Drawing on a diverse and evolving population, the choral culture of the United States reflects the multiplicity of contemporary American society. Whether in worship, protest, recreational, or concert settings, people of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, and creeds comprise the country’s dynamic singing community. According to the 2009 Chorus Impact Study published by Chorus America , more people in the United States are involved in choral singing than in any other performing art. Approximately 22.9 percent of American households have at least one member in a chorus. An estimated 42.6 million singers participate in one or more of 270,000 religious, academic, children’s, community, and professional choirs. 1 This abundant choral landscape is enriched by America’s diverse population of composers and supported by a variety of service organizations and advocacy groups.
Singing was an important part of religious life in the colonial era, but was largely unorganized. In the eighteenth century, musicians such as composer William Billings (1746–1800) spearheaded the establishment of “singing schools .” These traveling schools, lasting from a few days to several weeks in length, moved from town to town with the aim of improving the quality of congregational singing. Participants learned rudiments of vocal production, solmization, and part-singing. Alumni of the schools established church and community choirs throughout New England and the northeast United States . By the 1780s, organized choirs had become very widespread across New England.
In the early nineteenth century, Lowell Mason (1792–1872) and members of the Better Music Movement led a mission to permeate the culture with more complex music. This movement resulted in the establishment of music programs within the public schools, higher standards of church music, and the founding of the Boston Academy of Music in 1833. The rustic style of Billings ’s music was abandoned in New England in favor of a more European manner of composition. Singing school masters were relegated to rural areas in the south and west, where their style of singing, known as shape-note singing , used geometric shapes on a staff as visual cues to assist singers in learning to read music. Sacred Harp and Southern Harmony were two of the most popular collections of the folk songs and hymns of the era. Both are still used by shape-note singing societies across the country today.
Choral singing also flourished in insular populations such as the Shakers, Moravians, and Mormons. Music from the Shaker communities tended to be simple and was derived from the prosody of the chosen text. Thousands of Shaker tunes survive today, many of them standards of modern hymnody. The Moravians, immigrants from central Europe, developed an advanced musical culture in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This community had ready access to contemporary music from Europe and performed the American premieres of masterworks such as Haydn ’s The Creation as early as 1811. The Bethlehem Bach Festival , which presented the first American reading of Bach ’s Mass in B minor , BWV232, in 1900, is an outgrowth of this strong tradition. At the edge of the western frontier, the famed Mormon Tabernacle Choir was founded in 1847, just one month after the Mormons settled in Utah. This choir of over three hundred volunteer singers has gained worldwide fame, in part because of Music and the Spoken Word , its weekly program that has been broadcast on the radio since 1929 and televised since 1962.
The fervent religiosity of nineteenth-century America coincided with the development of gospel hymns: simple catchy songs with sacred texts and folk-based melodies. Gospel hymns were used at denominational camp meetings to teach Bible stories, particularly to the young. White gospel songs from this era, such as “Jesus Loves Me,” are common additions to today’s mainstream denominational hymnals. White gospel music continues to be used in worship by evangelical communities and has maintained wider popularity through recordings and radio broadcasts.
The style known today as “black gospel music” developed from a melting pot of styles, ranging from the hymnody of both black and white congregations to the camp-meeting spiritual songs composed by slaves in the early nineteenth century. Black musicians began combining these elements with the popular styles of jazz , ragtime , and blues to create a new genre of religious music that would have a lasting impact on music worldwide. By the turn of the twentieth century, black gospel music was a thriving art form, particularly in Pentecostal and Baptist churches in large urban centers such as Chicago and Detroit. The advent of radio and the recording industry greatly increased the audience for gospel music in the early 1900s. Groups such as the Golden Gate Quartet , along with gospel artists like Thomas A. Dorsey and Sallie Martin , propelled black gospel music into the mainstream of American culture. Many of today’s popular musicians and contemporary musical styles trace their roots to gospel music.
