The Masterwork Chorus
Upcoming Concerts
Our Mission
The Masterwork Chorus is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to enriching and supporting the cultural life of the community through professional-level choral performances and the promotion of music education.
Masterwork Goals
- Produce professional-level performances of diverse character and appeal;
- Promote music education;
- Collaborate with other organizations;
- Support the arts community;
- Engage in community outreach; and
- Strengthen The Masterwork Chorus and its organization.
Our History
Founded in May 1955, The Masterwork Chorus is a not-for-profit Morris County, New Jersey based organization. In October 1955 (two months after the first rehearsal), The Masterwork Chorus' first performance was Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra at Newark's Symphony Hall. The chorus' second concert was in January 1956, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Mozart's birth, with a program which consisted of Mozart's Requiem and excerpts from The Magic Flute. David Randolph served as The Masterwork Chorus' first Music Director and Conductor until his retirement in 1992.
Director: Andrew Megill
Andrew Megill is recognized as one of the leading choral conductors of his generation, known for his passionate artistry and unusually wide-ranging repertoire, extending from early music to newly-composed works.
Mr. Megill currently holds four significant positions in the world of choral music. As Music Director of the Masterwork Chorus, one of metropolitan New York's finest volunteer choirs, Mr. Megill has conducted the major choral-orchestral repertoire in the regions' finest halls, including Avery Fisher and Carnegie Halls.
Since 1989, Mr. Megill has served as Artistic Director of Fuma Sacra, Ensemble-in-residence at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, recognized as "one of America's leading professional ensembles specializing in Renaissance and Baroque vocal music" whose performances leave the audience "gasping in amazement" (Classical New Jersey). He has led Fuma Sacra in the American premieres of many forgotten masterworks of the choral repertory, including Antonio Caldara's Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo, Francisco Guerrero's Missa puer natus est nobis, Messe Solenelle of Heinrich Isaac, cantatas by Johann Pachelbel, Georg Philipp Telemannan, and the Missa Dei Filii of Jan Dismas Zelenka.. Mr. Megill's frequent performances of the music of J. S. Bach have been particularly admired; he has conducted all the major Bach choral works and over fifty of the cantatas with Fuma Sacra and the Westminster and Dublin Bach Festivals. Fuma Sacra has collaborated with many of the regions' finest period instrument ensembles, including Piffaro, Tempesta di Mare, and Brandywine Baroque.
For the past eleven years, Mr. Megill has served as chorusmaster for the operas of the Spoleto Festival USA, where his work has been praised for producing "the finest opera chorus in the world" (Charleston Post and Courier). In this capacity he has prepared the Westminster Choir for operas by Beethoven, Bellini, Berg, Walter Braunfels (the American premiere of Die Vogel), Handel, Henze, Janacek, Mozart, Puccini, Purcell, Strauss (Der Rosenkavalier, with soprano Renata Scotto), Verdi, and Kurt Weill (the American premiere and first recording of Die Burgschaft) conducted by Yves Abel, Spiros Argiris, Richard Bradshaw, Joseph Flummerfelt, Grant Llewellyn, Julius Rudel, Stephen Sloane, and Emmanuel Villaume. In his work for the Spoleto Festival, he has collaborated with many leading stage directors, including Christopher Alden, Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser, Giulio Chazalettes, Paul Curran, Jonathan Eaton, Gunter Kramer, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Keith Warner, Chen Shi-Zheng, and has conducted the Spoleto Festival Orchestra as part of the 2002 Festival in a concert of works by Tippett, Ives, and Britten. Mr. Megill has also prepared opera choruses for the Berkshire Opera, conducted by Joel Revzen, and the Juilliard Opera Center, conducted by Julius Rudel.
