tickets for each of its October concerts, says Pauls, but it fell short. “The $50 ticket price, from what I’m hearing now, was a barrier for people,” she says. In the future, she’s decided she will not “worry too much
Pauls already knows what one supplementary revenue source might be. Even though the October concerts did not sell out, the choir managed to meet its costs because it created an opportunity for audience members to donate. “That table with the envelopes” brought in a few extra thousand dollars, she says. Previously, “the group had often offered silent auctions at intermissions,” but she says their effectiveness waned. The October initiative was the first of its kind for the choir, and its success compels a repeat in November. The lesson? “Put together an additional fundraising opportunity for people to donate,” Pauls advises. “People are very generous, and they really are trying to support our troops out there. That saved us that evening.”
Planning for an Uncertain Future Having experienced the ups and downs of the COVID-19 pandemic for a year and a half, choral leaders assume they’ll need to do more adjusting in the months that lie ahead. “We all have to be very creative and open and able to—I know these are the words that keep coming up—pivot and navigate,” says Pauls. What that means for the Guelph Chamber Choir is “looking at our situation and making decisions six weeks ahead of time and, based on that, going ahead.” For the group’s traditional Messiah at Christmas, she has three contingencies in mind. Plan A would offer a condensed version focused on the Christmas portion, with pared-down orchestra and 60 in the audience. Plan B would be a performance recorded for later streaming, with no audience. Plan C would reduce the size of the choir. Last year, Breithaupt prepared multiple budgets and scenarios for the Bach Choir, one of which included a European tour, which was ultimately cancelled. This year, “our scenario planning has to come more within the u
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Feeling Safer in the Concert Hall budget. We’re being flexible within the budget, how we spend those dollars and allocate those dollars.” Like a number of choruses, the Bach Choir is presenting a hybrid season, offering live streaming of in-person performances. Several Bach at Noon concerts will be free online; streaming of its holiday concerts and spring festival will be ticketed. The Guelph Chamber Choir is making similar plans, says Pauls. “By offering a live stream and a live performance option, to me, that is respecting how our audiences feel about coming back.” For other choruses, however, the hybrid option does not feel realistic. The cost is too much for Berner, and she says the SLCC staff has been cut to five. “I feel like unless you have a hall set up with the cameras in place to capture close-ups and far back and get all that without disrupting the concert atmosphere, it would be difficult to do both at the same time.” So Berner is planning on live concerts for the rest of the season, but in the event of a COVID resurgence, she
“Put together an additional fundraising opportunity for people to donate. People are very generous, and they really are trying to support our troops out there.” –Charlene Pauls says “we have a wonderful production company that we can call on” to record concerts for online viewing. The AOM research demonstrates sizeable, but not intense, long-term audience interest in online programming. In October, more than two-thirds of the orchestra patrons surveyed said they see a continuing role for digital offerings in their cultural lives. Seventeen percent expect it to play a “substantial” role, and 55 percent envision only a “small” role. What this suggests, says Brown, is that “we really need as a sector
to sort out our digital content strategies. We have created an audience for digital programming, and where we take them from here really is up to us.” There would be little reason to imagine any digital future were it not for the fact that now, as we enter the 2021–22 concert season, performers and audiences are once again sharing concert halls. “It was a very emotional experience” when the Guelph Chamber Choir returned to the stage in early October, says Charlene Pauls. “It was for me, it was for the choir, and for people who have experienced a lot of loss, in particular, over the last 19 months. And those masks were kind of handy to be hiding behind, because there were tears dropping down into my mask almost the whole program. It was a cathartic experience.” n Don Lee is the managing editor of the Voice as well as a media producer, editor, writer, and amateur choral singer who lives in St. Paul Minnesota. At NPR in Washington DC, he was the executive producer of Performance Today.
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#RediscoverHarmony Stories
How Singing Together Brings Us Together Choral leaders and organizations bring value to their communities in multiple ways. Here are some of their stories. B y Kenny L i t vac k
20 The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
A
s we begin to emerge from the isolation and dissonance of the past year and before, there’s no better time to celebrate the way that choruses, choirs, and singing groups bring us together. This fall, Chorus America launched #RediscoverHarmony, a campaign that encourages the public to support choral organizations and puts a spotlight on the value that these groups bring to their communities. Choral leaders and singing groups have been rediscovering harmony in many
different ways this fall. That might look like returning to in-person rehearsals and performances, engaging singers and audiences with creative community building activities, deepening work on access, diversity, equity, and inclusion, or taking a thoughtful pause on activity to recalibrate and make sure that the path forward is the best way to achieve their mission and vision. These conductors, educators, and organizational leaders shared the ways in which they are helping their communities #RediscoverHarmony—something that’s more important now than ever before.
space for anyone from the queer community, these rehearsals are profoundly meaningful, especially to some members who are only able to be their authentic selves during these weekly meetings. “Seeing how much it means for people to physically be in community with one another, joining their voices together, makes it worth any challenge,” says Davis. Arreon Harley-Emerson, Director of Music & Operations Choir School of Delaware
Cory Davis, Artistic Director One Voice Chorus
Cory Davis assumed the role of artistic director of One Voice Chorus in 2019, already making the 2019-2020 season one of transition. Throw in a pandemic, and it’s easy to understand how a group just figuring out its new leader might lose a bit of momentum. Undeterred, Cory and his team set out to provide opportunities for their community of singers to be together one way or another. Through the creation of some virtual offerings, they engaged a small-but-faithful group of 20 or so singers, but still felt they could do more. “We just began to feel like the space we create for our Charlotte queer community is crucially important for our well-being,” Davis explains. “We began to rebuild ... just taking things day by day. We are deliberately trying to focus more on just being together and less on getting to the performance that we’ve scheduled for the beginning of December.” Through a combination of logistics, flexibility, and myriad public health precautions, One Voice Chorus has returned to in-person rehearsal to extraordinary results. From a virtual cohort of 20, they have welcomed as many as 75 singers— many completely new to the ensemble— to their in-person gatherings. As a safe
Arreon Harley-Emerson, director of music and operations at the Choir School of Delaware, speaks about his work with passion so palpable as to be contagious. “We’re really focused on what we can do to move the needle as far as inclusion and equity in choral spaces,” he says. The programming he describes doesn’t just allow the Choir School community to #RediscoverHarmony, it creates harmony in new ways. After a long stretch of virtual choir, during which the Choir School produced five full-length choral concerts, and sustained both its academic support and social services offerings, last season ended with several outdoor, in-person concerts. Over the summer, they even mounted a full-scale musical. Harley-Emerson reports that many of the kids cried after the final performance, because being able to perform together again was so profoundly moving to them.
