News and Resources

Chorus pro Musica presents Georges Bizet’s Carmen featuring Victoria Livengood

On Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 3 pm, Chorus pro Musica, led by Artistic Director Jeffrey Rink, concludes its 2007–2008 season at NEC’s Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, with a concert opera performance of Georges Bizet’s Carmen, featuring Metropolitan Opera star Victoria Livengood in her signature role as Carmen. The performance also highlights Metropolitan Opera tenor Adam Klein as Don José, Boston baritone Robert Honeysucker as Escamilllo, and soprano Nouné Karapetian as Micaela, as well as the New England Conservatory Children’s Chorus, Jean Meltaus, Director. At 2 pm in the hall, Concert Opera Boston artistic advisor Michael Sims will discuss the origins and unexpected rise to stardom of Bizet’s opera. The lecture and performance are sponsored by Concert Opera Boston.  

One of the most popular operas ever written, Carmen is famous for its smoldering sensuality and its magnificent score, including such favorites as the Toréador Song and the Habanera. Victoria Livengood has been acclaimed around the world for her “sizzling” portrayal of the gypsy fortune-teller. Critics have called her “a quintessential Carmen…vivacious and full-blooded.” Boston audiences last heard her in Chorus pro Musica’s 2005 performance of Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila, of which the Boston Phoenix’s Lloyd Schwartz wrote: “Livengood’s Dalila was the sine qua non. She has the vocal chops, from ringing high notes to a baritonal growl. …The incomparable phrasing and warmth you hear on Maria Callas’s recordings make any resistance impossible.” A North Carolina native known as the “Dixie Diva,” Victoria Livengood was bestowed the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005 from the Boston Conservatory of Music, where she received her Master’s Degree in Opera performance.

Concert tickets are $30, $50 and $65, with discounts available on selected seats for groups, students, seniors and WGBH members. A limited number of $15 student rush seats (with ID) will be available an hour and a half before the performance. Reserved seats may be selected and tickets purchased at www.choruspromusica.org or by phone (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) at 800-658-4CPM (800-658-4276). For wheelchair-accessible seats, call 617-267-7442.

For complete information, see the concert press release and the concert information page.

Farewell To Maestro Jeffrey Rink

Jeffrey Rink, our esteemed Music Director for the past 17 years, is not returning to direct CpM next season. He is continuing as Music Director of the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra in Niceville, Florida, where he also holds the Mattie Kelly Distinguished Chair in Music at Okaloosa-Walton College. We congratulate him, and wish him and his family well for the future. More details and a selection of Maestro Rink's accomplishments with CpM can be found in the press release.

Chorus pro Musica Seeks Music Director

The chorus has formed a Search Committee and begun the difficult search for our fifth Music Director. Please see the position description.

Chorus pro Musica celebrates New England composers and pays special tribute to Daniel Pinkham with guest conductor David Hodgkins

Chorus pro Musica, led by Guest Conductor David Hodgkins, will present a special concert celebrating New England composers on March 7, at 8 pm, at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, 138 Tremont Street, Boston (opposite the Park St MBTA station). The performance includes a special tribute to Daniel Pinkham, who at his death in December 2006 left a substantial legacy of great works, many commissioned or premiered by Chorus pro Musica.

The concert includes works both a cappella and accompanied, by William Billings (Modern Music, David's Lamentation, and Be Glad then America), Charles Ives (Psalm 67 and Psalm 90), Daniel Pinkham (A Song for St. Cecilia¹s Day, Fanfares, and Christmas Cantata), and Randall Thompson's Alleluia. Featured soloists are Carole Haber, soprano, Jason McStoots, tenor, and David Kravitz, bass

Guest conductor David Hodgkins is making his debut appearance with Chorus pro Musica. A native of Reading, Massachusetts, David Hodgkins is the Artistic Director of Coro Allegro, a 60-voice ensemble that he has led since 1992. In addition, Mr. Hodgkins was named Artistic Director of the New England Classical Singers in 1999, and is on the faculty of the Commonwealth School, a private high school in Boston¹s Back Bay. David Hodgkins studied piano, voice and harpsichord at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, and earned a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from Temple University in Philadelphia under Alan Harler. His mentors in conducting have also included Wayne Abercrombie, Fiore Contino, Paul Vermel, and Gunther Schuller.

The concert is reserved seating by pew. Tickets are $25, $35 or $45, with discounts available for seniors, students, WGBH members, and parties of 6 or more. Tickets may be purchased and seats selected online at www.choruspromusica.org or by calling 800-658-4276 at any time. For wheelchair-accessible seats, call 617-267-7442.

For complete information, see the concert press release and the concert information page.

Chorus pro Musica’s Annual Holiday Concert features Guest Conductor Lisa Graham

On December 21, Chorus pro Musica, led by Guest Conductor Lisa Graham, will present its annual holiday celebration concert at Old South Church, 645 Boylston Street, Copley Square, Boston. The performance includes Daniel Pinkham’s Christmas Cantata, Morten Lauridsen’s “O magnum mysterium,” and Gustav Holst’s arrangement of “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” among other seasonal favorites. As in the past, there will be a candlelight processional and opportunities for the audience to join in singing Christmas carols.

