Notes and Phrases

Besides being excellent vocalists and musicians, choral singers have to be great team players. 

Everyone has to know his or her strengths and weaknesses (and self-knowledge can be so elusive!), and contribute accordingly.  In performance, some lead in providing imp...

Our American culture is famously and proudly individualistic, partly a reaction to and flight from the oppressive class systems of the Old World.  We should surely be grateful for the great leap of faith, strongly influenced by John Locke's utilitarian individualism, t...

In The Merchant of Venice, Portia exclaims, seeing a light burning in her hall, “How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.” 

The light known as Fanny Lou Hamer was born 100 years ago today in Montgomery County, Mississippi, t...

As you may know, the composer for the 2017 Ketterling Carol is Daniel Kallman.  As you may not know, the delivery date for his Christmas "present" is this weekend.  So even as we type and read, Dan is putting the finishing touches on his version of the Wexford Carol ("...

When I opened my mailbox yesterday, I found Weston Noble staring benignly up at me from the cover of Choral Journal magazine.  Weston died last December at the ripe old age of 94, and has been celebrated in numerous and far-flung concerts and services in the past year,...

We were contacted this past summer by Matt Camrud, a former CAE Board member and highly accomplished pianist.  His beloved mother, Cynthia Larson, passed away last February, and he wanted to explore ways of celebrating her life.  Since she, too, loved choral music, Mat...

As we prepare this first concert, we will happily spend more than a little time polishing Benjamin Britten's CANTATA MISERICORDIUM, a small masterwork written in 1963.  

Britten's librettist, Patrick Wilkinson, expanded and dramatized the great parable, from Luke 10, of...

The 33rd season of Choral Arts Ensemble is officially underway, now that we have met and rehearsed this past Tuesday evening.  The singers did not betray many signs of summer rustiness, and lovely sounds are already emerging.  

This first concert, SPEAKING TRUTH TO...

If you got our 2017-18 Season Brochure, arriving in mailboxes this week, you may have seen an interesting infographic about the impact of the arts. Here is a version with the links to the relevant source materials. 

And if it turns out you didn't get the season bro...

We really appreciate our season ticket holders. To express that appreciation, we are including a guest ticket with every season ticket package. This ticket can be used at Speaking Truth to Power in October (either Rochester or Winona), the Minneapolis Guitar Quart...