“Seeing how much it means for people to physically be in community with one another, joining their voices together, makes it worth any challenge.” –Cory Davis
The Choir School’s newest venture is Bent But Not Broken, a conference slated to take place in April 2022 which will amplify the work of Black composers and musicians. Bent But Not Broken will include a Youth Honor Choir experience and sessions highlighting HBCU education and the contributions of Black choral leaders and scholars. One planned lecture and recital will explore the connections between African American spirituals and the Underground Railroad, along with the opportunity to take a walking tour of Underground Railroad locations in Wilmington, Delaware. Attendees will also enjoy performances, including one from professional vocal ensemble EXIGENCE and one from the Choir School of Delaware’s own intergenerational choir led by Jason Max Ferdinand. “The intergenerational experience is core to the Choir School. We say we’re for children ages 7 to 77, and that’s who we serve, quite literally,” says Harley-Emerson. Minister Waltier Blocker, Director St. Thomas Gospel Choir
Like so many houses of worship across the country and around the world, the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia turned to what choir director Waltier Blocker calls “virtual church” during the height of the COVID pandemic. Church pews remained empty, congregants worshipped via Zoom from the comfort of their homes, and the once-thriving St. Thomas Gospel Choir was, for a time, silent. Now, however, in-person worship is back, and vaccinations and public health protocols make ensemble singing a less risk-laden endeavor. For those who worship at St. Thomas, the return of the Gospel Choir is not only an opportunity to #RediscoverHarmony, but also a chance to re-examine what role music plays in worship itself. “The congregants are elated!” says Blocker. He doesn’t refer to “worship,” but rather to the worship experience. “When music was missing, it was noticed,” he observed. With renewed faith in the idea that music is fundamental to our life experiences, u
www.chorusamerica.org 21
©MG Pictures
Minister Waltier Blocker directs the St. Thomas Gospel Choir during Chorus America’s 2019 Conference in Philadelphia
#RediscoverHarmony Stories Blocker and his choir have decided to say “yes” to opportunities they might not have previously considered. They’ll be heard at a regional ACDA conference in the spring, they’ll perform in one of Baltimore’s largest theater venues, and they’ll be back and better than ever with the Philadelphia Pops Orchestra for their Christmas Spectacular. Tom Cooke, Board President Voce
Professional chamber choral ensemble Voce’s mission statement begins with the words “to serve harmony” and rests on the organization’s bedrock values of selflessness, synergy, commitment, and community. When COVID-19 hit in 2020, “we concluded that the musical component of ‘serving harmony’ would have to wait,” explains Voce’s board president, Tom Cooke. “Voce chose instead to focus on how it could best serve one of its core values: community.” 22 The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
“Voce chose instead to focus on how it could best serve one of its core values: community.” –Tom Cooke
This fall, serving Voce’s community of singers and audience members meant making the hard decision to cancel an October concert. “We knew that members of the choir and undoubtedly many in our audience would not yet feel comfortable returning to a public forum,” explained Cooke. He is optimistic that Voce’s holiday performances will be the “unconditional celebration of the return of choral music” for which the group has been waiting. In the meantime, Voce has created Voices of Hartford, a new program that collaborates with young musicians and organizations in Hartford, Connecticut neighborhoods.
Helmed by Hartford native bass-baritone Miles Wilson-Toliver, Voices of Hartford launched its pilot in June for a small group of young men. In this short time, the ensemble has performed at community events including the City of Hartford’s Juneteenth celebration and a “National Night Out” initiative designed to bring communities and their police forces together. Voices of Hartford is working to finalize a partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Hartford to establish “Build Your Voice,” a choral opportunity for young men and women. Eric Williamson, K-5 music teacher NYC Department of Education, P.S. 32
As a teacher of elementary school students in a Brooklyn public school, Eric Williamson has had to adapt constantly. He started the school year at a time when students couldn’t yet sing together at all; now, they are able to sing, but only in small groups. But he says that needing to find new ways of doing things gave him the space to try approaches that “have really just transformed my educational practice and philosophy.”
“I spent a lot of time the first few weeks of school really centering identity in a meaningful way,” he says —something that he’s always incorporated but had more time to explore this year. This meant a lot of discussions and sharing about topics that ranged from who his students are and how they felt about needing to wear masks to what music helped them feel happy during the pandemic and what they wanted their music space to be like. He’s also tried to give his students more opportunities to “use their voices and their power of choice.” When a class got excited about creating a rap inspired by “Halloween and character day and candy”, he went with their excitement and worked with them on an original song. “It’s been a very co-creative process where they are constantly telling me what they know and giving me feedback on what we’re learning.” Williamson says that he sees a new confidence and sense of self-responsibility in his students due to the time they have spent focused on building community. “It’s made our music-making together much more meaningful.”
K-5 music teacher Eric Williamson with his students
Mark A. Berry, Chief Marketing Officer Los Angeles Master Chorale
“We are pleased to be back with a full slate of performances, running from September all the way to late June,” says Mark A. Berry, Chief Marketing Officer for the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
As they #RediscoverHarmony through music, the Master Chorale looks to a part of their community that has been deeply affected in recent months. To thank and honor teachers for the hard work they continue to do during the pandemic, the Master Chorale offered complimentary tickets to its first concert of the season to educators from across Los Angeles. “Everyone who attended was moved by the emotional power of live music, which we were all missing for so long,” Berry says. To rediscover organizational harmony, the Master Chorale also looks inward. In part, this means continuing to meet their commitment to access, diversity, equity, and inclusion. “Last July, the Master Chorale promised to dedicate 50% of its programming each season to composers from historically excluded groups; audiences will see the results of that pledge in the music they hear [beginning] this season,” according to Berry. The Master Chorale also conducted a survey this fall to better understand the range of needs of their musicians, staff, and board. By becoming more understanding and responsive, they hope to bring more diverse musical offerings to a broader audience. u
www.chorusamerica.org 23
©Jamie Pham
The Los Angeles Master Chorale conducted by associate conductor Jenny Wong
#RediscoverHarmony Stories Juliana Joy Child, Assistant Artistic Director and Alex Gartner, Artistic and Executive Director Pensacola Children’s Chorus
In September 2020, six months into the pandemic, Hurricane Sally swept through the Southeastern United States, resulting in the collapse of the Pensacola Bay Bridge, a three-mile bridge that connects downtown Pensacola to the suburb of Gulf Breeze. The collapse quite literally split the Pensacola Children’s Chorus family in two. Although many members were able to sing through all of last year’s struggles either in-person or virtually, some members were unable to sing with the chorus at all. This season, however, the chorus is back together, the way that music makes them come alive. “With the bridge now rebuilt, our Resident Choir Program members are all back together as one, and our singers are rebuilding relationships with friends whom they have not been able to see for over a year,” says PCC Assistant Artistic Director Juliana Joy Child. But emerging from hurricane- and pandemic-related challenges was just the beginning for PCC. In the summer of 2021, 24 The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
