​Considering Matthew Shepard - October 21 & 22, 2023
Holidays from the Iberian Peninsula - December 15 & 16, 2023
Choral Splendor: Old & New - March 2 & 3, 2024
 
The upcoming 2023/24 season for Cleveland Chamber Choir, Northeast Ohio’s leading professional choral ensemble, continues the choir’s mission of performances of unique and diverse repertoire, blending music by living composers with six centuries of choral tradition, and emphasizing the works of composers historically excluded from the concert hall.
 
All concerts are presented free of charge, with the choir’s philosophy that choral music is a vehicle for good in the world that should be accessible and welcoming to all. The concert lineup showcases CCC’s profound commitment to social awareness and advocacy. The choir will partner with local charities during the season, including QYou, a program supporting queer youth through the LGBT Center of Cleveland. Please consider supporting the future and mission of Cleveland Chamber Choir.
 
The season opens with Craig Hella Johnson’s modern oratorio, Considering Matthew Shepard, on October 21 & 22. This poignant composition masterfully intertwines passages from Shepard’s personal journal, interviews with his parents, and texts from renowned figures such as Rumi and Hildegard of Bingen in a panoply of musical styles. As noted by The Washington Post, the oratorio’s evocative portrayal, “demonstrates music’s unparalleled power to encompass, transform, and transcend tragedy.”  The Choir will be joined by Lakewood High School Chamber Choir for these performances, under the direction of Rayna Brooks.
 
“Matthew Shepard’s story touched so many of us, and remains shockingly timely even as we approach the 25th anniversary of his death,” said Gregory Ristow, the Choir’s newly announced Artistic Director. “Johnson’s remarkable telling of it invites us all to a place of compassion and understanding, that is only heightened by his music.”
 
Considering Matthew Shepard will be performed twice: Saturday, October 21, 2023, at 7:00 pm at Avon Lake UCC, 32801 Electric Blvd. in Avon Lake and Sunday, October 22, 2023, at 4:00 pm at Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave. in Cleveland. 
Click here to reserve your free tickets for these concerts.
 
Considering Matthew Shepard could not be presented without the significant support of Avon Lake United Church of Christ and Music & Art at Trinity Cathedral Cleveland. “Trinity Cathedral is honored to host the Cleveland Chamber Choir’s performance of Considering Matthew Shepard,” stated Cathedral Music Director and Organist Todd Wilson. “The subject matter aligns strongly with Trinity’s own sense of mission, and we feel that hosting this program is an essential part of our outreach to the wider Cleveland community.” The concerts promise to be a moving tribute to Matthew Shepard’s legacy while fostering hope and compassion for queer youth facing increased adversity today.
 
In December, the choir returns to present Holidays from the Iberian Peninsula. In the festive spirit of the season, the Cleveland Chamber Choir will celebrate the rich history of carols, villancicos, ensaladas, and Sephardic music from Spain and Portugal. The choir’s exploration delves deep into the Iberian musical heritage, weaving together a compelling narrative that pays homage to centuries of musical traditions. 
 
“The ensaladas by Matteo Flecha that we’ll perform are as close to rock music as you get in the early Baroque era,” said Ristow, “and the name of the genre really does mean salad, because each piece is like a tossed salad of languages and both secular and sacred musical styles.”
 
Of note are the long neglected works of Vicente Lusitano, an Afro-Portuguese composer and music theorist, and contemporary of Palestrina, whose compositions were historically excluded due to his race. 
 
“Lustino’s music is some of the most striking and beautiful of the High Renaissance, and it’s only in the past several years that it has been rediscovered by choirs,” said Ristow. “We’re excited to share it with Cleveland audiences for the first time.”
 
The first performance of this cycle will take place on Friday, December 15, 2023, at 8:00pm at Fairchild Chapel, on the campus of Oberlin College & Conservatory, 50 W. Lorain St. in Oberlin. A second will be given on Saturday, December 16, 2023, at 7:00 pm at First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland, 3630 Fairmount Blvd. in Cleveland. 
 
The season concludes with the March 2 & 3 performances of Choral Splendor: Old & New, a captivating exploration of how today’s composers reimagine great music from the past as new compositions. The program will feature works by contemporary composers, including Caroline Shaw, Claudia Hinsdale, and Andrew Rindfleisch, reflecting on works by Dietrich Buxtehude, Gregorio Allegri, and Sebastián de Vivanco. Continuing the choir’s mission of commissioning the works of living composers, these concerts will include two world premieres from Northeast Ohio composers: a co-commission with Oberlin College & Conservatory by Jeff Scott, co-founder of Imani Winds, and a commission from Cleveland State University student Joshua Estok.
 
