The RI Children’s Chorus, founded in 2003 by Christine Noel and Joyce Wolfe, currently serves 180 students ages 7-18 in six ensembles.  Recent performances include Mahler, Symphony No. 3 with the RI Philharmonic and the Providence Singers, John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls with the RI College Orchestra and Chorus, collaborations with the choruses of Boston University, and performances at conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and Music Educators National Conference.

Christine Noel, Founder and Artistic Director

Christine Noel currently serves as Director of Choral Activities at Clark University, where she has recently led the students in performances of Messiah, Faure Requiem, and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. She is the Founding Artistic Director of the Rhode Island Children’s Chorus, which has performed at conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the Music Educators’ National Conference (MENC).  Noel also serves as Associate Conductor of the Providence Singers.  An active festival clinician and adjudicator, she holds a Master of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Boston University, where she was a student of Ann Howard Jones.

Founded in 1921, the Cornell University Chorus is Cornell’s premier treble voice ensemble. Under the direction of Professor Scott Tucker from 1995 – 2012, the ensemble has gained a reputation as one of the nation’s outstanding women’s choirs. Comprising fifty women from a variety of backgrounds, the Chorus performs a repertoire spanning eight centuries and ten languages, including masses, motets, spirituals, folk, and a variety of other classical and contemporary pieces. Since 2001, the Chorus has made a special point of commissioning new works from women composers with the goal of expanding the contemporary repertoire for treble voices.

The Chorus performs annually during Convocation, First-Year Family Weekend, Senior Week, Commencement, and Reunions Weekend. In addition, the Chorus boasts extensive experience in professional settings, working under the direction of Nadia Boulanger, Eugene Ormandy, Erich

Leinsdorf, Michael Tilson Thomas, Julius Rudel, and Karel Husa on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Academy of Music, and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The Chorus regularly joins with the Cornell University Glee Club to perform major works, including Verdi’s Requiem, Bach’s Mass in B minor, Bernstein’s MASS, and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem.

The ensemble has made numerous successful tours of New England, the Midwest, the Southeastern United States, California, and Canada. The Chorus also travels to other universities for competitions and festivals; the women have performed at Harvard for the Centennial Celebration of the Radcliffe Choral Society, and with the Toronto Women’s Chorus, the Penn State Glee Club, and the Wellesley Chorus. The Chorus has also toured abroad, with trips to Taiwan in 1998 and Italy in 2005, and joint tours with the Glee Club to Venezuela in 2001 and China in 2008.

John Rowehl, Interim Director

John Rowehl is the Interim Director of Choral Music at Cornell University, and a doctoral student in the Performance Practice program within Cornell’s Department of Music. He first joined the Glee Club in 2002, as Assistant Conductor, and in the decade since has conducted the ensemble at such venues as Alice Tully Hall and the Kennedy Center, as well as on international tours to Brazil and China. John was recognized with an Otto R. Stahl award for Choral Music in 2008 and with the Dean’s Prize for Distinguished Teaching in 2009.

Trained in classical piano from the age of 7, and a competition-winning pianist as a teenager, John originally came to Cornell as a Ph.D. student in Philosophy (and still has philosophical tendencies). His performance focus is on choral conducting, and his dissertation – a project in applied biomusicology – examines how our ideas about performance change when we take seriously the latest findings in the neurophysiology of music and the growing body of evidence that music is hard-wired into us humans, in part because of the role it plays in creating and nurturing community.

John has been heard as a baritone soloist in the Fingerlakes Bach Festival and with NewYork State Baroque. He also enjoys working with singers from the keyboard, as a vocal coach and collaborative pianist. When not in the library or at a choral rehearsal, John learns Ghanaian music with the World Drum and Dance Ensemble, practices yoga, and indulges his love of beach volleyball as often as Ithaca’s weather permits.

Cappella CLAUSURA is an ensemble of voices and early music instruments in Boston whose goal is to research and bring to light works written by women from the 8th century to the present day. Our intention is to dispel the notion that there are not now nor have there ever been gifted women composers. While we perform music by all women composers, and champion living composers, we concentrate on repertoire by women in the cloister, or in clausura, during the Italian baroque period because it was an extraordinary time when women were allowed, by fluke of historical personalities and fashion, to express themselves spiritually and artistically, and most importantly, to be published. History has been blind and deaf to these remarkable works;   Cappella Clausura brings vision and voice to them.