Choral music in modern American churches and synagogues varies greatly among and within denominations. Whether small or large, choirs play an important role in American religious communities. Religious choirs tend to be made up of volunteer singers of all ages and ability levels. Larger congregations often have graded choral programs of children’s, youth, and adult choirs. Churches may also employ a small number of professional singers to augment volunteer choristers. A select number of churches and synagogues, often based in larger city centers, have fully professional choirs to sing for worship. Some churches have organized choirs that developed into some of the country’s leading professional and community choral organizations. These include Voices of Ascension , founded by Dennis Keene at Church of the Ascension in New York City; Musica Sacra , founded by Richard Westenburg at New York City’s Central Presbyterian Church ; and VocalEssence (formerly the Plymouth Music Series), founded by Philip Brunelle at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Many religious choirs incorporate popular styles of music into their repertoire. Regardless of style, choral music continues to be a vital part of worship and liturgy in the United States .
Of the millions of adults singing in American choirs, the 2009 Chorus America Chorus Impact Study indicated that approximately 65 percent began singing when they were in primary or middle school. The study also revealed that, for many adults, this connection to choral music was cultivated early in life through exposure in the home to familial singing, radio broadcasts, recordings, and live performances. According to Chorus America, “introducing children to choral music opportunities when they are young develops future performers, audience members, and consumers of arts and culture well into adult years. Choral singing is an activity that fosters personal fulfillment and an appreciation of beauty for a lifetime . Moreover, singing with a chorus has life-long collateral benefits including fostering behaviors that lead to good citizenship.” 2
Music programs in public (i.e., state non-feepaying) schools vary dramatically throughout the United States . National standards for music education were developed by the Music Educators National Conference in 1994, and accompanied by legislation in the form of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, which included the arts as a core academic subject. The United States , however, does not regulate musical standards on a national level. American public schools are part of individual districts within each state. These districts are independent in policy and funding, and governed at the local level. Consequently, music programs differ greatly in scope depending on the traditions, culture, and values of each state, region, district, and school. In any given district, there may be public schools with flourishing choral and instrumental ensembles in close proximity to schools with limited or no musical opportunities.
Primary and secondary music programs serve students ages five through eighteen in kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, and high school. Depending on funding and staff, schools include a variety of curricular offerings including general and specialized music classes; children’s, men’s, and women’s choruses; mixed choirs, chamber ensembles, and madrigal groups. School districts with greater activity and administrative support may host annual district festivals, clinics, or honors ensembles. At the state level, professional service organizations also sponsor annual events such as the State Solo and Ensemble Contest or All-State music ensembles that bring together students from all districts in competitive and collaborative music-making forums.
School choral programs also provide opportunities to explore such American genres as musical theater , vocal jazz , and show choir . 3 Musical theater, which has as its centerpiece the popular song, offers students a more contemporary, interdisciplinary experience. Many high schools present elaborate annual productions ranging from such traditional shows as Rodgers and Hammerstein ’s Oklahoma! to more modern hits such as Stephen Sondheim ’s Into the Woods and Jonathan Larson ’s Rent .
Vocal jazz distinguishes itself from musical theater and show choir in several ways, the most important being the absence of choreography. According to Michael Weaver, “vocal jazz, in the purest sense, is about harmonic singing, improvisation and syncopated rhythms.” 4 Often considered the only musical form to have originated in the United States , jazz plays an important role in American music education. The activities of composer/educator/performers such as Phil Mattson , Kirby Shaw , Steve Zegree , and Bobby McFerrin have contributed to the widespread growth of vocal jazz education.
