Alfred Nash Patterson Grants: Historical List of Recipients

Note: For some past grants, information is not available or is incomplete. Please let us know of any errors!

2023–2024

Recipient Amount Purpose
Boston Choral Ensemble
Boston,  Mass.
$2,000 To expand on a 2022 one-day free concert series performed in spaces that provide access to a greater community and are not traditionally seen as concert venues in the greater Boston area. The concerts will also promote one of Melissa Dunphy’s recently-composed "Song for the People" (2022), which specifically speaks to the power of music to energize, heal, and bring communities together.
Ensemble Altera
Johnston, R.I.
$2,500 For an ongoing initiative to support approximately 200 students in underserved communities in Rhode Island whose schools have not enjoyed the level of access to high-quality music education that every child deserves.
Friends of the Music Hall
Portsmouth, N.H.
$1,500 To support a commissioned work in commemoration of Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s 400th anniversary, conducted in partnership with the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra. The work, a 40-minute cantata for orchestra, chorus, narrator, and soprano soloist, will be copmposed by Gregory W. Brown using texts by author, musician, and poet Todd Hearon. An educational component will connect the creators of this new work with local students.
Kent Singers
Kent, Conn.
$2,500 To commission, perform, and possibly record a new choral work by Joel Thompson that may incorporate a solo instrument.
Metropolitan Chorale
Brookline, Mass.
$1,500 In support of focused consulting services to inform long-term fundraising efforts as the organization seeks to reconnect with patrons and the greater Boston community after the disruption to in-person performances from the pandemic.
New England Classical Singers
Andover, Mass.
$2,000 To support a collaboration with the Methuen High School Chorus to perform Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339, with free admission for the community. The collaboration will provide singers from both groups with opportunities for cross-generational and intercultural interaction.
New Hampshire Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association
Westmoreland, N.H.
$2,500 To support attendance by The American Spiritual Ensemble at a workshop at a New Hampshire American Choral Directors Association conference, and to further support hiring and contracting of BIPOC musicians for sessions and performances.
Nightingale Vocal Ensemble
Dorchester, Mass.
$2,000 For a series of concerts in February 2024 at the Hayden Planetarium at Boston's Museum of Science, with accompaniment from Juventas New Music Ensemble, and with unique projections by Chad Dorsey depicting mythologies of the constellations in the night sky.
Providence Singers
Providence, R.I.
$1,500 In support of a performance of Considering Matthew Shepard in 2024, the 25th anniversary of Matthew Shepard's tragic death. The performance will be accompanied by evocative video.
South Shore Children’s Chorus
Quincy, Mass.
$2,000 For a summer program for singers in grades 4-12 at Massasoit Community College in the gateway city of Brockton, MA. The program serves over 100 singers each year, and brings in professional section leaders to sing alongside the students and provide instruction.
VOICES 21C
Boston, Mass.
$2,000 To support participation in the first Sama International Choral Festival in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a one-week event intended to facilitate cultural exchange and celebrate the diversity of choral traditions, and which will lead to a performance upon return to Boston and other materials to share the experience.
Worcester County Mechanics Association
Worcester, Mass.
$1,000 In support of the "Many Voices: Mechanics Hall Youth Singers" program, which, with no auditions or fees and free transportation, is one of the most accessible youth music programs in Worcester.

2022–2023

Recipient Amount Purpose
Bagaduce Music Lending Library
Blue Hill, Maine
$500 For a performance on June 26, 2022 featuring three centuries of choral music written by Maine composers. The concert is part of a series showcasing diverse works held in the library collection.
Boston Children's Chorus
Boston, Mass.
$1,500 In support of an initiative, “Opus Nuovo,” to identify, commission, and collaborate with global composers and other artists for the creation of a of new choral works that represent a truly diverse spectrum of global musical styles and approaches.
Brattleboro Music Center
Brattleboro, Vt.
$2,000 For a collaborative commission of a 3–5 minute Renaissance motet-style piece for 4-part a cappella mixed choir, setting a poetic text by a Black woman poet, either Angelina Weld Grimké (1880-1958) or Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935).
Chorus of Westerly
Westerly, R.I.
$2,000 To support continuation of a free after-school program to nurture interest and excitement for singing at local elementary and middle schools serving rural and often economically disadvantaged children.
GMChorale (Greater Middletown Chorale)
Middletown, Conn.
$2,000 For a performance in November 2022 illustrating the musical connection between Baroque and contemporary choral music, combining the Connecticut premier Martin Sedek’s “The Four Seasons: A Cantata'' with a performance of Antonio Vivaldi’s “Gloria.”
Lorelei Ensemble
Cambridge, Mass.
$2,500 To support a the commissioning and performance on October 2022 of new works for women's/treble voices that depict present and future worlds through the lens of shifting weather patterns and impending climate change.
Manchester Symphony Orchestra & Chorale
Manchester, Conn.
$2,000 For choral performances dedicated to the works of underrepresented composers, including a concert in December 2022 featuring female composers Hildegard of Bingen, Caterina Assandra, Isabella Leonarda, Fanny Mendelssohn, Amy Beach, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Rosephanye Powell, Shireen Abu Khader, Diana V. Sáez, and others, and a concert in April 2023 including works by Robert Nathaniel Dett and Marianna Martine.
Middlebury Community Music Center
Middlebury, Vt.
$2,000 To support a 12-week community choir session conducted by composer, singer, and educator Moira Smiley in collaboration with Middlebury Community Music Center, which culminates in a big outdoor “community sing” on July 11, 2022.
Ogontz Arts Foundation
Temple, N.H.
$800 To provide support to enable music teachers in the early years of their careers to attend the 2022 Ogontz Choral Workshop.
Providence Singers
East Providence, R.I.
$2,500 To support the commission, performance, and video recording of a new choral work to be performed in collaboration with a gospel choir, with text focusing on social justice.
The Seraphim Singers
Watertown, Mass.
$2,000 To support commissioning of a five-minute piece from Edie Hill on a 2020 poem about the climate change crisis by Danielle Cadena Deulen, with premiere performance anticipated in spring 2023.
Vermont Symphony Orchestra
Burlington, Vt.
$750 For the premiere in October 2022 of a commissioned work for chorus and orchestra by Dr. Matthew Evan Taylor, titled "From Despair...Light!" which is based on gospel choral traditions of hymn lining. The event will also include a workshop with Dr. Taylor for middle and high school students.
West Hartford Women's Chorale
West Hartford, Conn.
$2,000 To support an appearance by the renowned composer Dr. Rosephanye Powell that will include a full day workshop and conducting of collaborative, multigenerational choirs in a public performance of several of her compositions.

2021–2022

Recipient Amount Purpose
Classical Uprising
Portland, Maine
$1,500 For an in-person, outdoor concert called “I Dream a World” on May 26, 2021, by Classical Uprising Youth Choirs, grades 2-12, which features choral music by African American and female composers and songs celebrating the dream of unity, freedom, and peace.
Coro Allegro
Boston, Mass.
$1,000 To support a new series called "Amplifying Black Voices," which is led by Black artists, advocates, composers, and conductors who have collaborated with Coro Allegro in the past. Funding will cover production costs of two virtual choir sessions with The Heritage Chorale of New Haven. Combining archival recordings, new virtual collaborations, fresh conversation, and stories, these digital programs model a new way to engage national audiences.
Ensemble Altera
Johnston, R.I.
$1,000 For a choral program in July 2021 to bring together the Rhode Island community in remembrance of those impacted and lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, aiding the healing of the community through song. The concert will feature choral pieces from the medieval through modern eras, including Hear My Prayer (Henry Purcell), Fürchte dich nicht, (J.C. Bach), Song for Athene (John Tavener), selections from Duruflé’s Requiem, and For the Beauty of the Earth (John Rutter). The choral selections will be complemented by instrumental pieces on organ and piano.
The Keene Chorale
Keene, N.H.
$2,000 For a performance of The Ordering of Moses, a major choral-orchestral work by Black Canadian composer R. Nathaniel Dett, which reimagines Negro spirituals and uses this very sonic American language to tell the narrative of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt — a distinct correlation to the experience of slavery and struggle for freedom in this country. Funding will also support several outreach opportunities to engage the community to discuss the importance of the work and composer.
The Main Street Children's Choir
New Britain, Conn.
$2,000 To support a virtual Spring Choral festival from January to May 8, 2021, featuring the guest conductors and clinicians Nekita Waller, Thomasina Levy, and Dr. Ellen Gilson Voth.
Metropolitan Chorale
Brookline, Mass.
$1,000 To support a multimedia performance on June 8, 2021 (and thereafter), of the world premiere of Steven Sametz's commissioned work, Home, with text drawn from reflections submitted by singers about what home has meant for them during the pandemic. Singers from the chorale will be featured throughout the concert in video clips speaking about their own experiences of home. The concert will also feature performances of Antonin Dvorak's "Going Home" arranged by Nicholas White, Stephen Paulus's "The Road Home", and Johannes Brahms’s An die Heimat.
Renaissance Men
Westwood, Mass.
$500 To support the recording costs of Renaissance Men’s third album, "RenMentality," a one-act performance art piece which explores the intersection of mental health and music in an honest and humanizing way, and can be shared digitally in a time when live performance is not possible.
Schoodic Arts for All / Schoodic Summer Chorus
Winter Harbor, Maine
$500 To support composition of a song cycle designed for small ensembles singing live with no muting in real time on Zoom. Those songs would give chorus members and other singers an opportunity to sing together live and refine their musicianship and ensemble-singing skills without needing to be together in close proximity.
Solaris Vocal Ensemble
Essex Junction, Vt.
$1,500 To produce the “One Day” concert project, which will bring various community choirs together after the pandemic (hopefully in October or November 2021) to share an inspiring concert featuring a new work by Vermont composer and Vermont Public Radio host James Stewart. The concert will be recorded and aired on VPR.
Worcester Children's Chorus
Worcester, Mass.
$2,000 To support a collaboration between the Worcester Children's Chorus and the Assumption University Choirs between February and May 2021 to engage in an immersive commissioning process with nationally-recognized composer Grace Brigham to write, record, and premiere a newly composed piece focused on the idea of hope in the Worcester community.

