Choral Stream

Saturday, July 14 marks what would have been Woody Guthrie's 100th birthday. Enjoy this video from Classical MPR's Harmony in the Park event featuring several Minnesota vocal ensembles performing Guthrie's best-known song, "This Land is Your Land."

June 7th was a beautiful evening for an outdoor choral concert... and here's the proof: One Voice Mixed Chorus, Minnesota Boychoir, and VocalEssence at Minnehaha Park in front of a crowd of 2,000.

Where can one find ten Minnesota choir and vocal ensembles, singing all Minnesota composers, in one concert? It probably only happens once every 118 years, and it's happening Wednesday at Orchestra Hall for the Opening Gala Concert of Chorus America. Tune in to Classical MPR at 8 p.m. on June 13 to hear the entire concert.

On Thursday, June 7, 2012, Minnesota Public Radio held its first Harmony in the Park, an annual, outdoor choral event. One Voice Mixed Chorus, the Minnesota Boychoir, and VocalEssence were all on hand. Enjoy these photos from the event.

As Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee celebrations kick off, former King's Singer Tony Holt has been reminiscing about being a boy soprano in the coronation day choir at Westminster Abbey, and how he started singing in the first place.

In celebration of the North American choral conference in Minneapolis this June, VocalEssence and Chorus America are producing Sing Minneapolis! hosted by Don Shelby and conducted by Garrison Keillor.

The Twin Cities Compline Choir gathers for a monastic service that dates from the 6th century, a service for the close of the day or Compline.

The St Olaf Choir celebrated its 100 anniversary with a mid-winter tour. The highlights of which are in this week's Regional Spotlight. Anton Armstrong leads the choir and orchestra of St Olaf College students in the Bach motet: Sing to the Lord a New Song, and the world premiere of a work written especially for the centennial celebration of the St Olaf Choir by St Olaf alumnus, Minnesota composer, Ralph M. Johnson: On Horizon's Brim.

Johannes Brahms, like all composers, had a "day job." Brahms was the music director of several singing societies in Vienna. Pouring all of his melodic gifts into numerous works for choir, the choral pieces from his late fifties are especially filled with a kind of nostalgic golden glow. The South Dakota Chorale led by Charles Bruffy brings a slow-burning, mature passion to a performance of Brahms Four Quartets Op 92. Their performance from January 14 at Dordt College is in this week's Regional Spotlight.

For the holiday, the first three parts of Johann Sebastian Bach's beloved Christmas Oratorio - from Dresden, where an annual performance of this inspired music is a treasured tradition. Tune in on Sunday, December 25 at 1:00 p.m. to hear this joyful work.