The study of jazz , musical theater , and show choir within public school programs has enriched the educational experience and increased student participation in music. However, Ronald McCurdy, president of the International Association of Jazz Educators from 2000 to 2002, challenged teachers and administrators to think more broadly about music education in the future: “If we subscribe to the notion that “As we live, so do we sing,” then we must listen to the lyrics of today’s global society! Leaders must acknowledge technology and music business, remain open-minded as to other genres of music . . . rather than teaching only what is familiar to them.” 5
This shift towards a more open-minded, multicultural perspective in teaching dates back to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and government reform of education during the 1970s, which served as social catalysts in the globalization of American music education. 6 National conferences such as the Tanglewood Symposium of 1967 provided a professional forum to evaluate the current and future state of music education up through the twenty-first century. 7 The final recommendations of this conference were summarized in the influential Tanglewood Declaration , which states that “music of all periods, styles, forms, and cultures belong in the curriculum.” 8 Over the next thirty years, major advances were made in the areas of teacher training, curriculum development, published resources, recordings, and media programs, all of which furthered a more global approach to music education. Multicultural advocates such as Mary Goetze have continued to challenge current thinking and practice around issues of authenticity, enculturation, and ownership. 9
Singing has long been popular on American college campuses. Student-governed ensembles were some of the first choirs in higher education. Harvard University ’s Glee Club was founded in 1858, followed by the University of Michigan ’s in 1859, Yale University ’s in 1861, and the University of Pennsylvania ’s in 1862. These glee clubs were founded as men’s choruses, but over time many of them became coeducational or were complemented by female counterparts such as the Radcliffe Choral Society , founded in 1899 at Harvard.
During the first quarter of the twentieth century, music studies at the university level became more formalized with the founding of such conservatories as the Juilliard School in 1905, Eastman School of Music in 1921, and Curtis Institute of Music in 1924. Many of America’s most influential collegiate choral ensembles were founded during this period. In 1906, Peter Lutkin founded the A Cappella Choir of the Northwestern University Conservatory of Music , making it the first permanent organization of its kind in America. F. Melius Christiansen (1871–1955), a Norwegian Lutheran immigrant, established the St. Olaf Choir in Northfield, Minnesota in 1912. Since its inception, this college choir has toured the world, setting new standards for choral excellence and instituting a tradition of distinctive choral music at Lutheran colleges throughout the country. Likewise, John Finley Williamson (1887–1964) – a Presbyterian church musician from Dayton, Ohio – became convinced that professionally trained ministers of music could best serve the needs of church music programs. In 1926, he founded what is now Westminster Choir College to train a new breed of choral musicians. The Westminster Choir gained great repute through radio broadcasts, international touring, and performances with the world’s finest orchestras and conductors. These early conductors and institutions were important proponents of the American a cappella choir movement that established regional choral traditions and schools of choral philosophy, influencing generations of students and audiences to come.
African-American institutions of higher learning made equally important contributions to the field of choral music. Through concert touring, the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University in Tennessee introduced the world to the concert spiritual in the 1870s. The famed Tuskegee Institute Choir , founded in 1886 by Booker T. Washington , reached international fame under William Dawson (1899–1990) and established traditions that have been adopted by the Morehouse and Spelman College Glee Club s in Atlanta, Georgia; the Morgan State University Choir in Baltimore, Maryland; as well as community and professional ensembles across the country. Spiritual arrangements have continued to evolve under such later composers as Moses Hogan and André Thomas , and are an established part of the American choral canon.
In addition to those mentioned previously, numerous faculty members in choral music have made significant contributions to the development of the choral art in the United States . In California, Howard Swan (1906–95), known as one of the founding fathers of American choral music, conducted the renowned Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs at Occidental College from 1934 to 1971. Swan’s student Charles Hirt (1911–2001) established the University of Southern California departments of Church and Choral Music in 1946. Hirt toured extensively, espousing the belief that music can be used as a force for social good. He was perhaps most influential as the teacher of noted conductors such as William Dehning , Dale Warland , and Lynn Whitten.
Another significant conductor-teacher was Harold Decker (1914–2003), who led the graduate program in conducting at the University of Illinois from 1957 to 1981. He also co-authored the preeminent resource book, Choral Conducting: A Symposium , with noted teacher Julius Herford (1901–81), who himself led the conducting program at Indiana University from 1964 to 1980. Influential conductors taught by Decker include choral leaders Anton Armstrong , René Clausen , Joseph Flummerfelt , and Jameson Marvin .