There are two opportunities to see this concert, the first on Saturday, March 2, 2024, 7:00pm at First Lutheran Church, 1019 W. 5th St. in Lorain, and the second on Sunday, March 3, 2024, 4:00pm at First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland, 3630 Fairmount Blvd. in Cleveland. Additional support for the March concerts comes from the Bascom Little Fund, whose generous contributions have furthered the choir’s artistic endeavors.
 
Prior to each concert this season, Charles Edward McGuire, PhD, from Oberlin College & Conservatory, will present a pre-concert talk, offering insightful perspectives on the music to be performed that evening. He will delve into the historical context of the works performed, as well as techniques the composers used. A distinguished scholar and captivating speaker, McGuire's pre-concert talks promise to heighten the appreciation and understanding of the music for the listeners. “I am looking forward to this season, and the future of CCC: Greg has created an incredible program of provocative, beautiful music that will be as fun to talk about as it will be to hear,” McGuire remarked. “And his choices bode well for a strong future for CCC.” 
 
The choir is grateful for the full season support provided by the the Cleveland Foundation, Ohio Arts Council, and Local 4 Music Fund. From Amber Rogers, Executive Director, “The Music Fund is thrilled to collaborate with CCC on another season and is honored to support their artistic vision and pursuit of choral excellence.”

The Cleveland Chamber Choir, founded in 2015 by Artistic Director Scott MacPherson, presents
exceptional performances, blending music by living composers with choral classics, and emphasizing
works of composers historically excluded from the concert hall. We offer a vibrant and thought-
provoking listening experience as diverse, innovative, and varied as our audience. Over the course of
seven seasons, the Choir has commissioned and/or given world or United States premieres of over
thirty works. The Cleveland Chamber Choir brings performing artists, administrators, and audience
members together in the philosophy that choral music is a vehicle for good in the world.

On October 8, 2022, Cleveland Chamber Choir and BlueWater Chamber Orchestra join forces in
their long-awaited collaborative concert Heaven and Earth. Originally scheduled for May 2020, but
canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both organizations will open their respective seasons
with this concert. Drawing on their ability to present master choral works for chamber orchestra and
chorus, the two groups will perform under the direction of both Gregory Ristow, Associate
Professor of Conducting and Director of Vocal Ensembles at Oberlin College & Conservatory, and
Daniel Meyer, Artistic Director of BlueWater Chamber Orchestra. This concert will feature Ludwig
van Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, Op. 86 and American composer Gwyneth Walker’s emotionally
intense The Golden Harp, featuring Ideastream Public Media’s John Mills as narrator.

Saturday, October 8, 2022 at 7:30pm at Church of the Covenant, 11205 Euclid Ave, Cleveland.

Free-will donations accepted. A pre-concert talk will be presented by Charles Edward McGuire,
PhD, from Oberlin College & Conservatory, 30 minutes before the performance. This concert is
sponsored in part by Ohio Arts Council and the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation.

November 12, 2022 features an octet of the Cleveland Chamber Choir performing as part of the
music series at St. Ambrose Parish. Words of Gratitude will explore choral music celebrating themes
of life and gratitude. This concert will highlight singers from the ensemble that are also choral
conductors. Featured composers include Ysaye Barnwell, Lisa Levine, Troy Robertson, Moira
Smiley, Carol Barnett, and Mickey McGroarty.

Saturday, November 12 at 6:00pm at St. Ambrose Catholic Church, 929 Pearl Rd, Brunswick. FREE

December 16, 17, and 18, 2022 will bring Winter Carols and Lullabies, showcasing the Cleveland
Chamber Choir under the direction of Jelani Watkins in a concert with more than two-thirds of the
works being from the twentieth or twenty-first centuries. The central features of this concert will be
the world premiere of newly-composed holiday carols by Ryan Farrell, a performance of two works
by Dolores White, and a commissioned Hanukkah piece by Mickey McGroarty – all three Northeast
Ohio composers. The concert will also intersperse Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols with carols
arranged by 21st century composers.

