A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm, hand, and facial gestures.
John Harris Harbison is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.
Eric Edward Whitacre is an American composer, conductor, and speaker best known for his choral music. In March 2016, he was appointed as Los Angeles Master Chorale's first artist-in-residence at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Chanticleer is a full-time male classical vocal ensemble based in San Francisco, California, founded in 1978. It is known for its interpretations of Renaissance music, for which they were founded, but also a wide repertoire of jazz, gospel and contemporary classical music. Its name is derived from the "clear singing rooster" in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. The ensemble has made award-winning recordings.
The Dale Warland Singers (DWS) was a 40-voice professional chorus based in St. Paul, Minnesota, founded in 1972 by Dale Warland and disbanded in 2004. They performed a wide variety of choral repertoire but specialized in 20th-century music and commissioned American composers extensively. In terms of sound, the DWS was known for its purity of tone, intonation, legato sound and stylistic range. During their existence, the DWS performed roughly 400 concerts and recorded 29 CDs.
Daniel Rogers Pinkham Jr. was an American composer, organist, and harpsichordist.
Bernard Rands is a British-American contemporary classical music composer. He studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy. He held residencies at Princeton University, the University of Illinois, and the University of York before emigrating to the United States in 1975; he became a U.S. citizen in 1983. In 1984, Rands's Canti del Sole, premiered by Paul Sperry, Zubin Mehta, and the New York Philharmonic, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He has since taught at the University of California, San Diego, the Juilliard School, Yale University, and Boston University. From 1988 to 2005 he taught at Harvard University, where he is Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music Emeritus.
The Radcliffe Choral Society(RCS) is a 60-voice treble choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1899, it is one of the country's oldest soprano-alto choruses and one of its most prominent collegiate choirs. With the tenor-bass Harvard Glee Club and the mixed-voice Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, it is one of the Harvard Choruses. All three groups are led by Harvard Director of Choral Activities Andrew Clark. The RCS Resident Conductor is Meg Weckworth. RCS tours domestically every year and travels internationally every four years.
Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer and professor.
Michael McGlynn is an Irish composer, producer, director, and founder of the vocal ensemble Anúna.
Frank Scott Albinder is a conductor of male choral music. A former director of Chanticleer, Albinder currently conducts the Washington Men's Camerata, the Woodley Ensemble, and the Virginia Glee Club, and is president of Intercollegiate Men's Choruses, Inc., a national association of men's choruses. Albinder designed the concept and chose the repertoire for Chanticleer's Grammy Award winning album Colors of Love. Albinder holds degrees in conducting and vocal performance. Perhaps his best known work is the vocal solo of Loch Lomond, featured on the Chanticleer album Wondrous Love. He is a past president of the Alumni Association of Pomona College in Claremont, California. Albinder lives and works primarily in the District of Columbia.
Ruth Lomon was a Canadian classical composer.
Larry Nickel is a Canadian composer, conductor, music publisher and singer who devotes much of his focus to choral music. An associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre. he has composed for a wide spectrum of genres; electronic and computer music, string quartet, woodwind and brass quintet, Symphony Orchestra, Symphonic Wind Ensemble and choral ensembles, including both secular and ecclesiastical music. Primarily, he has written and arranged hundreds of compositions for choirs. Nickel also works as a choral clinician, occasional university professor, music minister, guest conductor and music festival adjudicator. Nickel sang professionally with the Vancouver Chamber Choir for six years, directed the award winning Jubilate Vocal Ensemble for five years, and also sang 2nd bass with the acclaimed Vancouver Cantata Singers for many years. In 2010 Nickel became the owner of Cypress Choral Music Publishing. Nickel's music has been published by 12 companies including Oxford University Press, G. Schirmer, Shawnee Press, Pavane Publishing, Morton Music, Cypress Choral Music, Classica and Canadian International Music. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - CBC Radio - has featured his music many times. The "Sounds of Majesty" radio broadcast out of Chicago has featured Larry Nickel's music hundreds of times.
The International Orange Chorale of San Francisco (IOCSF) is an auditioned all-volunteer chamber choir devoted to performing established repertoire of all periods, with particular attention to 20th-century music—including newly commissioned works of promising composers. Since its inception, the group has been committed to performing free concerts featuring challenging and imaginative choral a cappella programming. The ensemble is based in San Francisco.
Coro Allegro is a classical music choral group based in Boston, Massachusetts, drawing its members from the LGBT community. It was founded in 1990.
Steven Sametz is active as both conductor and composer. He has been hailed as "one of the most respected choral composers in America." Since 1979, he has been on the faculty of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he holds the Ronald J. Ulrich Chair in Music and is Director of Choral Activities and is founding director of the Lehigh University Choral Union. Since 1998, he has served as Artistic Director of the professional a cappella ensemble, The Princeton Singers. He is also the founding director of the Lehigh University Summer Choral Composers’ Forum. In 2012, he was named Chair of the American Choral Directors Association Composition Advisory Committee.
Lars "Erik" Westberg is a Swedish conductor and professor in music performance. He studied choral conducting with Professor Eric Ericson at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm 1976–1987.
Matthew Peterson is a classical composer of operas, choral works, orchestral and chamber music.
Lansing McLoskey is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His Zealot Canticles: An Oratorio for Tolerance was a winner of the 61st Annual Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance by the ensemble The Crossing. McLoskey serves as a Professor of Music at the Frost School of Music in Miami, Florida. Among McLoskey's numerous commissions are those from Guerilla Opera, Copland House, The Fromm Foundation, The Barlow Endowment, N.E.A., The Crossing, ensemberlino vocale, New Spectrum Foundation, Ensemble Berlin PianoPercussion, Passepartout Duo, the Boston Choral Ensemble, and Kammerkoret NOVA.
