Chamber Choir and Touring Choirs
In addition to the full chorus, Masterwork sponsors two smaller ensembles. All members of the Masterwork Chorus are eligible to audition for these ensembles.
Chamber Choir
The Masterwork Chamber Choir is a mixed ensemble of around 24 voices. Members should be experienced choral singers with good singing and reading skills and a passion for ensemble singing. The Chamber Choir sings a wide variety of repertoire and leadership for the ensemble is shared by Andrew Megill and JD Burnett.
There will be three concerts in the 2008 – 2009 season featuring the Chamber Choir:
- December 7, 2:30 pm. Our annual holiday concert in the beautiful Holy Family Chapel at St Elizabeth’s, Convent Station. Repertoire will include Conrad Susa’s Carols and Lullabies: Music of the Southwest.
- March (exact date TBA). A collaboration with the Masterwork Touring Choir and the Concert Choir of Westfield High School (our educational outreach partner this year). This concert will be a thematic concert featuring music about birds (including works about blackbirds by Bela Bartok and John Lennon, bluebirds by Stanford, roosters, sparrows, chickens and more).
- April 25. The Chamber Choir, in collaboration with the Westfield HS Choir and the Masterwork Orchestra, will sing Mendelssohn’s Verleih’ uns Frieden to open the Masterwork Chorus’ Elijah performance at Drew, under the baton of JD Burnett
The Chamber Choir rehearses only a few times before each concert (about 10 hours of rehearsal/concert); all members commit to learning the music outside of rehearsals.
Touring Choir
The Masterwork Touring Choir is a vocal chamber ensemble of approximately 12 voices. Members should be highly skilled readers; we expect that most will have degrees in music or significant musical/choral experience. The leadership will be shared by Andrew Megill and JD Burnett.
There will be three concerts in the 2008 – 2009 season featuring the Touring Choir:
- November 9. The Masterwork Chorus concert at Drew University (To The Stars) will include the Touring Choir singing excerpts from Robert Schumann’s Spanisches Liederspiel, conducted by Andrew Megill.
- February (exact date TBA) in collaboration with Dance Innovations, a Morris county dance company/school led by Sue Couts. The Touring Choir will sing about 45 minutes of music for this concert, including Morten Lauridsen’s Mid-winter Songs, which will also feature the dancers.
- March (exact date TBA). A collaboration with the Masterwork Chamber Choir and the Concert Choir of Westfield High School (our educational outreach partner this year). This concert will be a thematic concert featuring music about birds (including works about blackbirds by Bela Bartok and John Lennon, bluebirds by Stanford, roosters, sparrows, chickens and more).
The Touring Choir rehearses only a few times before each concert (about 10 hours of rehearsal/concert); all members commit to learning the music outside of rehearsals.
Membership Dues
Dues for membership in each of these groups is in addition to the dues for the main chorus.