Lisa Graham is making her debut appearance with Chorus pro Musica. Now in her sixth year as Evelyn Barry Director of Choral Music at Wellesley College, Dr. Graham conducts the Wellesley College Choir, Glee Club, and Chamber Singers as well as teaching courses in the music department. She is also Music Director of the Brookline Chorus and conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society’s Young Women’s Chorus. She earned her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts Degrees at the University of Southern California, and has served on the faculty at California State University Northridge, directed choirs at Sonoma State University, and performed in and directed productions at Cinnabar Opera Theater in Northern California.

Also performing will be the New England Conservatory Children’s Chorus, Jean Meltaus, Director.

The concert is reserved seating by pew. Tickets are $20, $30 or $40, with discounts available for seniors, students, WGBH members, and parties of 6 or more. Tickets may be purchased and seats selected online at www.choruspromusica.org or by calling 800-658-4276 at any time. For wheelchair-accessible seats, call 617-267-7442.

For complete information, see the concert press release and the concert information page.

Chorus pro Musica presents Roger Ames’s Requiem for Our Time, with poetry by Anne Sexton, and Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem

Chorus pro Musica, led by Artistic Director Jeffrey Rink, performs two profound yet contrasting Requiem settings by Roger Ames and Gabriel Fauré on Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8 pm at Old South Church, 645 Boylston Street, Copley Square, Boston. The performance features soloists David Murray, baritone, and Ilana Davidson, soprano.

Modeled after Benjamin Britten’s magnificent War Requiem, the Requiem for Our Time by American composer Roger Ames merges the haunting, contemporary poetry of the late Boston-based poet Anne Sexton with traditional Latin texts to create a modern context for the ancient and moving remembrance of the dead. The piece premiered in 1985 (in a performance conducted by Jeffrey Rink) as “Requiem for Unbelievers.” This will be its first New England performance. Roger Ames (b. 1944) is a noted composer of operas and vocal works, including Amistad and In Memoriam: Warsaw 1943.

Writer, poet, and playwright Anne Sexton (1928–1974), who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1966, was appointed lecturer of creative writing at Boston University in 1970 and two years later promoted to full professor. Breaking from 1950s expectations of a suburban woman’s role, Sexton pioneered a radical, new form of poetry, writing openly about family, sexuality, joy and despair.

Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924), completed his Requiem in 1901, drawing melodic inspiration from the tunes and rhythms of Gregorian chant. Considered by many as the composer’s greatest achievement, it is a profound testament of faith, with an ethereal beauty that has made it one of the most-beloved Requiem settings of our time.

The concert is reserved seating. Tickets are $25, $35 or $45, with discounts available for seniors, students, WGBH members, and parties of 6 or more. Tickets may be purchased and seats selected online at www.choruspromusica.org or by calling 800-658-4276 at any time. For wheelchair-accessible seats, call 617-267-7442.

For complete information, see the concert press release and the concert information page.

Chorus pro Musica presents Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci in concert

On Sunday, June 3 at 3 pm, Chorus pro Musica concludes its 2006–2007 season at NEC’s Jordan Hall with a concert performance of the two most celebrated verismo operas: Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggiero Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci. Preceding the concert, noted musicologist Steven Ledbetter will speak about the importance of these operas and the verismo movement. The lecture and performance are sponsored by Concert Opera Boston.

Tenor Michael Hayes, who was Samson in Chorus pro Musica’s electrifying 2005 performance of Samson et Dalila, will sing the roles of Turridu in Cavalleria Rusticana and Canio in I Pagliacci. Also featured are Layna Chianakas (Santuzza), Maryann Mootos (Nedda), Jason Stearns (Tonio), David Murray (Alfio), Joshua Benaim (Silvio), and Jacque Wilson (Lola), as well as the New England Conservatory Children’s Chorus, Jean Meltaus, Director.

Exuberant, dramatic, poignant and lyrical, these two great works revolutionized the direction and sound of opera when they appeared in the 1890s. Though still favorites in the opera repertory, they have not been heard together in Boston since 1997, when Chorus pro Musica last performed them.

Chorus pro Musica, under the direction of Jeffrey Rink, has performed a concert opera each year (except in its 50th anniversary season) since 1994, when the chorus thrilled Boston audiences with Aida. This tradition has been maintained through the support of Concert Opera Boston, the sponsor of this year’s concert.

Concert tickets are $30, $45 and $60, with discounts available on selected seats for groups, students, seniors and WGBH members. A limited number of $15 student rush seats (with ID) available an hour and a half before the performance. Reserved seats may be selected and tickets purchased on the web at www.choruspromusica.org, or by phone (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) at 800-658-4CPM (800-658-4276). For complete information, see the concert press release and the concert information page.

Chorus pro Musica presents J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion with period instrument orchestra

See the press release; hear the radio spot (produced by WHRB 95.3 FM).

