For Grant Park chorus master Bell, it’s 10 productive years — and counting

By John von Rhein

CHICAGO — Amid a hectic transatlantic schedule that has
Christopher Bell shuttling each season between engagements in the
United Kingdom and Chicago, he looks forward to the balm of summers
spent working with his Grant Park Chorus. This year he is
celebrating his 10th year as its director, and the milestone finds
him brimming with all the enthusiasm of a proud parent.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but long a resident of
Scotland, Bell has built the 120-voice choir into one of the
nation’s, and indeed the world’s, top symphony choruses. For that
he shares the credit with the dedicated choristers themselves and
with his colleague Carlos Kalmar, artistic director and principal
conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival. Their productive
working relationship makes them Grant Park’s dynamic duo.

Ten years ago, the duo was a trio, consisting of Kalmar, Bell
and former Grant Park artistic and general director James
Palermo.

“When I arrived here, Carlos, Jim and I identified some issues
within the chorus we needed to work on,” Bell recalled in a recent
phone conversation from Edinburgh, where he was rehearsing several
programs with the two choruses he directs there, the Edinburgh
Festival Chorus and the National Youth Choir of
Scotland.