-Short work under 20 minutes – can be added to anyone’s existing program

-Accessible for almost any SATB choir (minimal divisi)

-Composed by Melissa Dunphy & Kala Pierson (and a world-class team of text curators)

-Curated texts about women’s suffrage and the ongoing fight for universal voting rights

-Features voices of lesser-known champions of the suffrage movement and other activists of color

Do you have a plan for celebrating the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in your 2020 programming? If not, we might just have a solution for you with our Votes for Women Consortium Commission with Kala Pierson and Melissa Dunphy.

Please take a look at www.chorosynthesis.org/votesforwomen

Questions? Email us at

Now in its fourth year, the NOVA concert series was founded on Constellation’s mission of expanding the repertoire for men’s choral music while providing a distinct experience for audiences exploring an evening of new sounds surrounding a theme. This program has successfully premiered works by more than a dozen American composers and serves as a growing platform of new music for men’s voices.

The theme of this year’s NOVA concert is “house & home”. If home is where the heart is, what becomes of a heart without a home?

This program will feature the world premiere of Sean Ellis Hussey’s multimedia oratorio “safe, stable, loving, and permanent home,” commissioned by CME about our nation’s foster care system. This season’s NOVA new music series will premiere works giving voice to stories of shelter, displacement, and reunion within and without the four walls of a house.

CME invites all interested composers and artists to apply for their annual New Music Series: NOVA. We seek to commission a handful of works to premiere at our concerts on May 22 and 23, 2020 in Chicago. Invited composers will receive time to workshop their piece with the ensemble, a premiere performance recording, and a small honorarium.

Composers must either submit a completed work scored for male voices, or one that represents their compositional style in order to be selected. The submission is NOT your entry, rather just a representation of your work in order to be considered for commissioning. Please upload a copy of the score in PDF format. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit a recording of the submission score, but are not required to do so. Specific questions can be directed to

Deadline to submit is January 20, 2020.
Applicants will be notified of the results no later than January 27, 2020.
Scores will be due March 20, 2020.
www.constellationensemble.org/call-for-composers

Chicago, IL – Chicago’s own choral groups Constellation Men’s Ensemble and La Caccina will come together for two special performances exploring memory loss, aging, and how we find each other in community amidst losing ourselves.

The evening includes the Midwest premiere of “The Woman Where We Are Living” by composer Robert Maggio, which draws inspiration from the journals of Dr. Alzheimer as he was diagnosing the first identified case of what is now known as early-onset Alzheimer’s. The program will be both beautiful and hopeful and includes works by Eriks Esenvalds, David Lang, Stacy Garrop, and Timothy Takach.

Constellation Men’s Ensemble and La Caccina are two established vocal ensembles committed to programming meaningful concert experiences in the Chicago area. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Alzheimer’s Association Illinois Chapter to advance both research and education.

WHEN AND WHERE:
Friday, February 28 at 7:30 p.m. at Gottlieb Hall, Merit School of Music – Chicago
Sunday, March 1 at 4:00 p.m. at Alice Millar Chapel, Northwestern University – Evanston
https://www.constellationensemble.org/alonewithmyself

No matter the size of your chorus there is always going to be a moment when you say, “We need people!” From trying to balance voice parts, to building your chorus from small to medium to large, to working on your diversity and inclusion goals, there are all kinds of reasons singer recruitment is an important goal for choruses of all types.

So, how do you address specific recruitment challenges for your chorus in 2020? Here are some common issues that choruses can run into, and some intentional strategies that may help you with your recruitment in the coming year.

The GMChorale invites interested singers in all voice parts to audition to join the ensemble as it prepares for a concert of music for choir and string orchestra, with selections by Bach, Handel, Mozart, and the Schubert Mass in G Major. The 90-voice GMChorale, led by Artistic Director Joseph D’Eugenio, performs two major concerts each season, often with full orchestra, and is often invited to perform with other ensembles, including the Hartford Chorale, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and others. The GMChorale rehearses in Cromwell on Tuesday evenings. Singers interested in joining the Chorale may participate in open rehearsals on Tuesday, January 21, and Tuesday, January 28, before scheduling a private audition with Maestro D’Eugenio. To register for the open rehearsal and/or schedule an audition, please contact audition coordinator and scheduler, Margie Livengood at or 860-633-6198. More information, including audition requirements, is available at www.gmchorale.org/auditions.

On Thursday, January 23, more than 45 world leaders from Europe, North America, and Australia will converge in Jerusalem to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and Birkenau at Yad Vashem. During these proceedings, choristers from the Young People’s Chorus of New York City will join three eminent, professional choirs from the allied countries of the U.K. France, and Russia in performances of movements of the Requiems by Mozart, Saint Saëns, and Karl Jenkins, conducted by renowned Maestro Vladimir Spivakov.

The YPC choristers, the only Americans invited to take part in this historic occasion, hail from all of New York City’s five boroughs and Long Island, and in keeping with the founding mission of YPC over three decades ago, represent the cultural and economic diversity of America.

The proceedings will be live-streamed beginning 1:30 p.m. (Israel time) on January 23 from the Yad Vashem website or its Facebook page with live translations in six languages.

More information about this historic occasion, as well as a list of the world leaders attending, who include French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Prince Charles is available at https://www.yadvashem.org/press-release/07-january-2020-09-38.html