Friday, December 16 at 7:30pm at St. Sebastian Church, 476 Mull Ave, Akron.
Saturday, December 17 at 7:00pm at St. Peter Catholic Church, 1533 Superior Ave, Cleveland.
Sunday, December 18 at 4:00pm at Disciples Christian Church, 3663 Mayfield Rd, Cleveland Heights.

Free-will donations accepted. A pre-concert talk will be presented by Charles Edward McGuire,
PhD, from Oberlin College & Conservatory, 30 minutes before each performance. This concert is
sponsored in part by The Mandel Foundation.

Of Sound Mind: From Darkness into Light will be a concert devoted to enduring mental health
issues and finding solace, relief, healing. On February 18 & 19, 2023, CCC will present repertoire
from diverse composers, representing a number of neurodivergent and mental health viewpoints,
including works by Lelia Adu-Gilmore, Giulio De Carlo, Eliza Gilkyson, Elaine Hagenberg, Shawn
Kirchner, Don MacDonald, Jake Runestead, Joan Szymko, Santiago Veros, and Eric Whitacre.

Saturday, February 18 at 7:30pm at St. Noel Church, 35200 Chardon Rd, Willoughby Hills.
Sunday, February 19 at 3:00pm at the Maltz Performing Arts Center, 1855 Ansel Rd, Cleveland.
Free tickets may be reserved at case.edu/maltzcenter

Free-will donations accepted. A pre-concert talk will be presented by Charles Edward McGuire,
PhD, from Oberlin College & Conservatory, 30 minutes before each performance. This concert is
sponsored in part by Ohio Arts Council.

April 2, 2023 brings the final concert of the eighth season, and will be a collaborative concert with
the Cleveland Composers’ Guild. Building off of our successful collaboration with CCG in our
fourth season, Le Monde Musical will feature works both by members of this organization, as well
as Francophone choral music from all over the globe. The first half of the concert will include juried
works from the Guild. The second half of the concert will feature the music of France and France
Outre Mer, including classic French choral repertoire by composers Lili Boulanger, Lionel Daunais,
Claude Debussy, Sydney Guillaume, and Paul Hindemith, among others. This concert will showcase
the best compositional talents in our region, demonstrating how their music works in tandem with
established choral masterworks from around the world.

Sunday, April 2 at 4:00pm at Drinko Hall, Cleveland State University, 2001 Euclid Ave, Cleveland.
​
Free-will donations accepted. A pre-concert talk will be presented by Charles Edward McGuire,
PhD, from Oberlin College & Conservatory, 30 minutes before the performance.

Cleveland Chamber Choir Announces Top Choral Award
 
We are incredibly delighted and humbled to announce that the Cleveland Chamber Choir has won the top prize at the World Youth and Children Choral Artists’ Association’s World Choir Festival (www.wyccaa.com/2021wcf). The “Choir of the World Award” was presented to the top performing group in an online festival that saw competition by almost 200 international choirs and adjudication by 50 international jury members. In addition to this wonderful award, our performance of Andrew Rindfleisch’s I Sing to Use the Waiting and Linda Kachelmeier’s O vos omnes also earned us the award for “Most Musically Moving Performance,” and our Artistic Director Scott MacPherson was designated as an “Outstanding Conductor.” 
 
Thank you to the WYCCAA and all of the judges for this wonderful recognition, and congratulations to all participating groups on their beautiful performances. We are deeply honored.
 
 
Cleveland Chamber Choir Announces 2021-2021 Seventh Season
 
As we return to live, in-person performances, the Cleveland Chamber Choir is pleased to announce our 2021-2022 Seventh Season.
 
On December 11 & 12, 2021, we will unveil a holiday program with music of thanksgiving as well as carols from around the world. Continuing our commitment to performing the music of living composers, this concert will include another Hannukah song commission by local composer Corey K. Rubin. This will complete his triptych, and we are proud to present it in its entirety.
 
Renowned and award-winning British composer Cecilia McDowall will travel to Cleveland in February for a series of master classes and rehearsals, which will culminate in “Cecilia and Her World”, with two performances on February 26 & 27, 2022. Central to these concerts celebrating her choral works will be a newly-commissioned piece. These concerts will also include music she considers influential to her own style. McDowall won the British Composer Award for Choral Music in 2014 and, more recently, the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Works Collection in 2021. Her works are performed worldwide.
 