Herford’s influence extended beyond the academy to impact such recognized conductors as Robert Shaw , Roger Wagner , Elaine Brown , Fiora Contino , and Margaret Hillis . Other historic collegiate choral leaders include: Lorna Cooke deVaron at New England Conservatory of Music from 1947 to 1988; Robert Fountain at Oberlin College from 1948 to 1970, and at University of Wisconsin, Madison from 1971 to 1994; Weston Noble of the Luther College Nordic Choir from 1948 to 2005; and Lloyd Pfautsch at Southern Methodist University from 1958 to 1992.
While many school districts across the nation reflect healthy choral and instrumental music programs, an ever-increasing number of districts have been forced to reduce or even eliminate music from their curriculum due to financial constraints. In response, many civic arts organizations have garnered private and corporate support to develop educational programs that partner with public schools through artist residencies, in-school performances, music festivals, and curriculum workshops for classroom teachers.
In 1999, the Choral Arts Society of Washington, DC , discovered that only 40 percent of public schools in the city employed a music teacher. In collaboration with the District of Columbia Public Schools, this chorus developed an elementary music curriculum entitled artsACCESS (Arts for Children Creates Educational Success in Schools) to reinstate music strategically in four schools each year. Likewise, the Weill Institute of Carnegie Hall in New York City engages over 50,000 students and teachers annually in educational offerings for pre-school (Carnegie Kids), elementary school (Musical Explorers / LinkUP!), middle school (Perelman American Roots), and high school students (Citi Global Encounters / Cultural Exchange).
Professional music organizations such as the Cleveland Orchestra have developed tiered choir programs for singers from primary through secondary school to support music making and training within the public schools. Colleges and universities are also extending their outreach to include choral training for children and young adults. The Michigan State University Children’s Chorus (MSUCC), based in East Lansing, Michigan, is a Grammy-award-winning program founded in 1993. MSUCC focuses on the comprehensive education of choral musicians from early grade school through high school. Similar programs include the Indianapolis Children’s Choir at Butler University , the Indiana University Children’s Chorus , and the Syracuse Children’s Chorus , which works in collaboration with Syracuse University (New York).
Major city centers are also home to innovative community choral programs for children and youth. These organizations are leaders in fund-raising, membership, and educational outreach, and are known for creative programming, which often emphasizes global repertoire and commissioning. The Chicago Children’s Chorus administers a program that serves thousands of inner-city children through choirs in numerous Chicago schools, after-school neighborhood choirs, and a select Concert Choir. On the east coast, the Young People’s Chorus of New York City serves over a thousand children of diverse ethnic backgrounds in public schools through its Core After-School Program, the Satellite Program, and an affiliate program in Erie, Pennsylvania. The mission of the American Boychoir – a private boarding school for boys in Princeton, New Jersey – is to “sustain and move forward with a distinctively American voice the one-thousand-year-old boychoir school tradition.” 10 In the west, the internationally recognized San Francisco Girls Chorus serves as a regional center and training model “to create outstanding performances featuring the unique and compelling sound of young women’s voices through an exemplary music education program.” 11
The tradition of amateur choral singing can be traced back to early musical societies, which emerged during the nineteenth century with the growth of population and industry in northeastern urban centers. The Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, founded in 1815, grew out of the Better Music Movement (see page 115). Other choirs – such as the German-inspired singing society Deutsche Liederkranz (founded in New York in 1847) and the English glee club-inspired Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia (founded in 1874) – reflected the diverse cultural backgrounds of American immigrants. Many choral groups were originally established as men’s clubs, but a shift in focus to European art music soon brought women into these ensembles. By the late nineteenth century, choirs such as the Oratorio Society of New York , founded in 1873, were formed with the intent of singing large choral/orchestral works. These organizations became leading cultural institutions in their cities, introducing American audiences to such masterworks as Handel ’s Messiah , Brahms ’s Ein Deutsches Requiem , and Mahler ’s Symphony No. 8.
