Founded in 2010 by Dr. Brady Allred, the Salt Lake Vocal Artists, are the international ambassadors for the Salt Lake Choral Artists, an organization of seven choral ensembles and over 300 singers. They have won four First Prizes in Tolosa (Spain) and five First Prizes in Arezzo (Italy), and represented the US at the World Choral Symposium in Argentina. Recent concert tours have included Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan for the Karuizawa Festival with Ko Matsushita. They have commissioned over twenty works and collaborated with composers such as Ola Gjeilo, Eriks Esenvalds, Ko Matsushita, György Orbán, Josep Vila, Ivo Antognini, John Høybye and other. Their well-established presence on YouTube has captivated millions of viewers and their CD recordings are available on iTunes.
In the course of twenty years, Cantatrix has developed from a club of singing friends into a mature chamber choir, professionally performing in various concert series every year. Although under the leadership of conductor Geert-Jan van Beijeren Bergen en Henegouwen their sound has matured, it has basically remained unchanged. The secret of the choir: high individual singing abilities combined with the unity and the chemistry in the group.
The results speak for themselves: international tours have taken Cantatrix to concert venues in many countries and have brought growing recognition. England, Germany, Italy, France, Poland, Belarus, Finland, and all kinds of prizes at prestigious competitions and festivals. On a number of occasions the choir has even shared the programme with the famous King’s Singers.
The Musa Horti Chamber Choir was founded in 1989 by Marc and Peter Dejans. Today, it is a well-regarded, well-established choir and it performs regularly in Flanders, Belgium and abroad. Park Abbey, in Heverlee (Leuven), is both the home and the namesake of the choir – Musa Horti meaning ‘Muse of the Park’ in Latin. From the start, the choir has been conducted by Peter Dejans and is made up of some thirty singers.
The ensemble’s mission is to break new musical ground and to actively look for rarely performed. The ensemble commissions Flemish composers regularly, which has resulted in the recording of four CDs with music by Kurt Bikkembergs, Rudi Tas, Vic Nees and Sebastiaan Van Steenberge. In 2014 Musa Horti released a thematic CD (‘Aus der Tiefe’) with music about Life and Death, War and Peace, thus commemorating the centenary of the outbreak of World War I. The choir collaborated with composers like Sven-David Sandström and David Gorton and recorded the soundtrack for the movie Atlantic composed by Flemish composer Piet Swerts.
The WDR Radio Chorus of Cologne consists of 48 professional singers whose repertory spans from music of the middle ages to contemporary compositions, from sacred music to operetta, and from large scale oratorios with orchestra to soloistic vocal ensembles.
Especially noteworthy is the vocal ensemble’s occupation with contemporary music: over 140 world premières have been featured on their programmes, among them Schoenberg’s ‚Moses und Aron‘, Henze’s ‚Laudes‘, Stockhausen’s ‚Momente‘, Nono’s ‚Il canto sospeso‘, Boulez‘ ‚Le Visage Nuptial‘, Zimmermann’s ‚Requiem für einen jungen Dichter‘, Penderecki’s ‚Lukas-Passion‘, Xenakis‘ ‚Nuits‘, Berio’s ‚Coro‘, Höller’s ‚Der ewige Tag‘, Eötvös‘ ‚IMA‘ and Hosokawa’s ‚Die Lotosblume‘.
www.wdr.de/radio/orchester/rundfunkchor
The repertory of the Aachen Chamber Chorus, founded 1981, includes a cappella choral music from the Renaissance through to the avant-garde, yet also includes oratorio works from the Baroque and Romantic eras. In the contemporary scene, world premières and new music belong to the programme as well as the study of Jazz and Pop arrangements or folksong. Prizes have been awarded by international choral competitions in Austria, Hungary, and most recently first prize at the choral competition of North Rhine-Westphalia. The chorus has attended international chorus festivals in Italy and France, concert tours in many European countries, and radio recordings with WDR and SFB.
The chamber chorus Carmina Mundi (‚Songs of the World‘) was founded by Harald Nickoll in 1983. The chorus concentrates almost exclusively on a cappella works with a speciality in contemporary choral literature.
Aachener Bachverein is the oratorio choir of Evangelische Kirchengemeinde Aachen (protestant church). The choir consists of about 120 active members of all denominations and is considered as one of the most steeped-in-tradition art organisations of this region. Continuity and quality mark its contribution as „body of sound to Aachen’s music life“. Aachener Bachverein performs regularly the works of J. S. Bach and beyond that feels also obliged to the choral repertoire from the early Baroque to the present. As choir of Evangelische Kirchengemeinde, Aachener Bachverein performs church music in the Annakirche. In 2013 the choir celebrates its 100th anniversary.
The Kammerchor Aachener Bachverein performs fastidious works of all epochs after short intensive rehearsals. In addition, concert tours and broadcast recordings are taken regularly.