Chicago Symphony Chorus
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The Chicago Symphony Chorus began on September 22, 1957, when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announced that Margaret Hillis would organize and train a symphony chorus. The music director Fritz Reiner's original intent was to utilize the chorus for the two weeks of subscription concerts that season, performing George Frideric Handel's Messiah in December and Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem in April. When Bruno Walter informed the orchestra's management that his March 1958 appearances would be his last in Chicago, the board president, Eric Oldberg, insisted that Walter conduct Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem utilizing the new chorus. During that first season, it was logistically impossible for Hillis to audition and prepare a new Chorus for three major works within less than four months. As an interim fix, the Apollo Chorus of Chicago was used for the Christmas Messiah concerts.
History
The Chicago Symphony Chorus gave its informal debut at a private concert for donors on November 30, 1957. Reiner conducted the first half of the concert and Hillis took the podium for the second half, becoming the first woman to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She led the orchestra and chorus in the final section of Henry Purcell's Ode for Saint Cecilia’s Day, Randall Thompson's Alleluia and William Billings's Modern Music, and the "Servants' Chorus" from Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.
Eighty-one-year-old Bruno Walter led the chorus in its official debut concerts at Orchestra Hall on March 13 and 14, 1958, a performance of Mozart's Requiem. A few weeks later, on April 3, 4,and 8, 1958, Reiner himself led the chorus for the first time in a performance of Verdi's Requiem.
The chorus made its first commercial recording for RCA — Sergei Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky - on March 7, 1959, with Fritz Reiner conducting the orchestra. The chorus made its Ravinia Festival debut on July 9, 1960, a performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) conducted by the CSO's associate conductor and Ravinia Festival artistic director Walter Hendl. The chorus had its first Carnegie Hall appearance on November 12, 1967, singing Hans Werner Henze's The Sicilian Muses and Maurice Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe with Jean Martinon conducting.
The chorus' first tour with the orchestra was to London and Salzburg in August 1989. They performed
Chicago Symphony Orchestra recordings featuring the chorus have won ten
Margaret Hillis led the chorus as director for 37 years and retired in 1994. Duain Wolfe became the chorus's second director in June 1994. He retired from this position at the end of February 2022. [2]
Chorus directors
- Margaret Hillis (1958–1994)
- Duain Wolfe (1994–2022)
Honors and awards
Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance
- Missa solemnis
- A German Requiem
- 1982 - Sir Georg Solti, conductor and Margaret Hillis, chorus director: BERLIOZ The Damnation of Faust
- 1983 - Sir Georg Solti, conductor and Margaret Hillis, chorus director: HAYDN The Creation
- A German Requiem
- 1986 - James Levine, conductor and Margaret Hillis, chorus director: ORFF Carmina Burana
- Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
References
- ^ "CSO Resound".
- ^ "After 28 Years, Chicago Symphony Chorus Director Duain Wolfe Gives a 'Joyous Farewell'". www.wfmt.com. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
External links
- Official website
- "A new factor in the city’s musical life": The Founding of the Chicago Symphony Chorus
- Margaret Hillis and the Chicago Symphony Chorus
- Interview with Margaret Hillis by Bruce Duffie, July 1986