2020–2021

Recipient Amount Purpose
Cappella Clausura
Newtonville, Mass.
$1,000 For a collaborative premiere performance by Cappella Clausura and Chorus pro Musica of the Mass in D by Dame Ethel Smyth, composer and suffragist, on November 8, 2020. The performers aim to spark a musical revolution in recognizing the contributions of women throughout history, to bring women's struggle for equality to the forefront 100 years after women's enfranchisement on August 18, 1920, and, while commemorating the achievement of the women’s vote, to emphasize the importance of exercising that privilege.
CONCORA
Hartford, Conn.
$1,250 For performance of Geoffrey Hudson's A Passion for our Planet on April 25, 2021 in Hartford, as part of CONCORA's "Music with a Mission" Initiative to raise awareness of important social issues through the power and message of live music.
Concord Chorus
Concord, Mass.
$750 To support a commissioned work for chorus and orchestra by Jonathan Bailey Holland based on texts about social justice and meant to reach and educate a diverse and wide-ranging audience, which will be performed as a companion work to the Brahms Requiem in a concert in May 2021 commemorating the 75th anniversary of the chorus.
Counterpoint
Montpelier, Vt.
$1,000 To support a series of concerts of New England choral music that is mostly connected with landscape, including Amy Beach's Sylvania and Travis Ramsey's Among the Branches (with text by Jim Schley). The program includes workshops with high school choruses, usually including Travis Ramsay, that focus on how music can be expressive of place and landscape.
Emmanuel Music
Boston, Mass.
$1,500 For a free concert of J.S. Bach cantatas on September 26, 2020, that inaugurates Emmanuel Music's 50th anniversary season and celebrates its history at Emmanuel Church, and to support commissioning four local composers: John Harbison, Kati Agocs, Jonathan Bailey Holland, and Yehudi Wyner, to create a cappella motets directly inspired by four cantatas (BWV 1, 4, 14, and 140), which will be premiered at the performance.
Grand Monadnock Youth Choirs
Peterborough, N.H.
$1,000 For a collaborative commission by Heather Gilligan for youth choir, SATB chorus, chamber ensemble, and keyboard, which will be performed in Keene and Peterborough, N.H., in May 2021.
Handel and Haydn Society
Boston, Mass.
$1,250 To support a series of five free uplifting choral concerts for justice and peace that honor the many voices of Boston and highlight those of members of our community who are not often in positions of power. Led by countertenor Reginald Mobley, the concerts feature members of the Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra and Chorus and the Handel and Haydn Youth Choruses Concert Choir, and take place at neighborhood venues throughout Boston and Cambridge.
Hartford Chorale
Hartford, Conn.
$1,250 To support the premiere performance of a commissioned work by Scott Perkins in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the chorus in 2022, to be performed that year as part of a year-long celebration.
Music on the Hill
Wilton, Conn.
$1,500 To support a day-long Festival of African-American Spirituals with guest conductor/clinician Dr. Rosephanye Powell in Fairfield, Connecticut, on October 17, 2020. The Festival will bring together community and church choruses for a workshop that will conclude with a final performance.
Providence Singers
Providence, R.I.
$1,000 For the commission, performance, and live recording of an SSAATB setting of Sara Teasdale's poem "A November Night" by Julian Wachner, to be performed as part of the Providence Singers 50th anniversary celebration in May 2022.
Una Voce Chamber Choir
Bath, Maine
$1,000 For performances of Tarik O’Regan's Triptych and The Ecstasies Above, and Alice Parker’s Heavenly Hurt, on January 16 and 17, 2021 at Bowdoin College's Studzinski Hall in Brunswick, Maine.
Voices of Concinnity
Mansfield Center, Conn.
$500 To support an innovative program on April 17, 2021, exploring the “footnotes” of choral music—composers and music that have been unjustly neglected or unrecognized—which is supplemented by an interactive framework including an online app that can be accessed during the performance. The goal is to explore inclusion and relevancy of choral performance by increasing accessibility and empowering audiences to question why all composers are not included in typical choral programming; and, by encouraging concert attendees to engage one another in conversation and collaboration during a choral performance, to break down barriers so all can appreciate choral music, regardless of musical training.
Wescustago Youth Chorale
Yarmouth, Maine
$500 To commission a work from composer Andrew Hirst in celebration of the State of Maine's 200th Anniversary of statehood in 2020, to be performed either in December 2020 or spring 2021. The composition will highlight each of the three choirs of the Chorale, which includes auditioned singers from third to twelfth grade.

2019–2020

Recipient Amount Purpose
Burlington Choral Society
Burlington, VT
$750 To commission Vermont-based composer Don Jamison to write "Sabbath Poems," a setting of seven poems by Wendell Berry for SATB chorus with string orchestra, to be performed during the 2020-21 season in Burlington and Montpelier, Vermont.
Cantilena
Arlington, MA
$600 For performance in December 2019 of "Anne Frank: A Living Voice" for treble voices and string quartet by Linda Tutas Haugen. Based on selected entries from The Diary of Anne Frank, the texts and music portray Anne’s psychological progression from fear and despair to strength and hope.
ChoralArt (Choral Art Society)
Portland, ME
$500 To support the Maine premiere performances in Portland in March 2020 of "Considering Matthew Shepard" by Craig Hella Johnson, an oratorio which tells the story of the Wyoming gay teenager who became a national figure after he was beaten and left to die in 1998.
Chorus Angelicus c/o Joyful Noise Inc.
Torrington, CT
$1,000 To record and produce a CD of works commissioned for them by contemporary composers, including Ola Gjeilo, Francisco J. Nunez, Robert I. Hugh, Michel Guimont, Greg Wilfrid, and Andrew Thomson. Choristers will work closely with select composers, two concerts will be performed in Washington and Hartford CT in preparation for the recording, and a workshop for Hartford students, called "Harmony in Hartford," will take place prior to the Hartford concert.
Commonwealth Chorale
Newtonville, MA
$500 To support commissioning Carson Cooman's "As We Are Changed," for chorus, chamber orchestra and soloist, in honor of David Carrier's 40th anniversary as Music Director.
Coro Allegro
Boston, MA
$1,000 For the commission and performance of Andrea Clearfield's "Here I Am: I Am Here" for SATB chorus, soloists, small ensemble, and narrator, a work focused on the experiences of transgender and queer children and their parents, which will be premiered on May 17, 2020 at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge and performed at the GALA Choruses Festival XI in Minneapolis, Minn. on July 4-8, 2020.
Fairfield County Children's Choir
Trumbull, CT
$750 To help fund bus transportation for children in the choir who will be performing at Carnegie Hall in New York as part of the choir's 25th anniversary season and might not otherwise be able to participate.
Greater Boston Choral Consortium
Boston, MA
$750 To subsidize admission fees for undergraduate and graduate students participating in workshops, including a large choir session and a conducting session, with educator Alice Parker. The workshop will be open to all and include singers and song leaders of all levels from throughout New England.
Lorelei Ensemble
Cambridge, MA
$1,500 To support a commission from Jessica Meyer: "I Long and Seek After," for SSSMMMAA voices, setting the fragments of ancient Greek poet Sappho, as translated by Anne Carson in "If Not, Winter." The work will be premiered in Boston in October 2019, with subsequent performances as part of Lorelei’s touring schedule.
Montpelier Community Gospel Choir
Montpelier, VT
$800 For performances on December 8 and 9, 2019 in Barre and Montpelier Vt. the showcase gospel selections from the African-American tradition and songs from contemporary gospel composers, with an expanded band and guest vocalist to celebrate the choir's 25th anniversary.
New Hampshire Master Chorale
Plymouth, NH
$1,500 To support a commission from Kim André Arnesen: "Voices of the Silenced," a forty-minute multi-movement choral-orchestral work on social issues related to suicide, mental health, isolation, and incarceration, to be performed in November 2019 across New Hampshire and possibly in March 2020 at the American Choral Director’s Association Eastern Division Conference.
Outer Cape Chorale
So. Wellfleet, MA
$750 To support performances with full orchestra in May 2020 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the landing of immigrant Pilgrims on the shores of the Wampanoag nation at the tip of what is now known as Cape Cod. The concert program will be devoted to American music and include original compositions created for the occasion.
Somerville Community Chorus
Somerville, MA
$500 For competition for a new choral composition for 75-voice SSATB choir and up to four obbligato instruments, which addresses a theme relevant to life in Somerville or the Boston area and New England more broadly. The composition will be premiered and recorded in Spring 2020 concert and will be featured at Somerville's PorchFest in May 2020.
South Shore Children's Chorus
Quincy, MA
$1,250 To provide musical resources for the South Shore Choral Intensive, a program July 15-19 2019 and in residence at Stonehill College, which is for singers entering grade 8 through 2019 graduating seniors and focuses on themes of leadership, personal responsibility, and musical excellence. The theme for summer 2019 is "I am on my way," with the music learned and performed centering around the theme of self-discovery.
St Mary Schola
Falmouth, ME
$1,500 For performance by the early music ensemble of the rarely heard "Messe de Requiem" by Baroque composer André Campra.

