Roadmap to the Blog

With new content being added every week, we thought we'd link to some of our favorite spots on this blog.

If you're interested in meeting our singers, check out our singer profiles! We feature two new singers each Friday so stop back later this week! If you sing with TWC and want to see yourself featured, click here to fill out a profile!

Many of our historic documents can be found in our History Vault - check out old programs, reviews and photos, including our first Washington Post review from 1961!

If you're hoping to hear The Washington Chorus at one of our upcoming concerts, click here for info on New Music for a New Age and Mostly Mahler.

And we hope you didn't miss this inspiring post from chorister Patti Tice, but if you did, or missed any others, scroll through the archives on the left side of the blog home page.

Thanks for stopping in, we are enjoying celebrating our 50th Anniversary Season with you!

PS. Don't forget to take the poll on the left - Why do YOU sing?


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Friday Profiles!

Ever wonder how several hundred people make it onto the same stage in single rows, at the same time, with the right music and happy faces? The one-word answer: Amy.

This week we feature her special "singer" profile, and one from the fabulous Soprano I section. Enjoy!

You can check out more singer profiles here, or click here to fill out a profile if you're a TWC singer yourself.

Meet Two More TWC Singers

To meet more singers, check out our singer profile page, and be sure to check back next Friday for two more.

Are you a TWC singer? Click here to fill out a profile and be featured here!

Special Memories

Guest Blogger: Patti Tice, Alto I

I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to sing with The Washington Chorus for more than 25 years. I’ve been singing all of my life, ever since my parents would start singing rounds in the car when we were traveling somewhere to keep us four kids entertained. We all learned to harmonize before we started 1^st grade, and all have been singing ever since.

As an “old-timer” in this chorus, it’s so difficult to identify my favorite memories and performances. But a few certainly come to mind. I will never forget the tour to the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Austria in 2002 when we sang in Stephansdom, St. Stephens Cathedral in downtown Vienna where Mozart actually got married. Singing the Mozart Requiem there was certainly a risk, with the locals who know his music so well. But it was thrilling singing to a standing-room-only crowd, who gave us a standing ovation (not that common in Europe, whose audiences are typically more reserved than in the US). Mozart is one of my favorite composers because his music touches the soul in a way that few others do, whether it’s his moving Requiem or his more whimsical pieces, my spirits are always lifted after hearing or singing that music. And to be there in that setting, imagining what it would have been like when he was there, was a once in a lifetime experience.

Another remarkable performance was in Paris in 1996 at L’Èglise de la Madeleine, where we sang the Fauré Requiem, perhaps a risky move again, at Faure’s own church. He had written the Requiem specifically for that space and many of the chorus truly felt that he was actually there with us. Again, I can imagine what it would have felt like to be in that church listening to Fauré play that organ (from 1896-1905). And the truly remarkable experience was at the end of the concert when the ushers opened up the gigantic front doors to prepare for everyone’s exit. It was about sunset and the choristers had the perfect vantage point looking south down the avenue to see the Place de la Concorde gleaming in the sunlight. It was a spiritual experience and really took our collective breath away.

The chorus also has been a refuge for me in times of difficulty. About 10 years ago when I was going through treatments for breast cancer, coming to rehearsals and concerts was a reason for being, kept me going when I felt like I couldn’t, and lifted my spirits so many times. The friendships, the camaraderie, the support, and the music itself gave me the motivation and inspiration to keep moving forward.

I hope you’ll take a minute to explore this site; we’ve collected some of the most memorable parts of our history here. To see some images from the tours I mentioned above, and other historic moments from TWC’s first 50 years, take a look at our photo collection. It’s experiences like these, as well as others too many to count, that have kept me coming back year after year. I never would have imagined that this little preacher’s kid who sang rounds in the back seat of the car (that’s what I was doing 50 years ago!) would have had the good fortune to sing on world stages with world conductors with a group as life-giving as The Washington Chorus.

Friday Profiles!

Happy Friday! 

Want to get to know more singers? Click here! And be sure to check back next Friday for two more!

Early Introductions to Mahler

Guest Blogger: Lloyd Randolph

This calendar year’s first rehearsal promoted a conversation between tenor David Styers and me about how we loved Mahler’s music and when we first heard it. We then were teenagers living in small southern cities (he in college in North Carolina and I in high school in Kentucky). Listening to classical music on the local university’s public radio station, we heard a work we didn’t recognize but were exhilarated as choral wave after wave swept over us. We were attentive when the announcer intoned, “Mahler’s Symphony Number 2, Resurrection.”

David’s and my separate but similar introduction to Mahler’s music prompts some observations. Obviously, music moves teenagers, and they can even be moved by some music from far away in time and space. By educating us about such music, public radio has enriched our lives and deserves our support, at least as individuals.

Our similar introduction to Mahler also triggers questions about my fellow choristers. The overarching question is this: what prompts nearly 200 with diverse backgrounds and interests to devote so much unremunerated time and energy to The Washington Chorus?

At least part of the answer, of course, is our shared love of choral music. But musical affection alone would not push us from consuming to producing music. (After all, we could just enjoy the music by attending concerts and listening to recordings.)

With this post I hope to kick off a discussion about why we pursue our joint music-making. By exploring this question with choristers past and present, and perhaps even our friends and fans, I hope to deepen our appreciation of the ties that bind us.

Here are some possible explanations that occur to me:

1) We relish working collaboratively on (sometimes) difficult projects.

2) We want to hone a skill or put to use a talent that at least some of us do not use to earn our daily bread.

3) We crave the limelight of performing before thousands.

4) We enjoy spending time with our friends (and for some, even spouses) in the group.

5) We think Monday night football (or whatever else may be on television) is tedious.

6) We want to learn something new (yes, Julian, perhaps even a bit of music history or theory).

Which of these reasons ring true to you? And what accurate explanations have I omitted?