Northern Light and Thanksgiving break behind us, Chorale embarks now on a terrifying but exhilarating adventure—Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, reputed to be the most difficult work for singers in the standard repertoire

The event bears little resemblance to Advent and Christmas commemorations one is likely to find elsewhere in our area. Far from feeding the listeners’ desire for excitement, comfort, or nostalgia, the liturgical framework, the music, and the chapel building itself (one of the best acoustic spaces in the region) inspire reflection, soul-searching, and a sense of timeless peace.

Chicago Chorale soars in Baltic and Scandinavian music.

Sommarmusik i Piteå was one of the most interesting musical experiences of my life.

The Estonian composers featured on our upcoming concert program, Arvo Pärt and Urmas Sisask, reflect, each in his own way, The Singing Revolution, a series of politico/musical events which were instrumental in restoring the independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1991.

Chorale’s Norwegian language coach, Jone Hellesoy, began her first session with us, on Grieg’s Fire Salmer, with a disclaimer: Norwegian is not a unified language, and there is no one way to pronounce it.

Chorale’s current repertoire falls into three rough categories, with all kinds of overlap.

Chorale describes its Northern Light concert as focused on twentieth century music. Our earliest composer, Edvard Grieg (1843-1907), barely makes it under the wire.

Wicki has to deal with a merciless time corset: The music has to match the movie exactly - preferably to the centisecond. The consequence: minimal freedom, maximal concentration.

It has become almost a cliché, in the realm of serious choral music, to refer to the “Swedish Choral Miracle”-- the development, since World War II, of a phenomenally high-level choral culture, based in Sweden but spreading throughout the Scandinavian countries and east to Finland and the Baltic republics.

Chicago Chorale joins forces with the Lakeside Singers, the Chicago Children’s Choir, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under Ludwig Wicki's baton, to perform the soundtrack in a showing of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings at Ravinia Park

Chicago Chorale conceptualise l’amour du chant, propre aux véritables amateurs.

Here's what Chicago Chorale will sing on its concerts in Spain and France!

Chicago Chorale happened because I was unemployed and needed something to do, and friends encouraged me to take the risk.

In honor of our Tenth Anniversary Season, thirty-three members of Chorale will fly to Barcelona on June 17, travel north through France by bus as far as Cahors, and then take the train to Paris.

I see Bach as very much a man of his moment, because the diversity of the B Minor Mass feels to me like his particular version of the 18th-century curiosity cabinet -- a mélange of styles and modes that gathers together, in one place, a remarkable sampler of what was most curious, interesting, and best from his contemporary and historical musical scene.