2018–2019

Recipient Amount Purpose
Andover Choral Society
Andover, MA
$1,500 To support performance and recording of Florence Price's 25-minute work Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, a musical setting of a poem by Vachel Lindsay.
Cappella Clausura
Newtonville, MA
$1,000 To support performance in Spring 2019 of three cantatas for chorus, soloists and orchestra by Fanny Mendelssohn: Lobegesang (Song of praise), Hiob (Job), and Oratorio on words of the Bible, which has been called "Cantata for the Dead of the Cholera epidemic" (of 1831).
Collegium Ancora
Providence, RI
$1,000 For performances in July and November 2018 at armories in Providence and East Greenwich to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War I. The centerpiece of program is the world premiere of a song cycle by Canadian composer Colin Eatock.
CONCORA
Hartford, CT
$1,250 For multiple performances, commencing in November 2018, of Craig Hella Johnson’s concert length choral work Considering Matthew Shepard. Concert proceeds will be shared with local charities.
Da Camera Singers
Amherst, MA
$1,000 To support a commissioning project for composers up to 30 years old. Composers will submit manuscripts for SATB works 4–8 minutes in length, the chorus will workshop selected pieces, pair composers with established local composers for feedback, and provide a public performance in April/May 2019.
Hampshire Young People’s Chorus
Amherst, MA
$1,500 To support commissioning of three new works by local composers Rick Beaudoin, Greg Brown, and Geoff Hudson in celebration of YPC’s 20th Anniversary, to be performed in April/May 2019.
Island Community Chorus
Vineyard Haven, MA
$1,500 For a performance in April/May 2019 of Thomas Lavoy's In Heaven, Hereafter, a setting of the words of Martha’s Vineyard native Nancy Luce (b. 1814), who was known locally as “the chicken lady.” The composer intends the works to be a companion piece to Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb.
Labyrinth Choir
Southboro, MA
$400 To add photographic projections to enhance a concert in April/May 2019 called “World House: 7=1” that celebrates world unity by representing the 7 continents of the world through song.
Manchester Choral Society
Manchester, NH
$1,250 For a performance in Spring 2019 of William Grant Still’s For Those Who Wait and Kirke Mechem’s Songs of the Slave at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Manchester, N.H.
Metropolitan Chorale
Brookline, MA
$1,000 For a program in May 2019 that includes R. Murray Schafer’s A Medieval Bestiary and Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore in collaboration with Brookline Puppet Theater.
Rhode Island Civic Chorale
Cranston, RI
$750 To support a partnership with the choral music program at Beacon Charter School in Woonsocket, R.I., including a lecture seminar, conductor clinic, and subsidized concert tickets to low-income students.
Voce, Inc.
Mystic, CT
$1,000 To defray costs of bringing choral composer Thomas Lavoy to the Hartford area for either a workshop or an “open rehearsal,” followed by a performance of his works. Previous composers in the program include Morten Lauridsen, Ola Gjeilo, Eriks Esenvalds, and Paul Mealor.
Zamir Chorale of Boston
Newton, MA
$1,000 To fund Hegyon Libi, a new commission by Jonathan Leshnoff for the chorale’s 50th anniversary concert in June 2019.

2017–2018

Recipient Amount Purpose
Alzheimer's Family Caregiver Support Center, Inc: Re-Memorable Multigenerational Chorus of Cape Cod
Brewster, MA
$1,150 To fund staffing and outreach for a choral group which brings together people with Alzheimer's/dementia, caregivers, and schoolchildren in song.
Assabet Valley Mastersingers
Northborough, MA
$500 To commission from Cynthia Wong a medium length work based upon "The Emperor's New Clothes”
Back Bay Chorale
Boston, MA
$1,500 To support the Bridges program, which is dedicated to bringing choral music to those who are unable to attend regular performances because of barriers such as disability, income, and institutional isolation.
Boston City Singers
Dorchester, MA
$2,000 For premiere of a new “Peace Song”, to be composed over a nine-month period by members of Boston City Singers in grades 6-12 in collaboration with composer and conductor Jim Papoulis and with the support of the World Rhythm Ensemble.
The Chorus of Westerly
Westerly, RI
$1,500 To support the annual week-long overnight music camp for children ages 8-18 at Ogontz in Lyman, New Hampshire
Community Chorus of South Berwick
South Berwick, ME
$1,000 For a performance of Requiem for My Mother by Stephen Edwards, by an intergenerational chorus of up 400 singers, including children's choruses and middle and high school choirs.
Coro Allegro
Boston, MA
$1,500 For a performance and recording of a choral symphony by Kareem Roustom that will address the refugee crisis in Syria.
Counterpoint
Montpelier, VT
$1,250 For performance of works for chorus with piano and viola accompaniment, including new compositions by Matt LaRocca of South Burlington, Vermont, and also Ralph Vaughan Williams's Flos Campi and Leos Janacek's Rikadia.
Granite State Choral Society
Rochester, NH
$1,000 To support an educational workshop for singers age 13–22 based on the recently commissioned cantata, Rochester, about the history of Rochester, NH.
Greater Newburyport Children’s Chorus
Newburyport, MA
$600 For the premiere of I Could See the Sky by Kile Smith for chorus, children’s choir, organ, and string quartet.
Sharing a New Song, Inc.
Arlington, MA
$1,000 For a concert that features repertoire from Sharing a New Song's August 2017 trip to South Africa, as well as a selection of American music and musical styles and music from other countries where the chorus has traveled.

2016–2017

Recipient Amount Purpose
Berkshire Lyric Theater
Pittsfield, MA
$600 To help commission nationally known composer and Berkshire resident Steve Murray to compose a setting of “Ubi Caritas” for a chamber chorus. The ensemble, formed in 2011, is a select group of twenty-two singers age 16 to 26 who, meeting for two months every summer, present a series of a cappella sacred concerts in August that raise funds for area food pantries.
Cantata Singers
Boston, MA
$2,000 To expand the Classroom Cantatas residency program into two second grade inclusion classrooms during the 2016-2017 school year. Classroom Cantatas is Cantata Singers's choral‐singing and songwriting residency program that for two decades has served elementary schools in Boston that have little or no arts education.
Cantemus Chamber Chorus
Ipswich, MA
$800 To support a collaboration between Cantemus Chamber Chorus and Rumbarroco, a Latin-American fusion ensemble, for a multicultural choral/instrumental program that will be presented at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport and at the Cabot Performing Arts Center in Beverly in late April/early May 2017.
Choral Art Society
Portland, ME
$1,500 To support a performance of two modern choral works: Donald McCullough's Holocaust Cantata and James Whitbourn's Luminosity, by the Choral Art Singers, a 50‐voice SATB ensemble, in Portland on October 16, 2016.
Concord Women's Chorus
Concord, MA
$1,200 To commission Boston composer Beth Denisch to set three poems by Kathleen Jamie, one of Scotland's most‐lauded living poets. The work will be premiered in Concord, Massachusetts, on May 13, 2017, and will be part of a concert tour of Scotland and England’s Lake District in June 2017.
Genesis Chamber Singers
Quincy, MA
$1,000 To commission an original choral work in Mandarin by Jerry (Chiwei) Hui, Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, to be to be premiered as a part of the ensemble's second annual "China in Song" concert series in March 2017.
Massachusetts ACDA
Amherst, MA
$900 To pay for registration and transportation costs of some music teachers working in underserved urban school districts in Holyoke and Springfield, MA who wish to attend the Mass. ACDA Summer Conference in Northampton from July 19 to July 22, 2016.
New Hampshire Music Festival
Plymouth, NH
$1,500 To support the foundation of the New England Choral Institute at New Hampshire Music Festival, which is a new collaboration between Plymouth State University and the New Hampshire Music Festival for experienced undergraduate, graduate, and community musicians.
Providence Singers
Providence, RI
$1,000 To create a recording of Dan Forrest's Requiem for the Living and Te Deum, which will also be made available for digital distribution.
The Vermont Choral Union
Essex Junction, VT
$1,500 To commission a suite for a cappella chorus and flute by Christina Whitten Thomas on texts by Vermont poets, including Abigail Carroll, Jay Parini, and Jean Killary.