and with generous support from the City of Pensacola, the American Choral Directors Association, and local sponsors, PCC partnered with local community centers to create Pensacola SINGS. This multi-site network of neighborhood choirs provides high quality choral experiences to youth in Pensacola in locations where they didn’t exist previously. Elated by this chance for community inclusion, Child is effusive about “plans for many new singers to discover harmony for the first time!” Catherine Roma, Artistic Director World House Choir
With a mission centered around inspiring communities “toward justice, diversity, and equality,” the need to be together has never been more urgent for the World House Choir. In the small town of Yellow Springs, Ohio, they have “rehearsed on tennis courts, under tents, in a nearby barn, and under a big roof ” at a local college, says artistic director Catherine Roma. They have also performed at events including a commemoration of 20 years of peacebuilding after 9/11 and a celebration of the UN International Day of Peace and the opening of the new location of the Dayton International Peace Museum. Echoing a sentiment shared by so many in the choral community, soprano Laura
Curliss tells us that “continuing to sing together during the pandemic feels essential to life right now.” Alto Pam Schall agrees the pandemic has been “emotionally taxing for everyone,” and reiterates that “singing together during this crazy time has been a way to reconnect with each other … and it helps us to recognize the needs we all have as we see strangers respond to our music, our message, and to the spirit in which we are coming together.” Outdoor community performances have provided the World House Choir singers and audience opportunities to #RediscoverHarmony together. Schall reflects on why coming together—even in unusual settings—has been so important: “We have been living in a world full of anger and fear, but the love and determination we gather with makes a small space for beauty and peace.” Mitra Khazai, Executive Director Phoenix Boys Choir
According to its mission, the Phoenix Boys Choir seeks to develop “character, discipline, leadership, global awareness, and a strong commitment to excellence” in its singers. After enduring many months of unprecedented pandemic-induced adversity, they were back to living out this important work in a very real way. “The Phoenix Boys Choir is working to #RediscoverHarmony by reaching deeply into our community to support efforts to provide words and music of healing and hope,” says executive director Mitra Khazai. In September 2021, the choir sang for the 20th anniversary of the death of Balbir Singh Sodhi, who was murdered while planting flowers at his gas station just four days after the events of September 11,
Catherine Roma
2001. The first fatal hate crime post-9/11, Singh Sodi had been planning a news conference to educate his neighbors in Mesa, Arizona about the Sikh faith community. This tragedy became a harbinger of targeted violence that profoundly impacted an entire generation of Sikhs and other underrepresented communities. “If the gift of live choral music is not work to #RediscoverHarmony, we don’t know what is,” says Khazai. Angela Goldberg, Managing Director Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus
For the last year and a half, the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus has “rehearsed over Zoom, hosted Beer Choirs on Facebook Live, and connected with more than 17,000 viewers through a virtual presentation of Handel’s Messiah,” says managing director Angela Goldberg. The group even celebrated winning a Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance together with a virtual watch party. Despite the tenacity they’ve shown these last 18 months, they are thrilled to be back together and making music in person. Managing director Angela Goldberg explains that the chorus has “focused more intently on understanding what it means
The Phoenix Boys Choir performs at a commemorative memorial service for the 20th anniversary of the murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi
to be a singing community.” And it’s that word—community—that seems to have stuck for this chorus. Partnering with the Hispanic Heritage Council of Western New York to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and honoring those affected by Alzheimer’s Disease with the inspiring new work Alzheimer’s Stories by Robert Cohen are only some of the new
opportunities the chorus is exploring. “As we return to in-person singing, we are excited to reexamine not only how we connect as a singing community, but also how we can better connect with our community as a whole through thoughtful programming, inspiring events, and intentional partnerships with other local organizations and groups,” says Goldberg. u
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#RediscoverHarmony Stories Koriana Lewis Bradford, music educator Boston Latin School
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“I have to say, I truly miss being able to see the students’ full expressions on their faces as they sing. It’s difficult to gauge a reaction with only the eyes.” Koriana Lewis Bradford (pictured), who teaches music at Boston Latin School, surely isn’t the only educator or choir director who feels this way when looking out at the masked faces of their singers. As in-person singing slowly returns for the Boston Latin community, Lewis Bradford has managed to #RediscoverHarmony with her students in a variety of ways. At the start of the academic year, students had to be divided up into sections, or small subsets of the full ensemble. While everyone missed that “big, booming sound when [they’re] all singing together,” many students developed a more independent ear as they worked on harmonies between sections in those smaller rehearsals. As the school year has progressed, Lewis Bradford has been able to make use of a much larger auditorium, which has allowed her to bring together some of her choirs in their entirety. “This has been a complete game-changer for all of us!” “One student told us that sometimes what they hear in their head is not always what comes out from their mouth when they sing,” Lewis Bradford explains. “It was so powerful that he was willing to share that with the class. It was a moment of vulnerability that helped me gain understanding as to why I couldn’t get the sound from the choir that I wanted.” Since that interaction, the choirs have been taking more opportunities to sing in the larger spaces, hear the various parts, and realize the full potential of their sound. “Students’ confidence absolutely skyrockets and they love hearing their voices echo harmoniously in the large auditorium space!” n Learn more about the #RediscoverHarmony campaign at rediscoverharmony.com.
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800 GO WITTE wittept.com 26 The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
Kenny Litvack is the managing director of the Bucks County Choral Society, marketing manager of Princeton Pro Musica, and a freelance arts nonprofit consultant.
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What Strategic Planning Looks Like Now How can choruses engage in the important work of strategic planning when the sands are shifting so quickly beneath our feet? We spoke with experienced consultants about how strategic planning is changing in the current environment, and how choruses can set themselves up for an effective planning process. B Y C A I T L I N P A TT O N
U
ncertainty can make embarking on a strategic planning process daunting, and to say that choruses have endured extreme uncertainty over the last year and a half is an understatement. However, uncertainty didn’t begin with the pandemic, and in many ways COVID-19 has served as an accelerant for strategic planning trends that were already underway. Before the pandemic, “a shift was starting to happen away from the more traditional form of planning, where the goal was to try to plot a roadmap,” says Allison Trimarco, the founder of Creative Capacity LLC. “The environment is so changeable that the roadmaps were becoming obsolete fairly quickly. The model was not working anymore.” “Strategic plans used to be five to ten years long,” says Nadine Wethington, the founder and principal of Forte Leadership LLC. “Now that has really flown to the 28 The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
wind. I don’t see organizations interested in planning more than three years out.” As a trained soprano and member (and board member) of The Choral Arts Society of Washington, Wethington understands the need for choruses to be agile and flexible. There is too much in flux to plan for longer periods, she says.
