Choral Arts New England is delighted to announce the funding of 16 project grants totaling $29,000, which exceeds our previous highest award total of $25,000 in the 2023 cycle. Award recipients represent choral organizations across New England, including from Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts, and were chosen out of 48 applications.

Award recipients will be honored at our grant ceremony in the fall of 2024, and the projects are described below from excerpts of the applications. In addition, where a recipient received a named grant, is listed next to the recipient’s name.

Congratulations to all our awardees, and please stay tuned for our next application cycle to open for 2025!

Blue Heron Renaissance Choir – MA
Blue Heron 25th Birthday Concert & Celebration

Join Blue Heron in celebrating the Renaissance vocal ensemble’s first 25 years of music-making! This special start to Blue Heron’s 2024-25 season features music from the Peterhouse partbooks (highlighting the ensemble’s work in creating a comprehensive five-CD set of this otherwise mostly neglected repertoire of pre-Reformation English polyphony) as well as new music by Turkish American composer Mehmet Ali Sanlikol fusing Renaissance polyphone and Middle Eastern musical elements for voices and traditional instrumental accompaniment. This event includes an allocation of complimentary tickets for community members who might not otherwise be able to attend, and a post-concert birthday reception.

Cantata Singers – MA
Boston Chorus Festival

Cantata Singers seeks to host and perform a festival with our chorus, orchestra, and area high school programs. It will be a day of workshops, masterclasses, and more, culminating in a joint performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610.

Cantilena Chamber Choir – MA
2025 Martin Luther King Celebration

The Cantilena Chamber Choir presents its annual Martin Luther King celebration open sing with guest multi-cultural choir(s) featuring music by Black American Women composers.

Classical Uprising – ME (Hammond Family Grant)
Where do you like to go? --Celebrating Maine's changing identity in the 21st century

“Where do you like to go?” is a collaboration between composer Judd Greenstein, Classical Uprising, and the students of Reiche Elementary School that uses the title’s question as a writing prompt to explore place, identity, and the future of Maine. The cooperative project will culminate in a concert-length musical work for choir and chamber orchestra that incorporates the community responses to form the libretto and conceptual underpinnings. The final product will be performed by Oratorio Chorale and community partners in its 2024-2025 anniversary season.

Coro Allegro – MA
There Will Come Soft Rains

”There Will Come Soft Rains,” a work commissioned from Syrian American composer Kareem Roustom for Coro Allegro is to be premiered in spring 2025. It is written for SATB chorus, strings and French horn and is based on texts spanning over two thousand years expressing an anti-war message.

Hampshire Young People's Chorus – MA
Marketing and Outreach Coordinator

To support continuously rebuilding the organization post-COVID by increasing awareness of YPC in the community. This will be done with the help of an outreach and marketing coordinator to bolster annual recruitment efforts. 

Hartford Chorale – CT
Vox Feminae

Hartford Chorale presents 'Vox Feminae' on Friday, May 16, 7:30pm at the Belding Theater, The Bushnell Center for Performing Arts in Hartford, CT. Vox Feminae is a concert to celebrate American female composers, featuring the music of Rosephanye Powell and Jocelyn Hagen.

Lorelei Ensemble, Inc. – MA (Lorna Cooke deVaron Grant)
BREATE Program Commission and Premiere

Lorelei Ensemble will commission and perform a fully original experimental and cross-genre program, co-composed by and performed with an all-star instrumental quartet, exploring breath as a foundational and essential instrument, and the source of our individual and collective expression, inspiration, and survival. Communicating musical ideas through personal story-telling, improvisation, live electronics and processing, the ensemble goes to the edge of comfort and back again, grappling with the power and vulnerability we derive from this increasingly endangered resource.

Manchester Choral Society – NH
Harnessing the Power of Music: Eradicating Hate Through Art and Community Engagement

Manchester Choral Society will perform Craig Hella Johnson's "Considering Matthew Shepard" in Spring 2025. They aim to harness the emotive power of this composition to ignite conversations, inspire empathy, and propel our community toward a future rooted in understanding and acceptance.

