The health of Choral Music

Robert Shaw

In October of 1995 I read an interesting interview with the noted choral conductor, William Hall. I had sung with Hall in the Master Chorale of Orange County for two seasons, and by the time I read this interview, I was singing in the Pacific Chorale. Singing then was a major part of who and what I was, and my love of choral music manifested itself in hard work during and outside of rehearsals, as well as the performances themselves. And I was a voracious student of anything that was recorded by Robert Shaw, a master of what is called The First Art.

Hall's interview touched on something that I felt keenly back then: the lack of education in choral music, and the decline in choral music. I had clipped out a section of his interview, which I kept. In reading it now, nearly 24 years later, Hall was really commenting on the lack of good basses in choral music - the kind of singers who can get down to a low F or even a D, and resonate. 

But at the time, I really felt that his interview pointed to a larger problem: the decline in choral music education, and subsequently, the decline in choral music. 

John Alexander

Now, to frame this, I must share with you my early choral background. I had been exposed as a child and youth to really excellent choral music. When my family moved to south Orange County in the mid-70's, I found a much different response to choral music. The surfing and skateboarding culture there looked down on the arts, and any young guy involved in singing was immediately tagged "gay". So, other than singing in my church's youth choir (which ironically, all the "cool" guys in church sang in the youth choir to pick up on the girls), I didn't sing in my school choir. My scope and understanding of choral music was limited. In my 20's I started to sing in a very fine church choir directed by an alumni of St. Olaf in Minnesota, and I started to listen to recordings done by Robert Shaw and his choral and orchestral forces in Atlanta. But my scope was still limited. By the time I had sung with Bill Hall for two seasons, and then joined the Pacific Chorale, I was finding that choral music was alive, but my perception was that it was still in decline. 

Paul Salamunovich

Now, some 20-plus years later, I'm finding that choral music is not only alive, but thriving here in Southern California. Within the microcosm of Orange County, we have not only the Pacific Chorale, but other very fine choral organizations such as Choral Arts Initiative, The Meistersingers, The Paul Delgado Singers, De Angelis Vocal Ensemble, Men in Blaque and the Orange County Women's Chorus. We also boast of several community choruses and barbershop choruses. These art organizations engage both listeners and singers on a level that really did not exist in the 80's and 90's. The greater Southern California region has the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Angeles Chorale, and many other pro- and semi-pro choral organizations. 

Robert Istad

All of these are fed by an educational system that could be looked at from the top down, with excellent music schools in the public sector (Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Long Beach, Cal State LA, Fullerton College, Orange Coast College) and with private schools (BIOLA University in La Mirada, Vanguard University in Costa Mesa and Concordia University in Irvine). These fine institutions are creating teachers with a passion for choral music who then take that passion into the classroom, from the intermediate level (I think of my friend Lorraine Joy Welling at Ball Intermediate in Anaheim) to the high school level (my friends Jeffrey Derus at Anaheim High School, Alan Garcia at Magnolia High School and Rachel Asmus at J Serra High School). These passionate and young choral musicians are creating an environment where they instruct more than just proper singing technique: they introduce their students to the wide repertoire of choral music from Bach to Whitacre; they teach basic musicianship; but mostly they create an environment of support and creativity that encourages their students to do more than just sing - they create an place where the music seeps into the souls of the young people, and these young people become the instructors and choral musicians of the future. 

Brandon Elliot

Not only is Southern California growing as a hotbed of choral music, with the internet, I've discovered through YouTube and social media outlets that there is a worldwide community of choral music lovers, artists and educators that are keeping this art form alive, and growing. The wonderful choral schools in the Midwest such as St Olaf and Concordia in Minnesota, Oberlin in Ohio, and the famed Westminster Choir College in New Jersey. The legacy of these fine institutions further creates students that then carry on the passion they learned from their instructors, and form their own choirs, such as The Singers-Minnesota Choral Artists, founded by Matthew Culloton, a graduate from Concordia University in Minnesota. 

But this world of choral music gets smaller with the ability to view videos on YouTube of choral groups from around the world. I am particularly fond of Trinity College Choir in the UK, and many of the fine choirs in that country that all stem from the great choir at Kings College in Cambridge. I've seen videos of symphonic choirs in Denmark and Germany that are inspiring.  

Yes, choral music is alive and well, and I'm so pleased to be in the midst of it.