Choral Arts New England

The New England choral community is as vigorous as ever, and many great performances are scheduled throughout the coming year. Listed below are just a few highlights for the season that starts in September 2018. Currently, about 450 performances are listed on the Choral Arts New England events calendar through June 2019; that number will probably double by the end of the year. See the online calendar for complete, up-to-date listings.

Summer is a perfect time for getting out of old routines and devoting time to music. New England holds some special retreats that offer programs where choral singers can get away for a week or more to focus and learn; elsewhere, singers take advantage of summer freedom to rehearse and perform a special choral work. Many choruses open their doors to the public to host “summer sings,” where participants sing a masterwork in a single session under expert direction, and often with professional soloists— a perfect way to participate in great music with a minimum commitment.

Choral Arts New England has announced the funding of 13 grants, for a total $14,150, in the 2018 season. The funded projects were selected from 51 proposals that were received. Both the number of applications and the amount requested have steadily risen over the past several years. Awards will be presented at the annual awards ceremony in the autumn of 2018. The recipients are Andover Choral Society (Andover, Mass.); Cappella Clausura (Newtonville, Mass.); Collegium Ancora (Providence, R.I.); CONCORA (Hartford, Ct.); Da Camera Singers (Amherst, Mass.); Hampshire Young People’s Chorus (Amherst, Mass.); Island Community Chorus (Vineyard Haven, Mass.); Labyrinth Choir (Southboro, Mass.); Manchester Choral Society (Manchester, N.H.); Metropolitan Chorale (Brookline, Mass.); Rhode Island Civic Chorale (Cranston, R.I.); Voce (Mystic, Ct.); and Zamir Chorale of Boston (Newton, Mass.).

The Choral Arts New England calendar is a great resource if you'd like to learn about patterns and statistics — and if you're interested in learning if a particular work has been sung (much), or what your favorite soloist is doing. You can get charts (as well as numbers) of the number of events at any time during the year, for the past five years. You can also search the calendar to find performances of interest during that time period.