2015–2016

Recipient Amount Purpose
Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, Inc.
Auburndale, MA
$1,250 To support recording the Peterhouse Partbooks. This is the fourth year of a multi-year grant, consisting of $1,250 per year for 4 years.
Cantilena Chamber Choir
Lenox, MA
$1,300 For a concert in honor of Tanglewood Music center’s 75th anniversary that features works by composers who were Tanglewood composition fellows. Those composers include Lukas Foss, Elliot Carter, Michael Gandolfi, Thomas Oboe Lee, and John Harbison, among others. The performance is on May 15, 2016 in Lenox.
Chorus pro Musica
Boston, MA
$2,000 To support a 25-minute commissioned work for chorus and brass band by composer Andy Vores, called "Spencer the Rover," which will be premiered at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge on March 12, 2016.
CONCORA/Connecticut Choral Artists
Hartford, CT
$1,000 To support an innovative semi-staged performance of J.S. Bach’s "St. John Passion" that includes innovative placement of singers and instrumentalists, supertitles, and visual aids, under the direction of CONCORA's new music director, Dr. Christopher Shepard. The performance is on March 20, 2016 in Hartford.
Coro Allegro
Boston, MA
$1,000 For a collaborative project with Boston City Singers to expand Howard Frazin's "The Voice of Isaac," an oratorio retelling the Abraham and Isaac story from Isaac’s perspective, to include adult voices. The expanded work will be performed at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge on March 13, 2016.
Emmanuel Music
Boston, MA
$1,000 To support the work of Emmanuel Music to "rescue" Johann Sebastian Bach’s final passion, the St. Mark Passion, and perform it at Emmanuel Church on March 19, 2016. The performance will include a pre-concert conversation with scholars about the project. Free tickets will be made available to certain Boston-area students.
Journey Song Charitable Trust
Kensington, NH
$1,500 For a "Celebration of Hospice Music" in October 2015 at the Congregational Church of Exeter, N.H., featuring the compositions and arrangements of singer and composer Peter Amidon, which are meant to bring the comfort of vocal music, both secular and sacred, to those nearing the end of life.
Lorelei Ensemble
Cambridge, MA
$1,000 To support the commissioning of two new works by Tim Takach and Bryan Christian, to be premiered on December 18–19, 2015 at Marsh Chapel, Boston University, as part of Lorelei Ensemble's first Christmas program, called “Of Such Virtue."
Master Singers of Worcester
Worcester, MA
$1,200 To support a concert that celebrates Armenian musical heritage and commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The performance, on October 25, 2015, at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, will include works by Armenian composers, a commissioned work from Stephan Barnicle, and the "Requiem for the Living" by the American composer Dan Forrest.
Vermont Chapter of the American Choral Directors Assoc.
Burlington, VT
$1,500 To support the “Gather at the River” conference in Hanover, NH on June 26–27, 2015, which consists of workshops, seminars and performances open to all choral musicians, culminating in a performance by all participants of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem.
Wescustago Youth Chorale
Yarmouth, ME
$1,300 To support hiring a one-year Development Coordinator, who will pursue fundraising opportunities that were identified through a strategic planning process to promote long-term growth and of music and outreach programs.
Women in Harmony
Portland, ME
$1,200 For a performance of Diane Benjamin’s "Where I Live (A Breast Cancer Oratorio)," for women’s chorus, soloists, strings, piano, and percussion, on May 20–21, 2016, at St. Luke's Cathedral in Portland, Maine. The concert will be conducted in partnership with the Cancer Community Center in Scarborough, Maine.

2014–2015

Recipient Amount Purpose
Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, Inc.
Auburndale, MA
$1,250 To support recording the Peterhouse Partbooks. This is the third year of a multi-year grant, consisting of $1,250 per year for 4 years.
Boston City Singers
Dorchester, MA
$1,250 To commission 2-3 new works from Jim Papoulis that will be performed at three or more community-based public concerts in spring 2015. Mr. Papoulis is known for his unique multi-cultural musical style, combining contemporary sound with traditional music garnered from his extensive worldwide travels. Boston City Singers provides comprehensive sequential music instruction to over 500 young people, age 4-18, in the inner-city neighborhood locations where they live and attend school.
Cantata Singers
Boston, MA
$1,000 To commission Elena Ruehr's "Eve," a 14-minute work based on a text from the book of Genesis, which will be performed on November 8, 2014 at Jordan Hall in Boston. A student of William Bolcom, Vincent Persichetti, and Bernard Rands, Dr. Ruehr is a faculty member at MIT who has been a fellow at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute and composer-in-residence with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.
Choral Art Society
Portland, ME
$1,750 For a program featuring the New England premiere of Robert S. Cohen's "Alzheimer's Stories" on May 9, 2015 in South Portland, Maine. Commissioned by the Susquehanna Valley Chorale in 2009, "Alzheimer's Stories" is set to a libretto by Herschel Garfein based on recollections of chorus members and friends with relatives who have had Alzheimer's disease. The performance will be accompanied by a pre-concert forum with the composer, conductor, a representative from the Alzheimer's Association, and a music therapist who will address the positive impact of music on dementia patients.
Concord Chorus
Concord, MA
$1,000 To commission from Michael Schachter an "American Requiem," a 15-20 minute work incorporating English-language texts from a variety of faiths and cultures that aims to “relate to and hold a dialogue with the moods and texts of standard Requiems,” to be performed in May 2016. A major goal of the project is to add to the choral repertoire a challenging piece within mastery by a well-trained amateur group that could be programmed with “standard” Requiems that are too short to constitute a full concert (Mozart, Fauré, Brahms) while employing the same orchestral forces.
Crescendo
Lakeville, CT
$2,000 To support a performance of works by Domenico Zipoli (1688-1726), with period instrument orchestra, at churches in Lime Rock, Connecticut and Great Barrington, Massachusetts on November 15-16, 2014. Zipoli was a prestigious Italian organist and composer who emigrated with Jesuit missionaries to South America, where he composed and performed for the remainder of his life. His works are wonderful examples of a fusion of two cultures, Western European and Native South American, but are rarely performed and sparsely recorded.
Greater Middletown Chorale
Middletown, CT
$500 To help fund the creation and production of a concert DVD of the 2013 world premiere of Sarah Meneely-Kyder's oratorio, "Letter from Italy, 1944" (supported in part by an 2012 Alfred Nash Patterson grant);
Joyful Noise Inc.
Torrington, CT
$1,000 To support a project to record the Requiem of Brian Coughlin. Coughlin's Requiem includes both traditional and contemporary texts; it combines lush choral textures with the indie rock sound of amplified chamber ensemble to speak to a younger generation of audiences. The project includes a month of preparation that culminates in a two-session weekend workshop with the composer and a public performance, followed directly in November 2014 by recording at the studios of David Raymond in South Windsor, Connecticut.
MassACDA
Quincy, MA
$1,250 To support a performance on July 22, 2014 of James Whitbourn's oratorio "Annelies" at the MassACDA Summer Conference in Northampton, Massachusetts. Performers will include singers from Coro Allegro and Chorus pro Musica, both choruses having presented separate Boston performances of the work in March 2014. Conference registrants, some 100 choral directors from throughout New England, will form a special chorus prepared by MassACDA President-Elect Tony Thornton that will join in singing the work's "chorale" movement. "Annelies," which is based on the diary of Anne Frank, was premiered in 2005; a recording was nominated for a 2014 Grammy Award.
The Master Singers of Lexington
Lexington, MA
$1,000 Partial funding of commissions for six new works to be performed during the four concerts of the 2014-2015 season. Commissioned composers include Sara Doncaster (Fall 2014); Rodney Lister (Christmas 2014); Allen Feinstein, Benjamin Cohen, and Grant Hicks (Winter Pops 2014); and Master Singers Music Director Adam Grossman (Spring 2015); as well as a Vermont composer yet to be named (Fall 2014).
Music Worcester, Inc. (The Worcester Chorus of Music Worcester)
Worcester, MA
$1,500 To support the 2014-15 Festival Singers program, a joint effort with the Worcester Public Schools that enables talented students of Worcester's South High School to learn, rehearse, and perform Handel's "Messiah" in Mechanics Hall as part of the Chorus. The program runs throughout the Fall, starting with early rehearsals at South High. Participation in additional concerts will also be arranged, as the students' schedules allow.
New Haven Oratorio Choir, Inc.
Hamden, CT
$1,000 For a performance and recording in May 2015 in New Haven, Connecticut of a selection of important but neglected works by historical and contemporary women composers. The goals are to foster an awareness of and appreciation for choral works composed by women that have been historically underrepresented in the Western art culture, and to champion living women composers, such as Meredith Monk, Eleanor Daley, Alice Parker, Joan Tower, Malinda Wagner and Caroline Shaw.
RPM Voices of Rhode Island
Providence, RI
$1,000 In support of the RPM Youth Voices choral program, which includes an intensive 14-day workshop followed by two or three performances of music from black American culture, particularly spirituals and gospel songs. Performances are during the month of July in Providence city parks and at the RPM summer concert in Newport on July 20, 2014.