From Cecilia McDowall, “It is a real pleasure to write for a choir like Cleveland Chamber Choir with its passion for making choral music a vehicle for good, and I very much hope that the piece that we will create together will live up to those expectations. I am looking forward to starting work on it in the coming months and later to meeting the choir and hearing it sung.”
 
Additionally, several collegiate choirs will join us, all performing McDowall’s music. Prior to the concerts, McDowall and CCC Artistic Director Scott MacPherson will do master classes with these choirs. Each choir will sing one McDowall composition by themselves and join CCC for a final, massed choir performance of one of McDowall’s other works. In presenting this concert, CCC is building on a model that was successful in their fifth season: collaborating with school choirs in concert, which helps to show younger singers that their singing can be a lifelong profession and avocation, and that they are able to make music at an extraordinary level throughout their lives, should they wish to do so.
 
Lastly, our June 11 & 12, 2022 concerts, “World of Doubt, World of Faith” appropriately closes our season with music both questioning existence and demonstrating the resilience of the human race. Central to this program is Adam Roberts’ (Kent State University) multi-movement work for 16-part choir, viola and percussion called Book of Doubt/Book of Faith, setting secular, feminist “psalms” by poet Claire Schwartz that are relevant to our time and connected to Jewish history. The concerts will also feature a diverse repertoire of music that amplifies the voices of all, including composers traditionally underrepresented in the classical music world. 

​Cleveland Chamber Choir is pleased to announce the hiring of Corey Fowler as the organization’s first Assistant Conductor. Now approaching their sixth season under Artistic Director and co-founder Scott MacPherson, Cleveland Chamber Choir has grown to include over ten performances and outreach programs each year, as well as frequent collaborations with other Northeast Ohio organizations, including BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, The Cleveland Art Museum, Cleveland Composers Guild, Cleveland State University, Kent State University, Oberlin Choristers, and Kent Roosevelt High School ChoralWorks.
 
 “On behalf of the Board of the Cleveland Chamber Choir, I am delighted to announce the appointment of Corey Fowler as Assistant Conductor,” said Melissa Vandergriff, Board President. “Corey has been an invaluable member of the CCC family since our debut concert in 2015. He is well connected to our community as a Kent State University graduate, as well as being Director of Choirs at Kent Roosevelt High School and Director of Music at Kent United Church of Christ. His strong Ohio roots and links to the community will help CCC strengthen our commitment to being More than Music! in Northeast Ohio.”
 
The addition of this new leadership role and the strong choral background that Fowler brings will free MacPherson to focus more fully on creating the extraordinary musical experiences that define the ensemble. “As Founding Artistic Director, it has been incredibly gratifying to see this wonderful professional choral organization grow and evolve in the cultural arts scene of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio during our first five short years. Singer and choral conductor Corey Fowler has been with us from the beginning, assisting me with many of the artistic decisions and rehearsals that have made us so successful,” said MacPherson. “I am so excited at this time that in addition to calling him friend and colleague, I can officially now call him Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Chamber Choir!”
 
As Assistant Conductor, Fowler will work closely with MacPherson and Managing Director Kira McGirr in many of the artistic and logistical duties in planning for concerts and seasons. “As a singer in the Cleveland Chamber Choir over the past few years, I have come to love the wonderful music we make and the great people that make up our organization,” said Fowler. “I am excited to continue singing with CCC and assist our Artistic Director, Scott MacPherson, in advancing our mission and musical offerings to the Cleveland community.”
 
About Corey Fowler
Corey Fowler joins Cleveland Chamber Choir as Assistant Conductor effectively immediately. His other roles include Director of Choirs at Theodore Roosevelt High School and the Director of Music and Organist at Kent United Church of Christ. Fowler previously taught at Grand Valley Middle School and High School in Orwell, Ohio (Ashtabula County). He earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education and a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting, both at Kent State University. He is a member of the Ohio Music Education Association and is an active vocal and choral adjudicator within the organization. Fowler has sung in the chorus of Opera Cleveland’s productions of Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Giovanni, and La Bohème, and has performed with the Nightingale Opera Theatre in Hudson, Ohio. In addition to his new role, Fowler also sings bass in CCC, and is the graphic designer for much of the organization’s print and digital media. He lives in Kent with his wife, Katie, a classical vocalist and voice teacher and member of CCC; their daughters Clara and Nora; and their rescue pit bulls, Bruno and Suzette.