“The mission of the New Haven Chorale is to present excellent choral music to the greater New Haven region through public performance and community outreach, to enable singers to improve their musicianship, and to be an integral and active member in the cultural life of its community.”
During the 2004-2005 season the Chorale’s Board updated the Mission Statement, last revised in 1988, to reflect the Chorale’s new endeavors in light of its enduring mission:
1. Providing a supportive learning community for vocal musicians;
2. Creating opportunities for them to perform their art publicly;
3. Reaching out to their home communities;
4. Participating vigorously as an institution in New Haven’s rich arts culture;
5. Bringing glorious choral music to the New Haven region.
May this Mission Statement always guide and inspire the Chorale to serve its members and its community at the highest possible level.
~ Music Director ~ Accompanist and Assistant Music Director
~ Board of Directors and Staff
History of the Chorale
Founded in 1950 and modeled after Robert Shaw’s Collegiate Chorale, The New Haven Chorale actively participates within culturally-rich New Haven. We frequently perform with the New Haven Symphony and Orchestra New England and have joined voices with the Elm City Girls’ Choir, Trinity Boys’ Choir, the Kodaly Chorus, the Heritage Chorale, the Yale Glee Club, the Yale Camerata, and New York’s Hunter College Choir. Outstanding soloists from metropolitan New York or Yale’s outstanding music faculty frequently add sparkle. We perform most often in Yale’s Battell Chapel or Woolsey Hall, although we have appeared throughout Southern Connecticut and internationally. The Chamber Ensemble, open to all members, performs in more intimate settings.
Recent performances have included Bach’s St. John’s Passion, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Bernstein’s Chicester Psalms, shape note music from The Sacred Harp, Hailstork’s Done Made My Vow, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Still’s And They Lynched Him on a Tree, and Hindemith’s When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d as well as works by Poulenc, Messiaen, Szymanowski, and Britten. We regularly perform in the New Haven Symphony’s Holiday Pops concert and are known for our Gilbert & Sullivan and cabaret renditions.
Community outreach is central to the Chorale’s mission. The Chamber Singers regularly entertain at local retirement centers and, on Christmas morning, members sing in Yale New Haven Hospital’s pediatric wards. In addition, our Student Singer Program invites auditioned young musicians to perform and rehearse with us while underwriting related costs. Since the program’s inception in 1990, more than 50 talented high school juniors and seniors have participated in this program.
We are always seeking new singers, new audience, new support. For more specific information on any of these, click on the appropriate link.