2013–2014

Recipient Amount Purpose
Blue Heron Renaissance Choir
Auburndale, MA
$1,250 To support recording the Peterhouse Partbooks (second year of a four-year grant).
Concord Women's Chorus
Concord, MA
$1,500 For a concert in May 2013 entitled "For a Dream’s Sake", featuring works by historical and contemporary women composers, with the participation of the Concord-Carlisle High School Women’s Chorus.
Danbury Music Centre
Danbury, CT
$2,000 To support a commissioned work by Carson Cooman for the Danbury Concert Chorus to texts by Lord Byron and Lancelot Andrewes, tentatively called "Children of the Light," to be performed in November 2013 or May 2014.
Manchester Choral Society
Manchester, NH
$2,000 For performances in May 2013 of The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass by Carol Barnett, in collaboration with the bluegrass band Chasing Blue.
Master Singers of Worcester
Worcester, MA
$1,500 To support the regional premiere performance on March 30, 2014 (with the Worcester Children's Chorus) of The Peacemakers, by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins. The work utilizes a wide range of texts of many languages, religions and authors, including Rumi, Ghandi, the Dalai Lama, Shelley, Terry Waite, Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, Nelson Mandela, Anne Frank, Bahá'u'lláh and St. Seraphim of Sarov, as well as quotations from the Qur'an, the Bible and the Ordinary of the Mass.
Mount Desert Summer Chorale
Mount Desert, ME
$2,000 For rehearsals and performance of the Verdi Requiem in early August 2013, with admission by free-will donation.
Mystic River Chorale
Mystic, CT
$1,000 To support the regional premiere on January 19, 2014 of a Te Deum by Carl Czerny (Beethoven's most notable student), together with Franz Schubert’s Mass No. 3 in B-flat, with participation of students from two area high schools.
The Spectrum Singers
Cambridge, MA
$2,000 To engage a professional marketing and fundraising consultant to do a comprehensive analysis of the organization and its membership over two years that will lead to a plan to increase awareness of the chorus in the greater Boston area and evaluate potential income opportunities.

2012–2013

Recipient Amount Purpose
Back Bay Chorale
Boston, MA
$1,000 Premiere of Anything Can Happen, a new choral work by Mohammed Fairouz, jointly commissioned by the Back Bay Chorale, Grinnell College (Iowa), Cantori (New York City) and Boston University. It is scored for mixed a cappella chorus, with solo viola and solo baritone. The piece incorporates multicultural and inter-religious themes. Three movements are in English, with text by Irish poet Seamus Heaney, and two are in Arabic, from the suras, or chapters from the Injeel, the original Arabic gospel of Jesus.
Bella Voce Women's Chorus of Vermont
Essex Junction, VT
1,400 A concert celebrating spirituals sung by those following the Underground Railroad through Vermont.
Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, Inc.
Auburndale, MA
$1,250 To support recording the Peterhouse Partbooks. A multi-year grant: $1,250 per year for 4 years.
Choral Art Society
Portland, ME
$1,750 A commission from Kevin Siegfried of "Vidimus Stellam" for choir and brass, to be performed at the 25th anniversary “Christmas at the Cathedral” concerts in Portland, Maine, December 2012.
Counterpoint
Montpelier, VT
$2,500 Workshops on choral singing with New England high school ensembles in spring 2013 that include full and sectional coaching by the Artistic Director and the singers, joint rehearsals with the student chorus, and discussions of choral technique and repertory. A professional videographer will record the workshops and edit the footage for use in grant applications to large foundations.
Greater Middletown Chorale
Middletown, CT
$2,000 The performance on April 27, 2013 of Letter from Italy, 1944: War's End, a two-hour choral-theatrical work based on the life of a young physician and his family haunted by war that was commissioned in 2011 from Sarah Meneely-Kyder. The performance includes large chorus, small chorus, soloists, and a thirty-instrument chamber orchestra.
Greater New Haven Community Chorus
New Haven, CT
$1,000 A commission from a New England composer to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the chorus.
Lorelei Ensemble
Cambridge, MA
$1,000 To commission two works for eight women’s voices from emerging composers who specialize in the use of multimedia and electronic music. Works will feature elements of (and possible combination of) dance, video, lighting, and amplified voices. The project will include a collaboration with student dancers from the Boston Arts Academy and other outreach to secondary and post-secondary schools, including instruction in singing. The performances will be in March or April 2013.
New Hampshire Master Chorale
Plymouth, NH
$1,500 A commission by Jonathan Santore to be performed at the start of the Chorale's tenth season, on November 16–18, 2012. The work will explore themes connected to Latin America and Spain.
Treble Chorus of New England
North Andover, MA
$1,000 To hire instrumentalists for the annual holiday concert.
The Vermont Choral Union, Inc.
Essex Junction, VT
$600 For travel equipment transportation and advertising for a series of performances of primarily a cappella choral music in communities throughout Vermont. Possible performance locations include Derby Line, St. Johnsbury, Springfield and Manchester, Vermont.

2011–2012

Recipient Amount Purpose
Boston City Singers
Boston, MA
$1,000 To host the Australian Girls Choir for 3 nights, beginning on Monday Sept 19. Activities will include a joint music workshop on 9/20 and a joint concert on 9/21 featuring a wide international repertoire.
Cantilena Chamber Choir
Lenox, MA
$1,500 To support a presentation by Cantilena Concert Choir of an afternoon of music in the galleries of the Berkshire Museum. As the audience follows the choir through the galleries, they will hear works inspired by the art displayed in each room.
Da Camera Singers
Amherst, MA
$1,500 Commissioning of a new work from Gregory W. Brown of Northampton, to be performed in January 2012 in Nothampton and Northfield.
The Main Street Singers
New Britain, CT
$500 Provides general support for expansion of the Main Street Singers Community Choir Program, which consists of after-school community choirs for children in grades 3-4 in public schools in Plainville, Farmington and New Britain, CT.
Master Singers of Worcester
Worcester, MA
$1,000 Presentation of Arthur Honegger's dramatic work Le Roi David in English and in the original scoring at Worcester's largest synagogue. The performance will include a professional orchestra and vocal soloists.
The Monadnock Chorus
Peterborough, NH
$1,000 To support a performance of Duke Ellington's three Sacred Concerts to mark the 113th anniversary of his birth on April 28 and 29, 2012. As part of the concert a special program will be created to educate local students about Ellington, the most influential African-American composer and musician of the 20th century.
Mystic River Chorale
Mystic, CT
$800 An audience development initiative, pairing a little-known, rarely heard choral-orchestral work (Handel's Chandon Anthem #11, "Let God Arise") with another, more familiar, work (Mozart's "Credo" Mass, K. 257). The goal is to improve outreach to underserved populations, including homebound senior citizens.
Oratorio Chorale, Brunswick Me
Brunswick, ME
$1,000 A five-day residency program with the Vancouver-based instrumental trio the Orchid Ensemble in April 2012. The Orchid Ensemble will join the Chorale in concerts of World Music and Chinese Fusion music and will conduct programs on East-West music at Maine schools and Temple Beth-El in Portland.
Rhode Island Civic Chorale & Orchestra
Cranston, RI
$2,000 To support the fourth annual RICCO collegiate soloist competition. Soloist winners would be featured in an all-Bach concert in late March 2012 that would include the Cantata No 4 and the Mass in G Major.
RPM Voices of Rhode Island
Providence, RI
$1,500 To support a five-day choral workshop exploring the music of the African-American choral experience. The workshop will introduce choral literature, basic technique, and some discussion of historical perspective of styles such as spirituals, art songs, jazz, blues and gospel songs. The workshop will conclude with a concert presentation.

2010–2011

Recipient Amount Purpose
Cappella Clausura
Newtonville, MA
$1,000 Late 2010 performances in Newton, Concord and Boston. Additional voices and instruments are needed to augment Cappella Clausura for this music.
Con Brio Choral Society
Centerbrook, CT
$1,000 Family Concert on December 12, 2010 in Old Lyme, CT. 12-piece orchestra spread through the audience to allow children a closer experience, coupled with semi-round seating permitting children to interact in many ways.
Exsultemus
Cambridge, MA
$1,000 16th to 18th century Portuguese polyphony for December 2010 performances in Boston, Cambridge, Lowell and New Bedford.
Nashua Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
Nashua, NH
$2,000 November 20 and 21, 2010. Collaborative performances in Nashua, NH with Lexington Symphony, New World Chorale, and Boston Children's Chorus.
New Hampshire Master Chorale
Meredith, NH
$2,000 April 30, 2011 and May 1, 2011 in Plymouth and Concord, NH. Opera/oratorio for voice with chamber orchestra to accompany the silent film, The Passion of Joan of Arc.
The Providence Singers
E. Providence, RI
$2,000 January 2011 in Warwick, RI. Partnership with Rhode Island College and regional high schools to provide a day of choral training and mentorship for junior high school and high school male singers.
Rhode Island Children's Chorus, Inc.
Harrisville, RI
$1,000 Program to allow college-level music majors a small stipend for work to acquire skills for music teaching, conducting and training of children's choruses.
Women in Harmony
Portland, ME
$1,000 "Moving On," May 2011 at Woodfords Church, Portland, ME. Concert on the theme of immigration, including a premiere performance of a song cycle by Erica Quinn-Easter, a Maine composer, and an appearance by Pihcintu, a chorus of first-generation immigrant children.
Youth Pro Musica
West Newton, MA
$1,500 Season-long project to fund need-based tuition in support of efforts to increase membership.