In addition to premiering many works by women of the medieval, baroque and renaissance eras, Cappella Clausura has presented and premiered the music of Hilary Tann, Patricia Van Ness, Abbie Betinis, Emma Lou Diemer, and many more living composers.

Amelia LeClair, Director

Amelia LeClair received her Bachelor’s in Music Theory and Composition from UMass Boston in 1975, with some post- graduate studies at Longy School of Music during which time she explored conducting as an option. Having noticed throughout her education the dearth of female conductors as well as composers in the historical canon, she lost faith in her own ability to do either and moved on to raising a family. 25 years later she received her master of music in choral conducting from New England Conservatory in 2003, studying with Simon Carrington. She made her conducting debut in Jordan Hall in March of 2002.  In 2004, LeClair founded Cappella Clausura, an ensemble of voices and period instruments specializing in music written by women from the 8th century to the present day.   Ms LeClair is a visiting scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center of Brandeis University from 2012-14.  In spring of 2013 Ms. LeClair will present her first paper – on Cappella Clausura’s historic and innovative performance of Hildegard Von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum – sponsored by the International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies at the annual Medieval Studies Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Ms. LeClair is director of choirs at the Church of St Andrew in Marblehead, and director of Vermilion, a quartet singing a uniquely Unitarian Vespers service for the First Unitarian Society in Newton. She is former director of Schola Nocturna, a compline choir at the Episcopal Parish of the Messiah in Newton, of Coro Stella Maris, a renaissance a cappella choir in Gloucester, and of the children’s choirs for First Unitarian Society in Newton. She lives in Newton with her husband, graphic designer Garrow Throop. Her daughter, Julia, who lived in China for five years, now resides in Washington, DC. Her son, Nick, a classical guitarist, lives in Brooklyn, NY.

The Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (LACC) – lauded as “one of the world’s foremost children’s choirs”, and described by critics as “hauntingly beautiful” and “astonishingly polished” – is recognized throughout the country for its exceptional artistic quality and technical ability. Founded in 1986 and led by Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson since 1996, The chorus’ roster includes more than 350 children ages 6-18 from 60 communities across Los Angeles in six choirs – Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, Young Men’s Ensemble, Intermediate Choir, Apprentice Choir and Preparatory Choir, and a “First Experiences in Singing” ensemble and classes for younger singers.

LACC Chamber Singers are a select group of 16 high school-aged girls who comprise the choir’s most musically accomplished and technically sophisticated performing ensemble. Each member has completed LACC’s six-level musicianship curriculum and engages in private vocal coaching to support the training she receives from LACC, thus enhancing the group’s exceptional artistry and vocal elegance. Chamber Singers perform in LACC’s Winter and Spring Concerts and at community engagement concerts throughout the season. They were a featured choir at the American Choral Director’s Association Western Division Convention in 2004. Chamber Singers have performed in concert with such renowned artists as The Calder Quartet, Jacaranda, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and have been featured on Public Radio International’s nationally syndicated show “From the Top.”

Anne Tomlinson, Artistic Director

Anne Tomlinson, Artistic Director, now in her 17^th season with LACC, oversees the educational and artistic development of the Chorus and conducts LACC’s Concert Choir and Chamber Singers. She has prepared children’s choirs for Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Carlo Rizzi, and Marin Alsop in LA Philharmonic performances of Stravinsky’s Persephone, John Adams’ El Niño, Mahler’s Symphonies No. 3 and 8, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and a fully staged production of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass at the Hollywood Bowl. She has prepared choristers for Los Angeles Master Chorale performances, including Orff’s Carmina Burana, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and the world premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Requiem. Ms. Tomlinson is the Children’s Chorus Mistress for LA Opera. During her tenure, she has prepared children for major operatic works including the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s children’s opera Fantastic Mr. Fox, based upon the story by Roald Dahl. In these productions, Ms. Tomlinson has worked with renowned conductors James Conlon, Plácido Domingo, Andrew Litton, and Julius Rudel, among many others.