Less About a Roadmap, More About a Vision So what does a successful “agile and flexible” planning process look like? Trimarco has observed a trend toward adaptive planning and a greater focus on vision and impact. Adaptive planning is less about roadmaps and detailed timelines, and more about a vision for the organization’s impact and setting out what are traditionally referred to as objectives, but what Trimarco prefers to call “accomplishments.” She encourages
organizations to ask themselves, “What are we trying to accomplish?” and then use those desired accomplishments as a litmus test for opportunities and activities. “It provides the level of flexibility that organizations need right now,” she says. Alison McNeil used to facilitate strategic plans covering three to five year periods. Now, as the founder of and chief creative officer for McNeil Creative Enterprises, McNeil and her team focus on strategic thinking and strategic alignment in their work with arts organizations. McNeil says they frame their work as strategic thinking because they want to ensure that an organization’s priorities directly align with their actions. She no longer does strategic planning, per se, because the world can change so quickly, making fixed terms and deadlines less helpful than flexibility and alignment with organizational priorities. “What we’ve learned in the last three to four years is that the world can change at any moment, and if our priorities and our alignment are clear, then what we do should be checked against those statements,” she says. “It has become less meaningful for the insight to be time bound, but every decision, if your priorities and alignment are clear, can go through that as a filter.” In addition to the recommendation that strategic plans cover a shorter scope of time, several consultants noted that planning should be an ongoing process rather than a “one-and-done” event. “It is more important to be doing strategic thinking all
the time rather than strategic planning,” says consultant Susan Howlett. “One of the trends I’m seeing is that organizations are being encouraged to do strategic thinking all the time, and not just when it’s time to do a plan.” Resilience and readiness are important, says Mollie Quinlan-Hayes, a freelance arts consultant specializing in strategic planning and evaluation, program design and implementation, and readiness. She finds that people are more open to conversations about resilience and readiness than they were prior to the pandemic. “Flexibility and elasticity need to be built into plans. It’s still good advice to have measurable outcomes, both quantitative and qualitative, but how you will get there might need to be revisited more often.” Howlett focuses her consulting practice on offering simple solutions to complex problems. She recommends that organizations develop only three strategic goals: one each around the topics of programming, organizational infrastructure, and financial sustainability. She notes that it is important to weave fundraising into other goals; it should be part of the programmatic and infrastructure goals.
Incorporating Access, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into Strategic Planning The same interwoven approach goes for ADEI (access, diversity, equity, and inclusion). Sherburne Laughlin is the director of the arts management program at American University and has also served as a consultant, helping arts organizations with issues of governance, organizational development, and strategic planning. She believes that ADEI work should be incorporated holistically. “It’s a question at every step of the process—where is it in our mission, in our vision, in our values, and then you have to
have the implementation. How are we going to operationalize our equity values? If you don’t build accountability into the plan, it’s not going to happen.” She says the evolution of strategic planning demonstrates that equity has advanced as a value in our field. In the past, not every organization addressed equity, but now it is a core value in the nonprofit arts sector. “We can’t actually set ADEI goals that are separate from everything we do,” says Howlett. Rather, equity needs to be integrated into each and every goal. “Diversity is not just demographics, but perspectives,” says Quinlan-Hayes. She encourages choruses to seek to distribute power more widely throughout the organization and stresses that in planning, it is vital to include diverse perspectives. McNeil also emphasizes the importance of including diverse perspectives. For this reason, at least three representatives from her firm participate in each client project, and they ask that at least three representatives of the client organization participate as well. “We now know clearly that the more stakeholders involved in the planning process, the more likely you are to succeed,” says Wethington. She notes that including as many stakeholders in the planning process as possible is a growing and positive trend. “The better you define your stakeholders, and the more stakeholders you include in the process, in one way or another, the better.” Howlett encourages choruses to talk to people in their communities who aren’t being served by their organizations. “You can learn a lot,” she says. Choruses can also use the planning process to improve internal inclusivity, by making certain everyone is involved and has an opportunity to be heard. If you feel like you are talking all the time, take a step back and listen to other voices. “Planning is a great place to break habits that are blocking inclusivity and equity within your group,” says Trimarco.
“When I talk to organizations, the kinds of things I want to hear include, what is driving you to do the planning now? Are there things surfacing including COVID, or beyond COVID? Are there shifts in your environment?” –Mollie Quinlan-Hayes
Trimarco suggests that it is helpful to do some ADEI work before you start your strategic planning so that it is integrated into the plan. “My goal has been for organizations not to have an equity plan and a strategic plan, but to figure out how what we learn about equity in our organizations and what we might have to do can become part of our vision,” she says. The ADEI planning process should be connected to your strategic planning so that every goal in your plan reflects what you want in terms of equity. Wethington has shifted her thinking and terminology from ADEI to belonging. “When we’re talking about diversity, we’re talking about what’s different about us,” she says. “When we’re talking about inclusion, we are assuming that somebody is already there and needs to be included with us. I like the term ‘belonging,’ and creating a place for everyone to belong. That means that we all have to change the filters and the lenses through which we see the work that we do.” “‘Why do we have a chorus? What is it meant to do for the community?’ is the essential question right now,” says Trimarco.
Setting Your Chorus Up for Strategic Planning Success Trimarco says she has never been so busy as during the last eighteen months. Early in the pandemic, she did a lot of scenario planning and crisis planning. Now, many organizations, particularly those that did have programming during the pandemic, have found that they learned a great deal and need to integrate these unexpected lessons. Her counsel to organizations undertaking a new strategic plan is to “release yourself from the obligation to understand what conditions will be. We live in an unsettled world, and the organizations that thrive are the ones that understand how to stay on track even as things change.” Staying on track can include recognizing the difference between strategy and tactics. “My personal point of view is that strategic planning should be no different pre- or postCOVID,” says Todd Estabrook, a past chair of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society and of Chorus America, where he continues to serve as a board member. As a member of the faculty for Chorus America’s Online Chorus Management Institute, he teaches strategic planning and governance. He u
www.chorusamerica.org 29
What Strategic Planning Looks Like Now says the pandemic affects a chorus’s operations, but it shouldn’t affect its strategic plan, though it may cause strategic goals identified before the pandemic to be drawn out over a longer period of time. “It impacts your day-to-day operations, but shouldn’t impact your strategy,” he says. “If your strategic goals are to make meaningful change in your community, using the vocal arts as a medium, then COVID, no COVID, it doesn’t make any difference.” Your implementation has to change because of the pandemic, Estabrook says, but that is tactical, not strategic. Laughlin cautions that organizations sometimes think that strategic planning is the answer to all their problems, but it’s not that simple. “What I usually find is that there is some tension somewhere, which someone is trying to fix with strategic planning. That’s what you have to figure out before you can actually do strategic planning,” she says. If an organization can identify the source of tension and be upfront about it with the consultant, they
30 The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
can put themselves in a stronger position to resolve that tension and successfully create a strategic plan to move the organization forward. To get the most out of working with a consultant, Quinlan-Hayes recommends that organizations put together data in advance in order to save time and cost. “When I talk to organizations, the kinds of things I want to hear include, what is driving you to do the planning now? Are there things surfacing including COVID, or beyond COVID? Are there shifts in your environment?” She also encourages organizations to think in advance about relationships they might like to build or strengthen, so those partners might be engaged in the planning process. Wethington also suggests that choruses can get the most out of a facilitated planning process by collecting data first. This could include a membership survey, information about your audience, and financials; evaluating your mission statement first can also be helpful. Wethington says that organizational assessment is the initial step, and you use that assessment to identify what your strategic priorities should be.