2009–2010

Recipient Amount Purpose
Blue Heron Renaissance Choir
Auburndale, MA
$1,000 For a program at St. Paul Church in Cambridge on October 16 (with a second performance in New York City) of music from the Peterhouse Partbooks.
Concord Women's Chorus
Concord, MA
$2,000 For a concert of works by women composers on May 8, 2010 to include a commission of a work by Libby Larsen based on poems by Concord women poets.
Connecticut Early Music Society
New London, CT
$2,000 For a concert entitled “Grand Motets in the Era of the Sun King” to include compositions by Lully and Rameau.
Counterpoint
Montpelier, VT
$1,750 For a free concert in Burlington on September 26 entitled “Sing for Peace,” which will involve six other Vermont choruses: Bella Voce, Essex Children's Choir, Sounding Joy, Syrinx, Maple Jam, Pumpkin Hill Singers.
Crescendo Inc.
Lakeville, CT
$1,750 For a concert of little known treasures of Latin American Renaissance and Baroque choral music.
New Haven Chorale
New Haven, CT
$2,000 For a concert on May 16, 2010 featuring the Alturas Duo and Central and South American choral and folk music with indigenous instrumentation; the concert will include Ariel Ramirez's Missa Criolla.
New Haven Oratorio Choir and Orchestra
New Haven, CT
$1,500 For organizational restructuring to include a consultant in Arts Management (with the additional help of the Kennedy Center's Arts in Crisis Program).
Pro Arte Singers
Stamford, CT
$1,000 For a concert performance of Frank Martin's Songs of Ariel.
Zamir Chorale
Boston, MA
$1,000 For an Open Sing in December of Handel's Judas Maccabeus and choral music for Chanukah.

2008–2009

Recipient Amount Purpose
Amare Cantare
Durham, NH
$1,100 To present the Romancero Gitano by Mario Castelnuevo-Tedesco, a chamber work for chamber chorus and guitar. Performances will be given in Exeter, Newington and Durham, NH.
Cappella Clausura
Newtonville, MA
$2,000 For two concerts of secular motets by Vittoria Aleotti together with the sacred motets of the nun, Rafaella Aleotti, arranged for female voices, with 10 professional singers and three instrumentalists.
Chorus of Westerly
Westerly, RI
$2,000 For two performances of Charles Villier Stanford's rarely performed Stabat Mater. The chorus, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, will provide a free master class for voice students from local high schools and colleges.
Da Camera Singers
Amherst, MA
$1,000 To commission and perform "Elephant Rocks" by Lewis Spratlan, a setting of a poem by Kay Ryan, as part of the group's 35th anniversary season. Performances will be given at Amherst College and as part of the inaugural year of the Rhodes Arts Center at Northfield Mount Hermon School.
Emmanuel Music
Boston, MA
$1,000 To support, as part of the Craig Smith Memorial Season, a concert in April 2009 that will include the complete choral motets of J.S. Bach in one evening.
The Main Street Singers
New Britain, CT
$1,500 To support establishment of a Junior Choir for children in grades 3–5, a new program that will broaden the scope of the existing chorus, which is an auditioned community chorus for grades 5–8. While the Junior Choir will be open to all children in the New Britain area, the target populations will be boys and African-American and Latino children of both genders.
Master Singers
Lexington, MA
$2,000 To support the commissioning of a new work by William Bolcom in honor of the group's 40th anniversary.
New Haven Oratorio Choir
New Haven, CT
$2,000 To support a mentorship program, hiring four professionally-trained ensemble singers who will serve as enhanced section leaders and mentors to the group's volunteer singers for the entire 2008–09 season.
The Providence Singers
Providence, RI
$2,500 To support the New England premiere of Dominick Argento's Jonah and the Whale and the first commercial recording of that work. The performances will include a children's matinee to introduce choral music to children, particularly those with limited access to performing arts education.
Spectrum Singers
Cambridge, MA
$1,500 To support a performance of Franz Schubert's late choral works, called “A Life's Journey Assessed.” In an effort to reach new audiences, a special $15 introductory ticket price has been introduced for new patrons.

2007–2008

Recipient Amount Purpose
Bella Voce Womens Chorus of Vermont
Essex Junction, VT
$3,000 To commission a holiday work by Robert De Cormier for women's voices and instrumentation, based on African-American spirituals.
Boston Secession
Boston, MA
$1,500 To support the world premiere of Cambridge composer Ruth Loman's Testimony of Witnesses. Based on the poetry of Holocaust victims and survivors, the work is scored for chorus, orchestra and SATB soloists.
Brookline Chorus
Brookline, MA
$1,500 To help support the performance Duke Ellington's Sacred Service.
Cantemus
Lynnfield, MA
$1,500 To fund the winning entry in a choral composition competition for New England university students. The work eventually will be performed by Cantemus, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary year.
Chatham Chorale
West Dennis, MA
$1,500 To support the commission and premiere of Why I Wake Early by Ron Perera. Based on a text by Cape Cod resident Mary Oliver, the work is being co-commissioned by the New Amsterdam Singers of NYC.
King's Chapel Concert Series
Boston, MA
$1,000 To help support a year-long homage to Daniel Pinkham. Events will include performances of Pinkham works and commissions of new choral pieces by Carson Cooman and Kevin Siegfried.
New England Classical Singers
Andover, MA
$1,500 To partially fund a collaborative performance of the Fauré Requiem with area high school students. Preparation will include master classes at each high school conducted by NECS artistic director David Hodgkins.
Oratorio Chorale
Brunswick, ME
$1,200 To cover expenses associated with the Chorale's performance with the Portland Symphony of Vineet Shende's Three Longfellow Poems, a Symphony commission.

2006–2007

Recipient Amount Purpose
Bella Voce Womens Chorus of Vermont
Essex Junction, VT
$1,000 To record six works for women's voices in collaboration with Gwyneth Walker. The CDs will be distributed to choral conductors to give the Vermont composer national exposure, and sold to help support the chorus.
Capella Clausura
Newton, MA
$1,000 To support an unusual program of music for women's voices, “Dialogues: Opera in the Convents.” In addition to examples of the 16th-century concertato style, the program will include excerpts from Hildegard von Bingen's Ordo Virtutem and two selections by contemporary women composers.
Convivium Musicum
Somerville, MA
$1,000 To hire six professional instrumentalists for a program of music from 16th-century Spain and Mexico, including a motet for double chorus and instruments, with cornet, trombones, bajón, organ and harpist.
Coro Allegro
Boston, MA
$2,500 To defray music production and duplication costs for the fall 2006 world premiere of Shofar, an oratorio for soprano, tenor, two bass-baritones, mixed chorus and orchestra by Dr. Robert Stern.
Counterpoint
Belmont, VT
$1,500 To support the participation of professional artists in day-long workshops to be held in March and April 2007 at three New England high schools. The culmination of each workshop will be a joint rehearsal and evening concert of multi-cultural works.
Nashua Symphony Orchestra and Choral Society
Nashua, NH
$1,000 To launch “The Ripple Effect” program for the creation of new vocal music from student poetry set by professional composers, to be performed by the chorus and orchestra.
The New Hampshire Master Chorale
Meredith, NH
$3,250 To support the cost of soloists and collaborative musicians for a major concert in May 2007, to include the U.S. premiere of Qinisela Sibisi's Zulu Mass.
The New Haven Chorale
New Haven, CT
$2,000 To support the commission of a new, reduced orchestration of Bloch's Sacred Service, to be premiered in March 2007.
Winchester Community Music School
Winchester, MA
$1,000 To fund artistic salaries for a new intergenerational community chorus. With seniors and home-schooled students a special focus, the chorus would combine group vocal training, Dalcroze eurythmics and performance.

2005–2006

Recipient Amount Purpose
Back Bay Chorale
Boston, MA
$2,750 An Artists in Residence Program, with up to eight choral and vocal music students from Boston area music schools, to provide emerging musicians with experience in educational technique and performance and to strengthen relationships between the music education community, chorus, and audience.
Boston Cecilia
Boston, MA
$3,000 A concert featuring Handel's dramatic one-act cantata The Choice of Hercules, in only its second performance in the U.S, to be performed with period instruments at Jordan Hall on November 5, 2005.
Boston City Singers
Dorchester, MA
$1,000 A commissioned work, Vietnamese Journey, an arrangement of five Vietnamese folk songs for children's chorus by composer Margaret King, to be premiered in the chorus's winter holiday concerts in December 2005, with additional performances during a summer tour in 2006.
Cambridge Community Chorus
Cambridge, MA
$2,000 Premiere of a commissioned work by Argentinean composer Luis Bacalov based on the Psalms of David, with text in Hebrew, Latin, Spanish, and English, at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, May 21, 2006.
Community Chorus at South Berwick
South Berwick, ME
$1,300 A commissioned work from Kevin Siegfried based on writings of Sarah Orne Jewett, to be premiered in an April, 2006 concert called “A River Runs Through Us” that celebrates the region's heritage and the chorus's 30th anniversary.
Souhegan Valley Chorus
Amherst, NH
$1,500 Assist in purchasing music for a concert at Souhegan High School Auditorium in May, 2006 of music by, for, and about children. The concert will include children from a local Middle School and is part of an effort by the multi-generational chorus to increase youth membership and expand its audience.
Westford Chorus
Westford, MA
$1,000 A commissioned work by composer Stephen Peisch on an “Americana” theme and based on text by American poet/author, to be premiered in the chorus's “Pops” concert in June, 2006.