Milford Middle School Chorus – NH (Saxton Family Grant)
2025 New Hampshire Choral Consortium

In the Spring of 2025, Dr. Gala Flagello will be commissioning a three minute two part choral work, honoring the beauty and nature of New Hampshire. The Milford Middle School chorus will be premiering the piece and we are inviting other schools to buy in and be a part of the consortium. Our goal is to make this accessible to any New Hampshire school that would like to participate, but may not be able to due to budget constraints.

Northampton Community Music Center – MA (CANE Board Grant)
Hopeful Harmonies Project's Ujima Singers and Pride Chorus

The Ujima Singers (a chorus prioritizing BIPOC participation and bringing musical and cultural collectivity to the Black community in Western Massachusetts, led by Evelyn Harris - a Grammy-nominated songwriter and former longtime member of Sweet Honey in the Rock) and the Pride Chorus (a mixed-voice chorus rehearsing and performing music that celebrates the LGBTQ+ community, led by Mara Levi – a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and former touring artist) are the largest choral programs in the Northampton Community Music Center’s Hopeful Harmonies Project. Both choruses welcome singers of all experience levels and offer a safe space for BIPOC singers and for LGBTQ+ singers to explore and experience music that speaks to and empowers participants. Free community performances by both choruses promote equity, sing out for justice and visibility, and enrich the lives of audience members and of our entire community.

Special Needs Art Programs, Inc. – MA (Richard Coffey Grant)
SNAP Youth Chorus Pilot Project

The SNAP Youth Chorus Pilot Project will provide opportunities for neuro-divergent youth to develop their musical abilities, such as singing, rhythm, and performance skills. The program will incorporate music theory, developing active listening skills, learning to work collaboratively, and performance opportunities. We will also work on expression and creativity, creating a sense of belonging, celebrating diversity, and personal growth.

The Choral Art Society – ME
ChoralArt Travis Ramsey Commission: "Fire"

ChoralArt has commissioned a major choral work from New England composer Travis Ramsey (working title "Fire") based on the Portland, Maine "great fire of 1866." The piece will engage Maine audiences and singers, both through its artistry and through its historical relevance for our local community in Southern Maine.

Vermont Symphony Orchestra – VT (CANE Board Chairs Grant)
VSO Visualizer Concert 2025

The VSO Chorus will partner with two Burlington-based centers of innovation, Champlain College and BETA Technologies, for a truly distinctive concert in a unique venue that combines choral and string music with projected video.

Worcester Children's Chorus – MA
One Voice Youth Choral Festivals, 2024-2025

To support two day-long youth choral festivals in 2024-2025. The two festivals are presented collaboratively by the newly formed One Voice Youth Choral Consortium. WCC and the Consortium passionately believe that every child deserves access to exceptional music programs and the chance to experience the sheer joy of singing with others.

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List of Choral Arts New England's Named Grants

The Hammond Family grant, instituted by Carrie and Jonathan Hammond, is intended to support a collaborative effort or to celebrate a milestone, preferably in Connecticut.

The Saxton Family grant, instituted by Jonathan Saxton and Barbara Fox, is intended to support a unique, engaging effort in an underserved area or by a non-auditioned choir.

The Irving Forbes Centennial grant is intended to support projects involving community choruses performing large works with orchestra, and/or music that celebrates nature and the outdoors.

The Richard Coffey grant, instituted by friends of the visionary conductor and organist Richard Coffey, seeks to support projects of any kind that are transformative for the funded institution, whether musical, organizational, or experiential. In the event that no worthy project matches these criteria, the grant will be given at the discretion of the Board.

The Lorna Cooke deVaron grant, named in memory of one of the leading women choral conductors of the 20th century, instituted by Joseph & Fiona Horning, is intended to support new music or adventurous programming.

The Choral Arts New England Board grant, sponsored by contributions from the Board members of Choral Arts New England, is intended to advance the priorities of the Board in any given year. 

The Choral Arts New England Board Chairs grant is sponsored by contributions from the former Chairs and Vice Chairs of Choral Arts New England.