“Every decision, if your priorities and alignment are clear, can go through that as a filter.” –Alison McNeil
Trimarco advises organizations to select a consultant early. Most consultants who work with small and mid-size organizations are booked three to six months in advance. Choruses can also make the most of their planning process by thinking about how they will implement the plan once it is complete. Howlett says that when organizations finish creating a strategic plan, they should have a viable plan for accountability. “The major element of that is that board meetings, from then on out, get shaped around the strategic goals.” This focuses board meetings on stated and agreed upon priorities rather than spending board time on committee and staff reports.
It can be easier to successfully implement a plan when the board feels ownership of it. Howlett likes to give board members specific assignments before a planning retreat. “The assignments make board members the resident experts on that topic,” she says. “I really think it’s important to have every single person in the leadership be given an assignment, so they all have skin in the game and they all feel like the plan is theirs. People really only own the goal when they helped create it.” She also suggests that when organizations come up with their goals, they divide the work into what belongs to the board and what belongs to the staff. This can help the board focus on their own portion of the work. It can also be a helpful technique for organizations that have no paid administrative staff, by helping boards to separate strategy and tactics, board work and volunteer work, and to structure board meetings around strategic priorities. No matter how changeable our world may be, organizations are engaging in strategic planning—especially now as we move toward reopening. Quinlan-Hayes sees organizations that are doing strategic planning now as being very hopeful. She says the pandemic has “reminded us how important the arts are to help us through change, and to help us in community.” Estabrook observed that ten to fifteen years ago, many choruses started their planning processes from a place of underestimating themselves and lacking self-confidence. Now he feels that there is “more recognition within the choral world that choruses are important and meaningful, and what they individually do and collectively do has more impact than you thought before. Once you realize that, you can put together a strategy that is bigger than you thought.” This may be the perfect time for your chorus to undertake a strategic planning process, with hope for the future and optimism that the choral arts have enormous power to heal people and communities. “I encourage choruses to know they have superpowers they don’t know they have,” says Estabrook. “They have superpowers and they need to share them.” n Caitlin Patton is a Standards for Excellent Licensed Consultant and the Executive Director of the National Music Festival. She lives on a small goat farm in Maryland and is a violinist, avid choral singer, and former board chair of the Chester River Chorale.
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C h o r u s
A m e r i ca
2021 Honor Roll of Contributors Chorus America is honored to receive support each year from hundreds of generous individuals, organizations, businesses, foundations, and the U.S. government. Each gift represents the depth and breadth of our membership, our geographic reach, and the myriad entities that work with, for, and within the choral field. Below you will find an alphabetical listing of each generous donor and partner, as well as special recognition lists that highlight Chorus America’s giving communities and unique funding opportunities. Chorus America recognizes with appreciation all those who contributed essential support for our programs that benefit choruses everywhere between September 1, 2020 and August 31, 2021. ACFEA Tour Consultants Amanda Adams-Barney Todd Aldrich John Alexander* Amateur Music Network Anonymous Anton E. Armstrong❖ Keith Arnold Susan Astington Mary Ann Aufderheide Bach Choir of Bethlehem Ann Meier and Robert Baker Carol Barnett Jamie and Jeff Barnett❖ Wayne Barr Jean Bartle Delores and Wayne Bauman Jeremy Beck Linda Beck Christina Benson Martin Benvenuto Charles Berardesco and Jeffrey Thurston❖ Berkshire Choral International Alison Bernet Liza W. Beth and Franco Ordoñez Harold G Black Alexander Lloyd Blake Brainerd Blyden-Taylor James Bond
Mimi Bornstein Watson Bosler Boston Gay Men’s Chorus Paul Boykas Barlow Bradford Ryan Brandau Larry Brandts Brazeal Dennard Chorale Seth Brenzel Sarah Bright Maggie Brooks Andrew Brown Brenda E. Kee and Wayne S. Brown Carolyn and Philip Brunelle* Bucks County Choral Society Marie Bucoy-Calavan❖ Suzanne Bunzel Andrea Burgoyne Dashon Burton❖ Molly Buzick Pontin❖ Jerry Buzzell Gabriela I. Calderon Garza Paul Caldwell* Cantabile Chamber Chorale Dallas Caples Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies Karen Carp Lesley Carter Jessica Carty
* = former board member, ❖ = current board member, + = deceased 32 The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
Karyn Castro Cathedral Choral Society Central Florida Community Arts Central Illinois Youth Chorus Charlie Cerf Chicago Children’s Choir Chicago Community Chorus Children’s Chorus of Washington The Choral Arts Society of Washington Choral Society of Durham Chorus Connection Cincinnati Youth Choir Lillie Ann Claitt Rick Coffey* Teresa Coffman Colburn Foundation André Coleman Don Coleman Linda Coleman Jennifer Collins Fran Collmann Colorado Children’s Chorale Columbia Pro Cantare Conspirare
Craig Coogan Casey Cook Tom Cooke Megan and Robert Cooper* Stuart Cosby Chris Coucill Lynda U. Crane* Emily Crocker Jean Davidson Kaneez Munjee and Hugh Davies* Cory Davis Doralene Davis* Frederic De Guzman Lou De La Rosa Catherine Dehoney and William Hill Mary Deissler* Iris Derke❖ Rollo Dilworth❖ Dominick DiOrio III* Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) Cat Dixon Dave Doligalski Donald Dumpson