2004–2005

Recipient Amount Purpose
The Boston Secession
Boston, MA
$1,500 Live concert of choral music to accompany Jean Cocteau's 1949 film, Orphée, at the Somerville Theatre in Somerville, MA, March 12, 2005 (two performances).
Brattleboro Music Center's Repertory Singers
Brattleboro, VT
$1,500 Performance of works by 18th century Cuban composer Esteban Salas, whose music blends Baroque and Caribbean influences and is not generally available in the U.S.
Concora
New Britain, CT
$1,000 Concert of “Remembrance and Hope” featuring Donald McCullogh's newly composed Holocaust Cantata, based on Polish folk music and poetry from U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum archives, to be performed in the Hartford area November 13 & 14, 2004.
Concord Chorale
Concord, NH
$1,000 Two holiday performances of Handel's Judas Maccabaeus, to include a treble choir of students from area middle/high schools, December 11 & 12, 2004, in Concord.
Coro Allegro
Boston, MA
$1,750 Premiere performance of a commissioned work by composer Patricia Van Ness, a Requiem for SATB chorus, baritone soloist, strings, oboe, and French horn, to be performed in Boston November 4, 2004.
Danbury Concert Chorus
Danbury, CT
$1,500 Performance of the Brahms Requiem to be presented free of charge to the Danbury community, May 2005.
Newburyport Choral Society
Newburyport, MA
$1,000 Two performances of a commissioned oratorio on an American theme by Charles Fussell, written in celebration of the group's 70th anniversary. To feature soloist Stephen Salters and to include community outreach efforts centered around the piece, including particular effort to enroll high school students in the chorus and public lectures by the composer and soloist. May, 2005.
PALS Children's Chorus
Brookline, MA
$1,750 Commission of piece for children's chorus to celebrate PALS's 15th anniversary, to be performed at Jordan Hall on April 3, 2005.
Portland Concert Association
Portland, ME
$1,000 Choral Residency Program, a three-day series of education events in October, 2004, to be conducted by University of Michigan Professor Jerry Blackstone (this year's Resident) and to include clinics for local choirs, a recertification workshop for educators, and high school honor choir rehearsals and concert; offered in collaboration with the University of Southern Maine School of Music.

2003–2004

Recipient Amount Purpose
Amare Cantare
Durham, NH
$1,000 Performances March 27 and 28, 2004 of Bach Cantatas No. 21 and No. 131, an event that will enrich the cultural climate of the New Hampshire seacoast region, draw upon various branches of the artistic community, and expand the horizons of this 25-member group.
Boston Cecilia and Coro Allegro
Boston, MA
$2,500 Support for a strategic, two-year collaborative partnership for large-scale performances such as Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem in March 2004, and later in the spring the Poulenc Gloria and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms.
Cambridge Madrigal Singers
Cambridge, MA
$1,000 Support a joint venture with the MacDowell Colony to perform and promote a broad cross-section of 20th century American a cappella choral music and enhance awareness and outreach opportunities for both organizations.
Cantemus
Ipswich, MA
$2,000 Annual free Family Concert, designed to educate and excite young audiences about music and its possibilities for them, to introduce new audiences to choral music, and to build this 40-member group's audience and funding base.
Greenwich Choral Society
Greenwich, CT
$2,500 To support an effort to bring chorus and community closer through a program of traditional and classical Latin American music to be performed May 2, 2004 with participation from a local children's choir and Latino soloists.
The Providence Singers
Providence, RI
$1,000 A new eight-week annual program that will raise the profile of choral education in Rhode Island and nurture young talent. The “Junior Providence Singers @ the Music School” program will culminate in an inaugural performance February 29, 2004.
The Seraphim Singers
Malden, MA
$1,000 Commissioning of three new sacred choral works from Boston area composers to be premiered in three sacred spaces during the 2003–2004 season.
Women in Harmony
Portland, ME
$1,000 To support marketing, outreach, and audience-building for this 50-member women's chorus that seeks to provide learning opportunities for women, to make choral music accessible to the community, and to promote the work of women composers.

2002–2003

Recipient Amount Purpose
Mad River Chorale for Counterpoint
Waitsfield, VT
$1,500 To assist with artistic costs during a period of new repertoire development and for the inaugural performances of new works for high school audiences by this small, 11-member group under the direction of Robert DeCormier.
New England Classical Singers
Andover, MA
$2,000 Provide seed money for launch of a professional support structure for publicity, development and choral arts management.
Newton Choral Society
Newton, MA
$1,500 Commission Charles Shadle of New England Seasonal, a cantata of poems of Dickinson, Longfellow, Emerson, Thoreau and Frost, to be performed in March 2003.
Youth pro Musica
West Newton, MA
$2,000 Contribute to a commission fund for a premiere performance of new works by women composers, to be performed in March 2003.

2001–2002

Recipient Amount Purpose
Brattleboro Music Center Community Chorus
Brattleboro, VT
$1,500 Commission Vermont coposer Paul Dedell to arrange original settings of Shaker songs for chorus and chamber orchestra, to be performed in January 2002.
Cantilena
Cambridge, MA
$1,500 Commission a work from Kenneth Seitz and perform a concert of wworks for women's voices from the Second New England Schjool of American Art Music.
The Heritage Chorale
Framingham, MA
$1,000 Performance of Thomas Oboe Lee's Mass for the Holy Year 2000, which was premiered at Boston College in April, 2000. The performance will celebrate the chorus's 65th year and John Finney's 15th anniversary as music director.
The Master Singers
Lexington, MA
$1,500 To develop a strategic plan and brochure to be used for marketing and development.
PALS Children's Chorus
Brookline, MA
$2,000 Commisioning and performance of a work by Turkish-American composer Mehmet Sanlikol, entitled Ergenekon, the performance to be at Jordan Hall in winter or spring of 2002.

2000–2001

Recipient Amount Purpose
Burlington Choral Society
Burlington, VT
$1,000 Performances of Mendelsson's Elijah and J.S. Bach's Saint Matthew Passion during the 2000–2001 season.
Coro Allegro
Boston, MA
$2,000 Edit, produce and market a second commercial CD.
Keene Chorale, Inc.
Keene, NH
$1,000 Support for hiring orchestra and soloists for one performance during the 2000 concert season.
Masterworks Chorale
Lexington, MA
$2,000 For professional soloists who will perform in the “Celebrating Our Chorale Heritage” concert.
Pioneer Valley Symphony and Chorus
Greenfield, MA
$1,500 A performance of Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem, and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, at the fine arts center of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Providence Singers, Inc.
Providence, RI
$1,500 To support the move to a new venue, the Veterans Memorial Auditorium.

1999–2000

Recipient Amount Purpose
The Cantata Singers
Boston, MA
$1,500 Commissioning and premiere of a new work by Andy Vores to mark the turning of the millennium.
Manchester NH Choral Society
Manchester, NH
$1,500 Performances of the Requiems of Fauré and Duruflé on the chorus's 40th Anniversary.
Elm City Girls' Choir
New Haven, CT
$1,300 Development of a marketing plan to promote the choir as a premier girls ensemble.
Newton Choral Society
Newton, MA
$1,200 Commissioning and premiere of a new work by Patricia Van Ness to mark the 20th Anniversary of David Carrier's tenure as Director of the chorus.
Portland ME Community Chorus
Portland, ME
$1,000 The “Festival of Choruses and Beyond” Project in Maine.
Spectrum Singers, Inc
Cambridge, MA
$1,000 Support marketing of the Spectrum Singers' 20th Anniversary Gala Commemorative Concert in Jordan Hall.
Vermont Symphony Chorus
Burlington, VT
$1,500 Performances of Mozart's Mass in C minor and other works in concerts next season.

1998–1999

Recipient Amount Purpose
Chorus Pro Musica
Boston, MA
$4,000 Opening concert of the 50th Anniversary Season.
CONCORA/Connecticut Choral Artists
Hartford, CT
$1,000 A concert of works by Ned Rorem.
Providence Singers
Providence, RI
$1,000 The world premier performance of The Passion of Mary Magdalene by Providence composer Elaine Bearer.
Portsmouth Women's Chorus
Portsmouth, NH
$1,000 Two performances of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater.
Northern Harmony
Plainfield, VT
$1,000 Commissioning of a work for a double chorus by Erik Nielsen, to be performed by Northern Harmony on tour in conjuction with local choruses.
New Haven Chorale
New Haven, CT
$1,000 A free concert of choral works by two African-American composers.

1997–1998

Recipient Amount Purpose
Boston Baroque
Cambridge, MA
$2,800 A concert of Moravian music, and the research required to develop the concert program.
Chorus of Westerly
Westerly, RI
$1,000 A summer choral workshop in New Hampshire directed by the noted English choral conductor, Sir David Willcocks.
Convivium Musicum
Somerville, MA
$990 Out-of-state concerts of Renaissance music in Portland, Maine and Providence, Rhode Island.
Monadnock Chorus and Orchestra
Peterborough, NH
$1,000 Commissioning of a work by composer John David Earnst, associated with the MacDowell Colony, for a performance to celebrate the MacDowell Colony.
P. A. L. S.
Brookline, MA
$1,000 Commissioning and performance a work for children's chorus by Boston composer Bret Silverman, in Winter 1997–98.
Zamir Chorale
Newton, MA
$1,000 Commissioning of a work from composer Meira Maxine Warschauer to document the 50th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, to be premiered in spring 1998.