As Associate Professor at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, Mr. Megill conducts the Westminster Kantorei, a chamber choir founded last year. Highlights of the coming season include a series of concerts in Princeton and New York City, including performances of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 and Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri, and Song of Songs cycles by Palestrina and Daniel-Lesur. He has been conductor of both the Westminster Singers and the Westminster Chapel Choir, and was Associate Conductor of the Westminster Symphonic Choir for eleven years. In this capacity, he assisted in preparing dozens of performances and recordings of choral-orchestral works with the world's leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, and Philadelphia Orchestra, under such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Colin Davis, Loren Maazel, Zdenek Macal, Kurt Masur, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and Robert Shaw.
Mr. Megill has prepared choruses for many of the world's leading orchestras and conductors, including the American Composers' Orchestra and Dennis Russell Davies (Beethoven and Glass); American Symphony and Leon Botstein (works by Shostakovich and Prokofiev; the American premiere of Weill's Eternal Road, parts III and IV; Rachmaninov's The Bells and the American premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara's On The Last Frontier; a concert of works by Frederich Nietzsche; and a concert of twelve-tone music by Eisler and Henze; Cleveland Orchestra and Pierre Boulez (Wagner); the Dresden Philharmonic and Rafael Fruhbeck du Burgos (Brahms Requiem), National Symphony and Zdenek Macal (Verdi Requiem), New Jersey Symphony and Neemi Jarvi; the New York Philharmonic and Charles Dutoit (Berlioz) and Alan Gilbert (Handel); the Spoleto Festival Orchestra and Joseph Flummerfelt and Emmanuel Villaume; and the Mark Morris Dance Company and Jane Glover and Craig Smith (Handel and Virgil Thompson).
Mr. Megill's passion for the choral art extends to works by living composers. He has conducted world and regional premieres of works by Richard Rodney Bennett, Andrew Bleckner, Paul Chihara, Peter Maxwell Davies, Jon Magnussen, Arvo Pärt, Stephen Paulus, Lewis Spratlan, Stephen Stuckey, and Augusta Read Thomas.
Mr. Megill has also had the pleasure of collaborating with folk singer Judy Collins and film director Ridley Scott.
Associate Director: Tom Cunningham
Associate Conductor Thomas Cunningham holds a master's degree in choral conducting from Westminster Choir College of Rider University, where he has served as adjunct assistant professor of conducting, and a bachelor's degree in Music from Yale University.
He is the founder of the Manhattan Choral Ensemble, an auditioned ensemble of 40 singers from all areas of New York City now in its eighth season. With the MCE, Mr. Cunningham has performed major works by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Copland, and Stravinsky in historic and culturally significant churches and halls throughout the city. Through its New Music for New York commissioning project, the MCE has commissioned eleven new choral works from area composers over the last three years, and in 2004, the MCE was featured on the soundtrack to the film The Manchurian Candidate under Mr. Cunningham's direction.
Mr. Cunningham has also directed the Dartmouth College Chamber Singers and the Boston Choral Ensemble.
ReachOut!
With the 1998-1999 season, The Masterwork Chorus' program of Community Outreach was formalized as ReachOut! This program of community outreach is focused on presenting short choral performances for those groups within our community who might otherwise be unable to hear the chorus in a standard venue. ReachOut! seeks to reach senior citizens, patients in hospitals and nursing facilities, young audiences, and the disadvantaged of our community.
Board of Directors
The Masterwork Board of Directors is elected each year by the Chorus membership and, along with our Music Director, directs all activities of the Chorus. Below are Board members for the 2007-2008 concert year (executive committee members identified by their positions):
Becky Adams
Mary Lou Burde
Marty Carson (Secretary)
Mary Pat Finucane
Alexandra Fittin
Faith Frankel (At-Large Member)
Diane Grabowski (Vice President)
Kit Haines-Bornheimer (President)
Carlly Luckman
Tom Mazur
Erwin Petri
Nancy Rothman
Carlene Seppala
Linda Spain
Kevin Thompson
Jean Turse
Andrew Walsh (Treasurer)