Chair’s Circle The following individuals, foundations, corporate partners, member organizations, and the U.S. Government contributed gifts of $5,000 or more to support the work of Chorus America. We share our special appreciation and highlight their generous support that uplifts the entire choral community. Jamie and Jeff Barnett❖ Charles Berardesco and Jeffrey Thurston❖ Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies The Choral Arts Society of Washington Colburn Foundation Todd Estabrook❖ Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation John C. Griswold Family Foundation George Frederick Jewett Foundation East Anne B. Keiser❖ Kiplinger Foundation
Mary and Phillip Lyons* May Festival Chorus Kay and Mike McCarthy* The D.J. McManus Foundation Melodious Accord C. William Moody, Jr.*+ My Choral Coach (Match My Sound) National Association of Music Merchants Foundation National Endowment for the Arts Gayle and Tim Ober* Dianne Peterson❖ Popplestone Foundation YourClassical (MPR)
Susan G. Duncan* Susan and Michael Eanes John G. Earls❖ Mary Ann East ECS Publishing Group Morna Edmundson❖ Rick Eisenhart Ellie and Tom Elkinton Emily Ellsworth Susan Emmanouilidis Anne Erps Todd Estabrook❖ Beth Evans Madge Evans Kristen L Fallon Floyd Farmer* Miguel Felipe and Aaron Gould❖ Mary Ellen and Peter Fellegy Corty Fengler❖ John Fernie Sue Fink Brooks Firestone Laura Fischer Sandra Fisher Marilynn Flood Mary Forde Sheridan Foster Margaret and Donald Freeman Erin Freeman Catherine French Allison Fromm Justin Fyala and Rich Fowler Flo Gardner Joyce Garrett* Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC Robert Geary Grant Gershon* Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Grace Goodman Mary T. Gordon Kirsten Goulde Matt Greenberg Barbara W. Greene Vera Gregg John C. Griswold Family Foundation Edward Grossman Maria Guinand Mary Hamilton Handel and Haydn Society Matthew Harden Annie Hargraves Jeannette Hargroves Alan Harler* Harmony Helper Jazmine Harnishfeger-Brand Cindy Harris Robert Harris* Jackie Hawley Julie Haydon David M. Hayes❖ Heartland Sings! Anne Heider* Elfrieda and Vern Heinrichs❖ Carol Henri Shayla A. Hines HMF Beaudoin Family Foundation
Alice Parker Fund Chorus America is grateful to the following donors whose contributions brought to life the Alice Parker Fund, supporting the composition and thoughtful presentation of choral music based in the traditions of Black and Latinx communities. This endowed fund generates an annual award recognizing a Black or Latinx composer or an ensemble that respectfully and authentically presents works incorporating these traditions. Donald Armitage Carol Barnett Marshall Barron Larry Brandts Julia Brennan Brenda E. Kee and Wayne S. Brown Suzanne Bunzel Stuart Cosby Barbara Coulombe Emily Crocker Sally Dean Peggy Dettwiler Susan G. Duncan* ECS Publishing Group Anne Erps
Greg Hobbs Andrés Holder Kay Holt Terri Homer Don Horisberger David Horiuchi Embry Howell Charisse and David Howse* Cynthia Hoyer Natalie Hunter Brenda Iacocca IBM Corporation Indianapolis Symphonic Choir Robert Istad❖ Bruce Jackson* Joshua Jacobson Craig Jessop❖ George Frederick Jewett Foundation East Craig Hella Johnson❖ David Johnson Susan Jubinville Michael Judd Kent Jue Justice Choir Arthur W. Kaemmer, M.D. Anne B. Keiser❖ Lee Kesselman Wes Kim Dr. Deborah S King Kiplinger Foundation Terry Knowles and Marshall Rutter** Diane Koshi Barbara Krementz
Elise Eskew Todd Estabrook❖ Beth Evans Madge Evans Corty Fengler❖ John Fernie Sandra Fisher Margaret and Donald Freeman John French Barbara Greene Matt Greer Tom Hall* Alan Harler* Cindy Harris Anne Heider*
Kathleen Holt Ryan Homsey Embry Howell Natalie Hunter Patricia Hurlbutt Susan Jubinville Joan Kerssenbrock Lee Kesselman Peter Keville James Kreger Charitable Fund Barbara Krementz Jan Lanterman Diana J Leland Jeannette Lindholm John Lundsten Olive Malcolm Mary Doughty Mauch❖ Kay and Mike McCarthy* Melodious Accord, Inc. Becky Moody Thomas Moore Elizabeth Parker-Wood Ronald Perera Diane Pivarnik
Joshua Krugman Martha Kunau Anita Kupriss Robert Kyr Robyn and Tim Lana❖ Karen Lane Mary and Bill Langsdorf Jan Lanterman Leanne Magnuson Latuda Mark Lawson❖ Alysia Lee❖ Don Lee Lynn Lee Danielle Lees Diana J Leland Casey Leones Iris and Lesili Beard Levine Jacob Levine Jeannette Lindholm Los Angeles Children’s Chorus Los Angeles Master Chorale Cheryl Lower Ryan Luhrs John Lundsten Mary and Phillip Lyons* Katie MacDonald Olive Malcolm Carol Manifold Master Chorale of Flagstaff MasterVoices Mary Doughty Mauch❖ May Festival Chorus Michael McCarthy Kay and Mike McCarthy* Scotty McEvoy Barbara McFarquhar
Christina Platt Marilyn Pryor Susan Purdy Carol Pyle William Roberts Mike Rowan Julie Scott Samuel Showalter Christine Sillerud Genevieve Speier Mary Stejskal Amalia Stephens Nancy Stowe Susan Swerdlow Mary Swope Barbara M. Tagg* John Thornburg A. DeWayne & Theo Wee Tinky Weisblat Jennifer Whiting Bruce Wilson Eric Wyse
Christie McKinney Susan McMane The D.J. McManus Foundation Kirke Mechem Melodious Accord Melanie G. Messer Gregory Miller Jonathan Miller* Abigail Millikan-States mirabai women’s ensemble Marcela Molina❖ Becky Moody C. William Moody, Jr.*+ Thomas Moore David Morales Julie Morgan David Morrow❖ Brian Moul Linda Moxley❖ Ulysses Moye John Muehleisen Will Munster My Choral Coach (Match My Sound) National Association of Music Merchants Foundation National Children’s Chorus National Endowment for the Arts National Lutheran Choir Steven Neiffer❖ KellyAnn Nelson and Christopher Eanes Frank Nemhauser Brian Newhouse❖ Stacy Newman u
www.chorusamerica.org 33
2021 Honor Roll of Contributors
2022
Chorus AmericA Conference
34 The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
DETA ILS On Bac COv k er!