1996–1997

Recipient Amount Purpose
Bagaduce Music Lending Library
Blue Hill, ME
$1,100 To help the library buy large numbers of copies of 1–2 of the most frequently requested choral works that the library is not able to lend at present.
Boston Cecilia
Boston, MA
$1,300 Commissioning and world premiere performance of a new sacred work with a Christmas theme, by Boston composer James Woodman
Boston Gay Men's Chorus
Boston, MA
$1,000 Support of a New England regional festival of gay and lesbian choruses.
The Master Singers
Lexington, MA
$1,000 A concert that will include the Boston Composers String Quartet.
Russian Chamber Chorus
Framingham, MA
$1,800 To help produce the musical scores for, and present the Boston premiere of, Alexander Katalsky's Requiem (Memorial for Fallen Heroes).

1995–1996

Recipient Amount Purpose
Blanche Moyse Chorale
Brattleboro, VT
$2,300 Two of the concerts of the October, 1995 New England Bach Festival: Bach’s St. John Passion and Bach motets, and the Mass by Frank Martin.
Cambridge Madrigal Singers
Cambridge, MA
$925 A concert of polychoral works, “From Venice to Boston,” including a newly-commissioned work by a Boston composer.
Coro Allegro
Boston, MA
$1,850 Commissioning a work in celebration of the chorus' fifth anniversary
Maine Gay Men's Chorus
Portland, ME
$925 Commissioning a work from Daniel Pinkham for four-part men's chorus and string quartet, for perfomance in July, 1996.

1994–1995

Recipient Amount Purpose
Boston Cecilia
Boston, MA
$1,000 Program of J.S. Bach cantatas that were later incorporated into the Mass in B minor.
Boston Gay Men's Chorus
Boston, MA
$1,000 Engineering and producing a recording project of choral works by ten American composers, none previously recorded and seven commissioned by the BGMC.
CONCORA/Connecticut Choral Artists
Hartford, CT
$1,000 A concert on October 15, 1994 by the combined chamber choirs of five high schools joining the professional Concora chorus
Zamir Chorale
Newton, MA
$1,000 A November, 1994 performance of local premieres of choral works composed in the Terezin concentration camp.

1993–1994

Recipient Amount Purpose
A Cappella Singers
Natick, MA
$1,000 Thirtieth anniversary concert featuring a cantata by Mrs. H.A.A. Beach.
American Choral Directors' Association
MA
$1,000 Festival of community choruses, including commission of a work for the festival by Daniel Pinkham.
Blanche Moyse Chorale/New England Bach Festival
Brattleboro, VT
$1,000 Performances of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion for the 25th anniversary of the festival.
Cambridge Madrigal Singers
Cambridge, MA
$795 Special concerts for children in June 1994.
The Master Singers
Lexington, MA
$900 April 94 program of works by Schütz, Stravinsky and Schoenberg.
The Chorus of Westerly
Westerly, RI
$1,000 Fifth annual choral workshop, led by Sir David Willcocks.

1992–1993

Recipient Amount Purpose
Assabet Valley Mastersingers
Northborough, MA
$500 A “Meet the Conductor” lecture delivered by Music Director Robert P. Eaton, on Orff's Carmina Burana.
Back Bay Chorale
Boston, MA
$1,000 Spring 1993 performance of Robert Kyr's Unseen Rain, revised by the composer for this chorus.
Northeast Kingdom Chorus
Hardwick, VT
$900 Funding for a small baroque orchestra to perform with the Chorus in the Christmas 1992 concert entitled “In Dulci Jubilo: A Baroque”.
Alice Parker Choral Festival
Hawley, MA
$1,000 Choral festival in celebratation of the bicentennial of the Town of Hawley, Massachusetts.
Portsmouth Women's Chorus
Portsmouth, NH
$900 Support research on Early American Music for women's voices-work songs, parlor songs, songs about women's rights, temperance and slavery.
Old Stoughton Musical Society
Stoughton, MA
$800 November 1992 concert entitled “Masterworks of Romanticism in American Music,” featuring landmarks of 19th Century choral music.
Youth Pro Musica
West Newton, MA
$1,000 Support Youth Pro Musica's participation in Day of Discovery in Massachusetts as host to a choral event in Boston open to inner-city school children.

1991–1992

Recipient Amount Purpose
Boston Cecilia
Boston, MA
$800 to support the presentation of two world premiers: Boston composer Robert Sirota's Mass, and Love Canzonets by Cambridge composer Richard St. Clair
Russian Chamber Chorus
Framingham, MA
$800 Performance of the complete Rachmaninoff Vespers sung in Russian
Bagaduce Music Lending LIbrary
Blue Hill, ME
$800 Purchase of additional choral works of Mozart to meet increased demand for rentals
Rhode Island Civic Chorale
Providence, RI
$400 Marketing and distributing scores and tapes of Paul Nelson's Cantata Psalmorum, a performance funded by ANPF last year
Jubilate Chorale
Brockton, ME
$600 Performance Mozart's Grand Mass in C minor with orchestra

1990–1991

Recipient Amount Purpose
Bagaduce Music Lending Library
Blue Hill, ME
$1,000 Support compilation of three new choral catalogs, expanding the listing to 7,000 titles of multiple copies.
Chatham Chorale
West Dennis, MA
$600 Commission and perform a new choral work by Ron Perera to honor retired music director, Marjorie Bennett Morley.
CONCORA/Connecticut Choral Artists
Hartford, CT
$1,000 Four performances of a birthday tribute to composers of the 20th century.
Newton Choral Society
Newton, MA
$750 Commissioning of a choral work by Alan Fletcher, Professor of Theory and Composition at New England Conservatory, on texts of Yeats.
Rhode Island Civic Chorale
Providence, RI
$800 Commissioning an original work by Paul Nelson on the occasion of his 60th birthday
Chorus of Westerly
Westerly, RI
$850 American premiere of Mass of the Sea by British composer Paul Patterson, on May 19, 1990

1989–1990

Recipient Amount Purpose
Acadia Choral Society
Franklin, ME
$800 Performance of Brahms's German Requiem with full orchestra with success in a small community (10th anniversary concert).
Bagaduce Music Lending Library
Blue Hill, ME
$800 Acquisition of ten Bach oratorios and cantatas, which have been in great demand.
Chorus Pro Musica
Boston, MA
$800 For its 40th anniversary concert and celebration.
Musica Sacra
Cambridge, MA
$800 Commissioning and performing a new work by its accompanist, Terry Halco, based on poems of Rilke.
Portsmouth Women's Chorus
Portsmouth, NH
$700 A centennial concert of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with another chorus and dance group.

1988–1989

Recipient Amount Purpose
Bagaduce Music Lending Library
Blue Hill, ME
$750 Towards updating their catalogs.
Cambridge Chorale
Cambridge, MA
$380 Two spring concerts of rarely performed works for women's voices.
Guilford Chamber Singers
Guilford, VT
$300 To publish a Requiem Mass for six voices by Tomas de Vittoria.
Lawrence Choral Arts
Natick, MA
$580 To expand their concert series in a musically deprived area (for an anniversary season).
Onion River Chorus
VT
$420 World premere of Primavera

1987–1988

Recipient Amount Purpose
Bagaduce Music Lending Library
Blue Hill, ME
  To support continuing efforts to establish and expand the library
Chorus Pro Musica
Boston, MA
$700 Innovative programming of rarely-heard contemporary music, to include John Harbison's Flower-Fed Buffaloes and Schoenberg folk-song settings
Concord Chorale
Concord, MA
$600 Preparation and performance costs for the Monteverdi “Vespro della Beata Vergine", to be performed with period instruments
New Haven Chorale
New Haven, CT
$460 To enable the organization to join the Arts Computer Consortium
Pro Arte Society
Osterville, MA
$470 In recognition of innovative programming and to support extension of performances to a wider Cape audience

1986–1987

Recipient Amount Purpose
Bagaduce Music Lending Library
Blue Hill, ME
$1,075 Specialized catalogues essential to keep choral societies informed of music categories available to borrowers.
Cantata Singers
Boston, MA
$600 Commissioning Flight Into Egypt by John Harbison.
Guilford Chamber Singers
Guilford, VT
$575 Performances of the little-known Missa Scala Aretina by Francisco Valls (1672–1747) in Brattleboro and Amherst.
North Country Chorus
Wells River, VT
$500 A week-long choral workshop beginning August 3, conducted by Robert Page, assistant conducor and director of choruses of the Cleveland Orchestra.
Spectrum Singers
Cambridge, MA
$700 For the Organization Development Project, which aims to present more challenging works to sophisticated audiences throughout the region
Youth Pro Musica
West Newton, MA
$550 Commisioning of Street Music by Jeffrey Fischer, for the fall of 1986.

1985–1986

Recipient Amount Purpose
Bagaduce Music Lending Library
Blue Hill, ME
$780 for support of its non-profit choral music lending service
John Oliver Chorale
Cambridge, MA
$590 to assist its second recording project onto CD, including Pinkham's Christmas Cantata, Feb 1985
Onion River Music Festival
VT
$750 to provide partial support for the Sixth Annual Vermont Choral Festival, Randolph, VT
Assabet Valley Mastersingers
Northborough, MA
$560 to help underwrite a series of unusual concert programs and workshops
The Greater Middletown Chorale
Middletown, CT
$500 to assist underwriting cost of its JS Bach 300 Festival, Concert and Symposium, Oct 1984
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