Join us for our 41st Annual Awards Ceremony

Choral Arts New England will host its annual awards ceremony on Sunday, October 26, 2025, at 3:00 PM at First Congregational Church in Winchester, MA. The event will celebrate exemplary contributions to the region’s choral life and recognize recipients of the 2025 Alfred Nash Patterson Grants. YOUR FREE TICKETS CAN BE OBTAINED HERE. 

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Jane Ring Frank, an influential conductor and artistic leader whose work has shaped and strengthened New England’s choral community for decades. Frank’s leadership includes tenures with Concord Women’s Chorus, Cantemus Chamber Chorus, and Boston Secession, earning acclaim for her artistic excellence and dedication to innovative programming.

The Lifetime Achievement Award, presented annually since 1994, honors individuals who have made exceptional contributions to choral singing and its culture in New England. Past recipients include Dr. André de Quadros (2024), Alice Parker (2004), and Lorna Cooke DeVaron (1995).

The ceremony also honors recipients of the Alfred Nash Patterson Grants, which have supported over 220 projects — totaling nearly $280,000 — since their inception in 1985. These grants promote adventurous programming, music education, new compositions, and regional collaboration, and they have had a lasting impact on the vitality of choral music across New England.

Hoose Composition Grant Deadline is October 31

Applications close at midnight on October 31 for the inaugural David Hoose Commissioning Grant. Don’t miss your opportunity to earn $5,000 to help bring bold, expressive choral music into the world!This grant is designed to encourage meaningful compositions that broaden the accompanied choral repertoire. If you have a commissioning project in the works, you might qualify, as long as:

  • The work is for chorus plus at least three instruments.
  • The duration of the composition is at least 5 minutes.
  • You already have a composer attached to the project.
  • The premiere will be scheduled between January 30, 2026 and June 30, 2028.

We’re seeking proposals that honor David Hoose’s legacy with works that stretch boundaries, engage texts of literary or historic resonance or respond to pressing social or spiritual concerns.We hope you’ll seize this opportunity to contribute to the choral landscape of New England—and beyond.

Want to learn more? Look here for more information about the grant, evaluation criteria and the application process.

Need more inspiration? Hear directly from David Hoose about what this grant means to him. (And why you should apply!)

2025 Alfred Nash Patterson Grant Recipients

Choral Arts New England is delighted to announce the funding of 16 project grants totaling $29,000. Award recipients represent choral organizations from all New England states, and were chosen out of 54 applications.

Award recipients will be honored at our grant ceremony in the fall of 2025, and the projects are described below from excerpts of the applications. In addition, where a recipient received a named grant, is listed next to the recipient’s name.

Congratulations to all our awardees, and please stay tuned for our next application cycle to open for 2026!

BHS Greater Boston Chapter — MA
Singspiration 2025 and Beyond

Singing in a choir is such a moving experience—just the noise that you make, and the camaraderie. There's so much beautiful choral music around, and just being part of a group of people who love to do that gives you that fire in your belly to want to do more.
 —Elton John, 2019