Today, a vast array of volunteer community choral organizations serves the millions of amateur vocalists living in the United States . Community ensembles range in size from small choirs that perform for local civic events to large artistic institutions. These ensembles perform a diverse range of choral repertoire spanning classical, jazz , barbershop , pop, folk, and global music. Many community choirs perform at a level similar to that of their professional counterparts. The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus , which gained repute under first Robert Shaw and later Robert Page , maintains the highest standards of performance and training while retaining its status as an entirely volunteer ensemble. Amateur singers also participate in seasonal and yearlong festivals such as Cincinnati’s historic May Festival Chorus and the Berkshire Choral Festival in Massachusetts.
Some community choirs extend their mission beyond high standards in concert performance to education and cultural preservation. For many singers, “the bridging of social gaps, the opening to different perspectives on life, even apart from the music itself, is one of the most rewarding and sustaining aspects of their choral singing.” 12 Through musical and educational programming, these ensembles strive to build community, and to raise awareness around such contemporary issues as the celebration of cultural heritage, social justice, interracial collaboration, and affirmation of sexual orientation.
The Zamir Chorale in Boston raises “awareness of the breadth and beauty of Jewish culture through performances, recordings, symposia, publications, and musical commissions.” 13 Welsh Gymanfa Ganu – festivals devoted to the singing of Welsh hymns – are popular annual events throughout the United States . In 1963, the country-and-Western singer Tennessee Ernie Ford released an album with the San Quentin Prison Choir . The growing number of choirs in American prisons connects singing with issues of social justice, providing inmates with a positive outlet for interaction, socialization, and enrichment. Singing City , founded in 1948 by Elaine Brown as an integrated choir in the inner city of Philadelphia, embodied the vision that racial, cultural, religious, and economic barriers could be overcome by the shared experience of choral singing. In the 1950s and 1960s – a time of deep racial conflict across the country – Singing City joined forces with the civil rights movement to present concerts to integrated audiences throughout the southern United States .
In the 1970s, choral music became a powerful tool for the gay and lesbian communities. This began with the founding of two organizations: the feminist vocal ensemble Anna Crusis Women’s Choir of Philadelphia (1975), and the Gotham Male Chorus in New York City (1977). In 1978, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus became the first openly gay ensemble in the United States . Over the next several years, gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender (GLBT) choruses were founded in major metropolitan centers nationwide, including the Seattle Men’s Chorus (1979), the Turtle Creek Chorale in Dallas (1980), and MUSE – Cincinnati Women’s Choir (1980). As of 2011, almost two hundred ensembles are listed as members of GALA Choruses, the national service organization of GLBT choirs.
Professional choirs in America differ from those in other parts of the world. Unlike countries in Europe and East Asia, where governments may support full-time professional choirs, the United States government provides very limited funding to the arts as a whole. Financial support for American arts organizations comes from a combination of federal and state grants, corporations, private foundations, and individual donors. As a result, the number of full-time, professional choruses is comparatively small. Among these ensembles are the Metropolitan Opera Chorus , military choruses such as the Air Force Singing Sergeants and Navy Sea Chanters , the male vocal chamber ensembles Chanticleer and Cantus , and popular groups such as the Manhattan Transfer and Rockapella .
A broader definition of professional choirs in America includes organizations that pay a designated core of their membership, or the entire ensemble, for selected artistic activity at various points throughout any given season. Examples include the Kansas City Chorale , the Miami-based Seraphic Fire , and the Austin, Texas ensemble Conspirare . There are also organizations with a largely volunteer membership supplemented by a core of professional singers. The Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia and the Pacific Chorale in California are among the many organizations that use this model. 14 Additionally, professional ensembles are often assembled to serve the needs of seasonal music festivals such as the Carmel Bach Festival in California, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale , the Oregon Bach Festival , and Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina.
