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Russian Orthodox Music in a Benedictine Monastery
Chorale will sing Solemn Vespers for the Third Sunday in Advent, at Monastery of the Holy Cross, in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood, on Sunday, December 10, at 5 PM. Our repertoire will be selections...
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Weston H. Noble, 1922-2016
Weston Noble, founder of the Luther College Nordic Choir and its conductor for more than fifty years, and a member of Chicago Chorale’s Board of Advisors, died yesterday, at the age of ninety-four. The...
View ArticleBack to Bach
Chorale is four weeks into rehearsal for our March 26 performance of J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor. This is Chorale’s third preparation of this work, usually considered the greatest composition for...
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Black with Notes
Chorale is seven rehearsals into its preparation for our March 26 performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor. I am grateful for so extended a rehearsal period– every singer in the group benefits from...
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Why Did Bach Compose the Mass in B Minor
I grew up in a fairly segregated atmosphere: most Roman Catholics lived on the east side of town and attended Catholic school, while the rest of us, primarily Lutherans, lived on the west side and...
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Chicago Chorale and Historically Informed Performance Practice
I began attending Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute in 1978, and continued attending for about eight summer sessions following that. I first learned of the Institute through Ken...
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Composing the Mass in B Minor
Bach effectively spent his entire career composing Mass in B Minor— it consists of complete movements, and fragments, from throughout his compositional life, recomposed, reworded, reconfigured,...
View ArticleChorale’s Choices
I have written largely about the historical/musicological aspects of presenting Bach’s Mass in B Minor, over the past weeks. Such a focus is inevitable: the score is enormous, complex, surrounded and...
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Notes From Within the Choir
Guest Blog: Bryan McGuiggin is a Second-Year in the College at the University of Chicago. He is majoring in mathematics and serves as the organ scholar at Rockefeller Chapel. He is a baritone in...
View ArticleMy Third Time Around
Guest Blog by Dan Bertsche, who has sung tenor with Chicago Chorale since 2003, and currently serves as Treasurer on Chicago Chorale’s Board of Directors. I remember approaching my first Bach B Minor...
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Meet Chorale’s B Minor Soloists
Chicago Chorale has a roster of outstanding soloists for its upcoming performance of the Mass in B Minor, March 26: Michigan native Chelsea Shephard, soprano, recently gave an “exquisite” NYC recital...
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Adventures in Programming
Chorale’s current project features some of the most unusual programming we have ever put out there. We have paired two major a cappella works which, on the surface, bear little resemblance to one...
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Palestrina: The “Savior of Music”?
In addition to The Peaceable Kingdom, Chorale will sing Palestrina’s Pope Marcellus Mass on our June 10 concert. The latter work was composed in honor of Pope Marcellus II, who reigned for only three...
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Choral Music in the Driftless Area
Last weekend I drove about five hours northwest of Chicago, into the Driftless Area. This region, where Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin converge, was, mysteriously, not covered during the most recent...
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Sisu: Part 2
Guest post by Managing Director Megan Balderston The SISU mallet from CrossFit Burr Ridge’s gym, athletic home of the managing director. Yes, we really have one! Those of you who have read Bruce’s...
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In the bag
Chicago Chorale’s 2016-17 season has ended. The books are closed, and we are on break from our rehearsal/performance schedule, taking stock of last year and planning the 2017-18 season. A small army of...
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Back in the saddle
Chorale’s current project, O magnum mysterium, focuses on contemporary choral music which resonates primarily on the emotional level. Our title is taken from a responsorial chant for the Matins of...
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Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen
Chorale’s major new project this fall has been learning the Clytus Gottwald a cappella choral arrangement of Gustav Mahler’s famous song, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen. Number three in Mahler’s...
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‘Tis a gift to be simple
Only one piece on our upcoming O magnum mysterium concert was composed before 1900: Cantique de Jean Racine, by Gabriel Fauré (1864-65), written when the composer was only nineteen years old. Fauré had...
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Advent Vespers 2017
This Sunday, a select group of Chorale’s regular singers will sing the choral portions of Solemn Vespers for the Second Sunday in Advent, along with the monks of the Benedictine Monastery of the Holy...
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