Ms. Tomlinson has prepared and conducted many world premieres of treble works commissioned by LACC, including last season’s The isle is full of noises… by Icelandic composer, DaníelBjarnason. She is a frequent presenter at symposia, workshops, and festivals. Ms. Tomlinson holds a B.M. degree from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and M.M. in conducting from Northwestern University, where she studied with Margaret Hillis. Ms. Tomlinson is the 2000 recipient of the Gold Crown Award for Music Education awarded by the Pasadena Arts Council, the 2001 Power of One Award awarded by Facing History and Ourselves Foundation, and the 2006 Educator of the Year Award given by the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Southern California.

Founded in 2007 by music director Beth Willer, Boston’s Lorelei Ensemble is dedicated to the performance of new and early music for women’s voices. In an effort to enrich this body of repertoire, Lorelei collaborates with established and emerging composers from the United States and abroad, while continuing to highlight standard and lesser-known repertoire of the Medieval, Renaissance and early-Baroque periods. Lorelei has hosted both private and public performances in the Boston area, collaborating with various composers, ensembles, guest artists, and organizations to bring innovative programming to a broader audience.

Consisting of eight professional singers from the Boston area, Lorelei performs both as a full ensemble of eight independent voices, and as a combination of smaller chamber ensembles (solo, duet, trio, quartet). Repertoire performed includes works for a cappella, accompanied, and amplified voices.

The Flourishing of Choral Music at Harvard

Harvard’s distinguished and celebrated choral tradition, the oldest collegiate choral program in the United States, continues vibrantly today. The Harvard Glee Club is one of eight faculty-led choral ensembles at Harvard.

Undergraduates can choose among the Harvard Glee Club (60 men), the Radcliffe Choral Society (60 women), and six mixed-voice choirs. The Harvard–Radcliffe Collegium Musicum (65 mixed), together with the Glee Club and Choral Society, is conducted by An­drew Clark, Director of Choral Activities; these three comprise the traditional Holden Cho­ruses. The Harvard University Choir (50 singers) is under the direction of Edward Jones, Organist and Choirmaster of the Memorial Church; Jones also conducts the Harvard–Rad­cliffe Chorus, an oratorio chorus of 180 singers drawn from the larger Harvard community and the Cambridge area. The Kuumba Singers (100 singers) is under the direction of Shel­don Reid; Skills for Singing numbers 20 students, directed by Beth Canterbury, who train for future membership in HRC or one of the Holden Choruses; and the Holden Chamber Ensembles perform one-on-a-part chamber choral or instrumental music, drawing singers from the three Holden Choruses and the University Choir.

Andrew Clark is himself the chief director of the Glee Club, Choral Society, and Colle­gium. He shares the directorship of each with one of the professional Resident Conductors; and student conductors direct smaller subsets within each chorus. The eight choral ensem­bles join sixteen a cappella groups and about 55 musical/dramatic productions each year, offering an abundance of singing opportunities for undergraduates. The Holden Choruses annually perform with professional orchestras and soloists, regularly present world pre­mières, collaborate with community and campus organizations, experience master classes with world-renowned artists, and tour internationally and throughout the United States.

In addition to its choral ensembles, five orchestras, five bands, and some thirty-five vocal and instrumental chamber ensembles make up a very full performance community at Harvard; the vibrant arts scene produces nearly 450 music concerts anually, in all genres and forms.

Undergraduates in the Harvard Music Department may pursue an A.B. degree with a concentration in music, and graduate students complete a Ph.D. program in historical musicology, ethnomusicology, theory, or composition. There is also an A.M. program in Performance Practice designed for a small number of specialized students engaged in ca­reers as performers and teachers, and a dual-degree program run jointly with New Eng­land Conservatory.

Andrew Clark, Director of Choral Activities

Andrew Clark is the Director of Choral Activities and Senior Lecturer on Music at Harvard University. He serves as the Music Director and Conductor of the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Harvard–Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, and teaches courses in conducting and music theory in the Department of Music. He has led Harvard’s Holden Choruses in performances at the Kennedy Center, in cathedrals in Salz­burg and Vienna, and throughout Germany, southern Europe, and the United States. Clark developed several Harvard residencies with distinguished conductors and ensembles, and conducted the Boston premiere of John Adams’s Pulitzer Prize–winning On the Transmi­gration of Souls with the composer present in the spring of 2011. His first studio recording with the Holden Choruses, featuring the choral music of Ross Lee Finney, will be released in 2013.