ONLINE April 7–8 In-person Summer 2022
Jennifer Nixon JJ Norman John Nuechterlein❖ Elizabeth and Francisco Nuñez❖* Gayle and Tim Ober* October Project Mark W. Ohnmacht Matthew Oltman Pat Owens Richard A. Pace Pacific Chorale Gary Pai Alice Parker* Elizabeth Parker-Wood Deborah and Jamshed Patel* Meredith Peake Kyle Pederson Peninsula Women’s Chorus Pensacola Children’s Chorus Robin L Perry Catherine Peterson* Dianne Peterson❖ Vince Peterson Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir Vanessa Pinto Diane Pivarnik Doug Platt Popplestone Foundation Marilyn Pryor Jared Pugh Carol Pyle John Quillin Ragazzi Boys Chorus Andrea Ramsey❖ Leonard Ratzlaff* RealTime Audio Keith Reas Adam Reinwald George Reiss Mary and David Richards Dail and David Richie Benjamin Rivera Earl Rivers❖ Carol Robbins Mona Roberts William Roberts Jenna Robinson Eugene Rogers❖ Heather Rogers Kathy Saltzman Romey Robbin Roshi Rose Katie and Jim Rowan Mike Rowan Dean Rust Peter Rutenberg Diana Sáez❖ San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus San Francisco Symphony Chorus Sankofa Chorale Santa Fe Desert Chorale Jace Saplan
Gifts Made in Honor or in Memory Chorus America received the following gifts in honor of or in memory of special individuals. Anton E. Armstrong in Honor of Alice Parker Christina Benson in Honor of Cheryl H. Parsons Seth Brenzel in Honor of Corty Fengler Molly Buzick Pontin in Honor of Robert Penn Jessica Carty in Honor of Katherine Longo Anonymous in Honor of Corty Fengler Susan G. Duncan in Memory of Louis A. Botto Robert Geary in Memory of Michael Morgan
Shayla A. Hines in Honor of Catherine Dehoney Scotty McEvoy in Honor of KellyAnn Nelson Benjamin Rivera in Honor of Katy Hobbs Katie and Jim Rowan in Honor of Mike Rowan Brooke S. Taylor in Memory of Larry Bandfield Kerry Wilkerson in Memory of Neil Dellar Duain Wolfe in Honor of Elfrieda E. Heinrichs
Carol Sargent Alisa and Ryan Saunders Liana Savard Jonathan F. Saxton Suzanne Schaeffer Susan Schapiro Jo-Michael Scheibe Nancy Schultz David W. Schwarz Anne Sears Rhett Del Campo Mary Shaffran Pearl Shangkuan❖ Samuel Showalter Charlotte Sibley Kate Sibley Kim Sidey Marianna and Robert Simpson* Alison Skinner Katie Skovholt Jan Smith Peter Smith Steven Smith David Snead Magen Solomon Southern Adventist University St. Olaf Choir Sue Stamberger Molly Stejskal Cammie Stephens Frank Stubbs and Tom Lee* Susan Swerdlow Mary Swope Tacoma Youth Chorus Barbara M. Tagg* Brooke Bandfield Taylor Linda Tedford Deborah Teske Texas Lutheran University Choir
The Capitol Hill Chorale The Washington Chorus Cindy Theodore Kathryn Thickstun Karen P. Thomas❖ Ginny Thompson Jesse Thrall Ryan Tibbetts Marjie and Gary Toops Anthony Trecek-King❖ Michelle Trefren Kent Tritle Scott Tucker University of TennesseeChattanooga Chris Verdugo Jim Verrecchia VocalEssence Voce Chamber Singers Voce, Inc. Gregory Wait Dale Warland* Jon Washburn* Anne Watson Born Lydia Weiss Wendell P. Whalum Community Chorus West Texas Children’s Chorus Wendy D. White William White Jennifer Whiting Helene Whitson and the San Francisco Lyric Chorus Nate Widelitz Gayle Wieand Chuck Wild Danielle Talamantes and Kerry Wilkerson Arlene Williams*
Bruce Wilson Dorothy Wilson Ralph Wilson Windward Choral Society Rebecca Wink Wisconsin Chamber Choir Witte Performance Tours Duain Wolfe❖ Holly Wolff Madeleine Woodworth Eric Wyse Yale Institute of Sacred Music John Yankee Dave Yeske YourClassical (MPR)
Continuo Society Members
We are pleased to recognize our current charter members of the Continuo Society, Chorus America’s legacy giving society. The Continuo Society was established to honor donors for their support of Chorus America through their estate planning, i.e., as a beneficiary under their will, IRS final distribution, pension plan, or insurance policy. John Alexander* Ann Meier Baker and Robert Baker Catherine Dehoney
Rollo Dilworth❖ Joy and Chester Douglass* Todd H. Estabrook❖ Floyd Farmer* Corty and Alf Fengler❖ Vance Y. George* Louise H. Greenberg* Alan Harler* Elfrieda and Vern Heinrichs❖ Anne B. Keiser❖ Mary and Phillip Lyons* Kay and Mike McCarthy* Allison McMillan* Sandy and Jonathan Miller* Trudy Weaver Miller* C. William Moody, Jr.*+ Alice P. Parker* Deborah and Jamshed Patel* Dianne and Frank Peterson❖ Susan Erburu Reardon and George Reardon* Earl Rivers* Rosalind Rees and Gregg Smith+ Barbara M. Tagg* Judith A. Willoughby*
#Rediscover Harmony
#RediscoverHarmony is a campaign launched in fall of 2021 to raise public awareness about the amazing value that choruses bring to their
communities. It offers all choral organizations a platform and social media toolkit to amplify their work and community impact. This project began as the brainchild of a group of executive directors who are part of Chorus America’s Leadership Development Forum, a peer learning group for leaders of large budget choruses. Chorus America is so grateful to those leaders and their peers whose contributions made possible this responsive advocacy tool for the entire choral field. Bach Choir of Bethlehem Berkshire Choral International Boston Children’s Chorus Cathedral Choral Society Central Florida Community Arts Chicago Children’s Choir Choral Arts Society of Washington Jennifer C. Collins Colorado Children’s Chorale Conspirare Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC Handel and Haydn Society HMF Beaudoin Family Foundation Indianapolis Symphonic Choir
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus Los Angeles Master Chorale MasterVoices May Festival Chorus National Association of Music Merchants Foundation National Children’s Chorus National Lutheran Choir Pacific Chorale Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir Ragazzi Boys Chorus San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus San Francisco Symphony Chorus Santa Fe Desert Chorale Seraphic Fire The Washington Chorus VocalEssence
Ostinato: Chorus America’s Monthly Giving Community
We gratefully acknowledge the members of the Ostinato community who contribute monthly recurring gifts to Chorus America. Susan Astington Mary Ann Aufderheide Wayne R. Bauman Marie Bucoy-Calavan❖ Lesley Carter Hugh Davies* u
Get Noticed!
