The Collegiate Chorale
Guest Vocal Ensemble

Founded in 1941 by Robert Shaw, The Collegiate Chorale has performed under the batons of such conductors as Toscanini, Bernstein, Maazel, Mehta, and Levine. With an established reputation for acclaimed interpretations of traditional choral repertoire and an ongoing commitment to American music and new works, many being commissions or premieres, Robert Bass, Music Director from 1980 until his death in 2008, expanded The Chorale's programming to include operas, operettas, and rarely-performed theater works in which the chorus plays a significant role, along with greater collaboration with internationally renowned artists. Current Music Director James Bagwell continues this model and vision.

Opera-in-concert highlights include American premieres of Dvorák's Dimitri and Handel's Jupiter in Argos; Gershwin's Porgy and Bess; Verdi's Nabucco, Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans, and the 2010 NY premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's opera The Grapes of Wrath. In the musical theater realm, The Chorale performed Weill's Knickerbocker Holiday in 2011, conducted by James Bagwell and directed by Ted Sperling, and created this work's first complete recording.  Other highlights in this category include Weill's The Firebrand of Florence, the NY premiere of Bernstein's A White House Cantata, Glass' The Juniper Tree, and Joplin's Tremonisha.

In 2005 the Chorale appeared at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland under the baton of James Levine, and returned to perform there in 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2011. In July 2008 The Chorale toured with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem, and will return with them to Israel and Salzburg in July, 2012.

Among the guest artists with whom The Chorale has performed are Martina Arroyo, Kathleen Battle, Stephanie Blythe, Victoria Clark, Mignon Dunn, Lauren Flanigan, Jane Fonda, Victor Garber, Nathan Gunn, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Sherrill Milnes, Kelli O'Hara, Roger Rees, Bryn Terfel, and Deborah Voigt.

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