Prior to his appointment at Harvard, he was Artistic Director of the Providence Sing­ers, and served as Director of Choral Activities at Tufts University for seven years. He pre­viously held conducting posts with the Worcester Chorus, Opera Boston, the Boston Pops Esplanade Chorus, and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, the chorus of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

He has commissioned numerous composers and conducted important contemporary and rarely heard pieces as well as regular performances of choral-orchestral masterworks. His choirs have been hailed as ‘first rate’ (Boston Globe), ‘cohesive and exciting’ (Opera News), and ‘beautifully blended’ (Providence Journal), achieving performances of ‘passion, conviction, adrenalin, [and] coherence’ (Worcester Telegram). Clark has led ensembles in prominent venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and throughout Europe and North America. He has col­laborated with the Pittsburgh and New Haven Symphonies, the Rhode Island Philhar­monic, Boston Philharmonic, Stephen Sondheim, and many others.

The Radcliffe Choral Society

The Radcliffe Choral Society was founded in 1899 by Radcliffe President Elizabeth Cary Agassiz and is one of the oldest collegiate women’s choruses in the nation. In 1917, un­der the leadership of Dr. Archibald T. Davison, RCS and the Harvard Glee Club established a fifty-year tradition of collaboration with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. When Wallace G. Woodworth assumed conductorship in 1925, he began the group’s tradition of domestic and international tours, and the Choral Society grew into a select and distinguished ensemble.

Elliot Forbes became conductor in 1958, bringing the Choral Society great critical ac­claim for performances around the world. Among other honors, RCS participated in the Gram­my-nominated performance of Mozart’s Requiem at President John F. Kennedy’s funeral. F. John Adams became the conductor of the Choral Society and the Glee Club in 1971, one year after the Harvard–Radcliffe merger. F. John dissolved the Choral Society to form the mixed-voice Harvard–Radcliffe Collegium Musicum. Many people were then dissatisfied with the limited opportunities for female choral singers on campus, and there was soon a call for the re-estab­lishment of RCS as a choir in its own right. Priscilla Chapman became the conductor of the newly reformed Radcliffe Choral Society in 1974. Under the direction of Chapman’s successor, Beverly Taylor, RCS further established its international reputation by commissioning new works, touring around the world, and winning prizes at international competitions, and commissioning new works.

In 1995, Jameson Marvin became the conductor of the Radcliffe Choral Society and continued to build its standing as one of the premier collegiate choruses in the United States. RCS hosts a quadrennial Women’s Choral Festival, which will be taking place this February, and has continued its distinguished tour­ing tradition by traveling on domestic tours each spring and on an international tour every fourth summer, most recently to Eastern Europe where it won first place in the international Sounds of June Competition in Petrinja, Croatia. Under the current leadership of Andrew Clark, the Choral Society continues to perform a rich and distinctive rep­ertoire, embracing nine centuries of choral literature. One of only five Harvard organizations to still bear the Radcliffe name, the Radcliffe Choral Society is proud to honor its history and legacy by celebrating excellence in women’s choral music and the extraordinary community formed through its music-making.

Beth Willer, Associate Conductor

Beth Willer is recognized for her work with women’s voices, serving as a conductor of the Radcliffe Choral Society since 2008. As Founder and Artistic of Boston’s Lorelei Ensemble, Ms. Willer shows commitment to the expansion of repertoire for the women’s vocal ensemble, actively commissioning and premiering more than thirty new works since 2007, while uncovering lesser-known works for the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods.
Additionally, Ms. Willer serves on the faculty of The Boston Conservatory as director of the Women’s Chorus and Interim Director of Choral Activities. Previous to her current positions, Ms. Willer has conducted ensembles at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, the Walnut Hill School, and the Boston Arts Academy. A candidate for the D.M.A. in conducting at Boston University with Ann Howard Jones, Ms. Willer holds degrees from Boston University and Luther College.