Storytelling and Advertising Opportunities with Chorus America We’re here to help you draw the attention of choral leaders across North America and share the story of your impact on our dynamic field. Let’s connect to explore the options that could work best for you! Advertising • Sponsorship Exhibiting • Custom Opportunities
Contact us: Mike Rowan Associate Director of Communications mike@chorusamerica.org KellyAnn Nelson Annual Fund and Corporate Engagement Manager kellyann@chorusamerica.org
See more: chorusamerica.org/advertising | chorusamerica.org/support/corporate-support www.chorusamerica.org 35
Chorus America Officers
2021 Honor Roll of Contributors
Members of the Board
Mary Deissler* Dominick DiOrio III* Christopher Eanes Susan and Michael Eanes Morna Edmundson❖ Todd Estabrook❖ Sheridan Foster Justin Fyala David Hayes❖ Shayla A. Hines Lisa Husseini Marcela Molina❖ David Morales KellyAnn Nelson Frank Nemhauser Duain Wolfe❖
Chair Brian Newhouse Minnesota Orchestra (MN) Chair Elect Anton Armstrong St. Olaf College (MN) Treasurer John Earls Prospect House (OH) Secretary Marie Bucoy-Calavan University of Akron (OH)
Jeffrey Barnett Dorsal Capital Management LLC (CA) Charles Berardesco Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington (DC) Dashon Burton Professional Singer (NY) Iris Derke Distinguished Concerts International, New York (NY) Rollo Dilworth Temple University (PA) Mary Doughty Mauch Conductor and Community Organizer (IL) Morna Edmundson Elektra Women’s Choir (BC) Todd Estabrook Handel and Haydn Society (MA) Miguel Ángel Felipe Conductor and Educator (AZ) Corty B. Fengler Cappella SF (CA) David Hayes Mannes School of Music (NY) Elfrieda Heinrichs The Heinrichs Foundation (ON) Robert Istad Pacific Chorale; California State University Fullerton (CA) Craig Jessop Utah State University (UT) Craig Hella Johnson Vocal Arts Ensemble (OH); Conspirare (TX) Anne Keiser Choral Arts Society of Washington (DC) Robyn Reeves Lana Cincinnati Youth Choir (OH) Mark Lawson ECS Publishing Group (MO) Alysia Lee Maryland State Department of Education; Sister Cities Girlchoir (MD) Marcela Molina Tucson Girls Chorus (AZ) David Morrow Morehouse College (GA) Linda Moxley Sarasota Concert Association (FL) Steven Neiffer Los Angeles Master Chorale (CA) John Nuechterlein Community Leader (MN) Elizabeth Núñez Young People’s Chorus of New York City (NY) Dianne Peterson The Washington Chorus (DC) Molly Buzick Pontin Pacific Chorale (CA) Andrea Ramsey Composer, Conductor, and Music Educator (MO) Eugene Rogers University of Michigan (MI); The Washington Chorus (DC) Diana Sáez Towson University (MD) Pearl Shangkuan Calvin University; Grand Rapids Symphony (MI) Karen P. Thomas Seattle Pro Musica (WA) Anthony Trecek-King Handel and Haydn Society (MA); University of Hartford (CT) Duain Wolfe Chicago Symphony Chorus (IL); Colorado Symphony Chorus (CO)
36 The Voice, Fall/Winter 2021
Director’s Society
We gratefully acknowledge the three-year pledges made by former members of Chorus America’s Board of Directors. These multi-year gifts help us build a predictable revenue stream so that we can respond to the changing needs of the choral field. We are grateful for the continued leadership of these committed members of the Chorus America family. Philip Brunelle* Richard Coffey* Lynda Crane* Hugh Davies* Mary Deissler* Dominick DiOrio III* Susan G. Duncan* Floyd Farmer* Joyce Garrett* Alan Harler*
Anne Heider* Terry Knowles* and Marshall Rutter* Mary A. Lyons* Mike McCarthy* C. William Moody, Jr*+ Gayle Ober* Alice Parker* Leonard Ratzlaff* Earl Rivers* Robert Simpson* Frank Stubbs* Barbara Tagg* Arlene Williams*
In-Kind Gifts
Amateur Music Network Arts Ovation Hotel Baltimore Choral Arts Jerry Blackstone Dashon Burton❖ Roland Carter* The Dessoff Choirs DeveloPlay LLC & Open Voices LLC Todd Estabrook❖ Handel + Haydn Society Elfrieda and Vern Heinrichs❖ Craig Jessop❖ Anne B. Keiser❖ Libby Larsen Henry Leck Alysia Lee❖ Mackus Company Illuminated Manuscripts
Paul Mealor MusicFolder.com MyMusicFolders Brian Newhouse❖ Novart Media Jim Papoulis & Hal Leonard Corporation Alice Parker* Amanda Quist Doreen Rao Susan Reardon* Rosalind Rees The Ringling Museum Diana V. Sáez❖ Sarasota Opera Sherry Schiller Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Seraphic Fire Signum Records Nina Simon The Swingles Barbara Tagg* D. James Tagg Danielle Talamantes and Kerry Wilkerson Augusta Read Thomas Karen P. Thomas❖ Christopher Tin Cory Todd Nik Walker Eric Whitacre
Every donor is important to us. If we have not listed your contribution correctly, please let us know by contacting KellyAnn Nelson at 202.331.7577 ext. 247 or kellyann@chorusamerica.org.
Advertising Index ACDA....................................................................... 27
MyMusicFolders.com.............................................. 18
Bard College Conservatory of Music........................ 7
National Lutheran Choir.......................................... 34
Berkshire Choral International............................ 2, 31
Santa Fe Desert Chorale......................................... 14
Cathedral Choral Society........................................ 26
Seraphic Fire............................................................ 25
Chorus America...........................................35, C3, C4
Singing City.............................................................. 15
Cincinnati Youth Choir............................................. 34
MUSICFOLDER.com................................................. 15
Conspirare................................................................ 17
Sonoma State University........................................ 23
Hal Leonard Corporation......................................... 19
St. Olaf Choir........................................................... 31
Houston Chamber Choir............................................ 9
The Singers – Minnesota Choral Artists............... 13
In Unison Podcast.................................................... 30
Witte Performance Tours........................................ 26
MatchMySound....................................................... C2
Yale Institute of Sacred Music................................. 9
Chorus America announces
Music Education Partnership Grants A New Funding Opportunity
Supporting collaborations between community organizations and schools during the 2022–23 academic year For projects serving elementary, middle, or junior high ❖ school grade students ❖ Guided by core values of community co-creation, fostering cultural exchange, and working to dismantle historical and systemic racism
ations c i l p p A due 8 ry 2 Janua
Scan this code with your smartphone for more information
Application guidelines NOW AVAILABLE Informational webinars will be held on December 9 and January 12 at 2:00 pm Eastern. For full guidelines, application portal, and webinar registration, visit chorusamerica.org/music-ed-grants
Eligibility: Organizations and schools in specific U.S. and Canada regions are eligible to apply in the grant’s first year. See more details on geographic eligibility on the Chorus America website.
Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage
PAID CLEVELAND, OHIO PERMIT #498
1200 18th Street NW, Suite 1250 Washington, DC 20036
2022
Chorus AmericA Conference
ONLINE | April 7–8 In-person | Summer 2022
ed n u t Stay er dates, m for sum ation, loc n stratio i g e r and ation m r o f in oon! s g n i com
RECONNECT With the Joy and Hope of Choral Music— And Each Other We’re thrilled to reunite in person as we celebrate reopening and resilience, support the health and wellness of choral leaders, and much more. Plans include an online event April 7–8 and an in-person event in Summer 2022, incorporating the best elements of both formats. Join us!
With generous funding support from