Two weeks before Good Friday, on March 23, 2007, Chorus pro Musica will perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s dramatic and moving setting of Christ’s Passion according to St. John. The first of Bach’s two surviving Passion settings, the St. John Passion is not heard as often as his later St. Matthew Passion setting. The CpM performance will be only the third Boston performance by a major chorus in the past decade.

The St. John Passion was first performed in Leipzig on Good Friday, 1724. It was one of Bach’s first compositions there, and came after a difficult time that included the sudden death of his first wife and his departure from a position as a court musician. The citizens of Leipzig were wary of “operatic” music in church, but Bach nonetheless gave them a vivid drama, alternating arias, recitatives and choruses on biblical texts with chorales and hymns that interpret the story. The work includes ferocious crowd scenes and some of the most difficult — and expressive — arias Bach ever wrote.

CpM women perform with Longwood Symphony Orchestra

On Saturday, March 10, 2007, women of Chorus pro Musica were featured with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Claude Debussy’s Nocturnes.

Chorus pro Musica featured in 2006–2007 Catalogue for Philanthropy

Chorus pro Musica was one of 45 cultural, environmental, and human service organizations selected in 2006–2007 from throughout Massachusetts to be profiled as “examples of excellence” in the Catalogue for Philanthropy.

Chorus pro Musica on Fox 25 morning news

On Tuesday, December 19, members of the chorus appeared on the Fox 25 Morning News. Click here to see the performance! (requires the Macromedia Flash 8 player).

A free Holiday concert!

On Monday, November 27 at 7 PM, at The Perkins School, 175 N. Beacon St, Watertown, Chorus pro Musica presents its annual Perkins School holiday concert, featuring choral works and carols from the December 22 concert, "An English Christmas". The concert is free and open to the public, and is in the Howe building auditorium. The program will be short (approximately 30 minutes) but lively. For further information, call 617-267-7442.

Chorus pro Musica celebrates the holidays with An English Christmas, featuring Benjamin Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols”

Read all about it! — in the concert announcement.

Chorus pro Musica opens season with Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Chorus and Henryk Górecki’s Miserere

Concert details and more information about the program are on the concert’s press resources page.

Announcing the Chorus pro Musica 2006–2007 season

The season begins with the Mass for double chorus by Frank Martin, Henryk Górecki’s Miserere, and a beautiful setting by Herbert Murrill of the Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis on November 3, 2006; it also includes An English Christmas, featuring Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, on December 22, 2006; J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion, on March 23, 2007; and Cavalleria Rusticana (by Pietro Mascagni) and Pagliacci (by Ruggiero Leoncavallo) on June 3, 2007.

For more details see the announcement

Chorus pro Musica’s Attila receives top reviews

Boston Globe music critic Richard Dyer’s review was captioned “Rink, Chorus conquer with Attila”. Dyer wrote: “Verdi’s Attila is a brawling, lusty opera that got just that kind of performance from music director Jeffrey Rink, Chorus pro Musica, and an uninhibited cast on Sunday. … The Chorus pro Musica offered ringing tone and disciplined enthusiasm. The orchestra, full of veterans of Boston’s opera wars, played a fiery performance for Rink, who commands all the skills of operatic conducting. Like a conqueror he knows where he wants to go and how to inspire his troops to get there.”

Lloyd Schwartz of the Boston Phoenix wrote, “The Chorus itself shone as both ravenous Germanic cannibals and fervent hermits (I guess Verdi never saw the illogic of a group of hermits), and that was especially important because Verdi structures this opera around contrasting choruses. Rink’s superb orchestra played not only with unflagging energy but also with finesse. He shaped those musical arches and made every change in tempo tell. There wasn’t a dull second.”

Reviews of many CpM concerts are archived on the reviews page.

Chorus pro Musica performs the National Anthem at Fenway Park

Chorus pro Musica was asked to sing the national anthem for the Boston Red Sox before a June 11, 2006 game against the Texas Rangers.

This was the chorus’s second appearance at Fenway before a Red Sox game. The first, in September 2003, was part of the "Green Monster Gala" fundraiser, when a block of tickets were purchased in the then-new Green Monster seats.

Performers included Helen Sagan, Cathy Aude, Mary Wolf, Janet Saad, Jessen Langley, Shops Howard, Beth Goldman Galer, Vera Ryen Gregg, Sharon Magnuson, Portia Walker, Beth Wharff, Alison Palmer, Christine Kodis, Susan Kendall Freiner, Rosalind Cresswell, Sarah Bastille, Margaret Braccio, Nina Saltus, Fritz Casselman, Jonathan Rosoff, Ron Severson, Philip Russom, Reg Didham, Steve Bloom, Bruce McCuen, Chip Hitchock, Jim Cadorette, Carl Erdly, Colin Godfrey, Richard Oedel, Adrian Packel, David Godkin, and Paul Kowal.

Contact us at:

Peter Pulsifer, Concert Promotion
Chorus pro Musica
645 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
Tel. (617) 267-7442
EMAIL: promotion@choruspromusica.org
WEB: www.choruspromusica.org

For press inquiries, please contact

Toni Ballard
508-633-8583
toniballard@townisp.com