The spread of professional and volunteer choirs during the twentieth century was a result of the work of visionary conductors who established ensembles and raised performance standards and public awareness through innovative programming, commissioning, recording, touring, and outreach. These conductors included: Fred Waring (1899–1986), founder of the Pennsylvanians and the Fred Waring Glee Club ; Eva Jessye (1895–1992), conductor of the Eva Jessye Chorale and noted for her work on George Gershwin ’s opera Porgy and Bess ; Robert Shaw (1916–99), leader of the Collegiate Chorale , the Robert Shaw Chorale , and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus ; Roger Wagner (1914–92), founder of the Roger Wagner Chorale and the Los Angeles Master Chorale ; and Margaret Hillis (1921–98), founder of the Chicago Symphony Chorus . In addition to their musical responsibilities, these individuals were composers, arrangers, collaborators, administrators, and choral ambassadors. Their individual and collective passion for the advancement of the choral art resulted in myriad opportunities for the next generation of choral musicians. The torch lit by these seminal figures has been passed on through the history of American choral music, linking future conductors to a heritage that continues to grow and evolve.
The foundation of choral repertoire in the United States extends back to African-American field hollers, European art music, gospel and folk songs, Native American chant , sacred music of all denominations, western ballads, and music of America’s diverse immigrant populations, informing an evolving body of traditional and contemporary music.
Through an initiative entitled American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) began awarding major grants in all areas of the arts to preserve and further the cultural heritage of the United States . Beginning in 2006, these funds supported composer residencies, workshops, concerts, and regional choir festivals presented by academic and community organizations from coast to coast. The initiative supported performances of works by American composers from all eras, including music by the composers listed below:
In the program overview, conductor Philip Brunelle wrote:
The composers in this compilation represent some of the finest musicians devoted to the choral art; they were chosen for their noted affinity for writing for voices coupled with their masterful sense of textual relationship to the music they compose. There are, of course, thousands of American choral composers down through history, and this roster of twenty-nine composers represents an important introduction to the richness and diversity of American choral music. 16
Other prominent American composers include John Adams , Amy Beach , Lukas Foss , Norman Dello Joio , Kirke Mechem , Meredith Monk , Vincent Persichetti , Daniel Pinkham , Undine Smith Moore , William Grant Still , Steven Stucky , and Gwyneth Walker . Twentieth-century immigrants such as Paul Hindemith , Ernest Bloch , Arnold Schoenberg , and Igor Stravinsky , along with jazz /Broadway music legends such as Dave Brubeck , Duke Ellington , George Gershwin , Jerome Kern , and Richard Rodgers , also made significant contributions to the American choral art. These artists, as well as countless others, have become part of the many stylistic traditions represented on contemporary concert programs.
Increasingly, many choirs have championed new music through the commissioning and performance of works by established and emerging composers. Community and professional choirs including the San Francisco Girls Chorus , the Young People’s Chorus of New York City , Chanticleer , the Esoterics , Gregg Smith Singers , and the former Dale Warland Singers have placed the cultivation of new music at the center of their mission. These choruses alone have commissioned and premiered hundreds of significant works for children and adults by many of the preeminent American and international composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The practice of commissioning and performing new music has become so much a part of the American choral culture that school, volunteer, and religious choirs of moderate size are now frequent supporters of living composers.
The cultivation of choral music across the United States is supported by numerous organizations that serve every aspect of the profession. The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) was founded in 1959 as a non-profit organization to promote excellence in choral singing and to advocate for the choral art in American society. With over 20,000 active members among conductors, teachers, students, and church musicians representing more than one million singers nationwide, ACDA is the world’s largest choral organization. The association consists of fifty state chapters divided into seven geographic regions, which support the membership through newsletters, festivals, workshops, and conventions.
Chorus America was founded in 1977 by twenty-four of America’s most prominent choral conductors to serve the needs of professional choruses. Today, Chorus America represents both volunteer and professional ensembles, supporting over 1,600 choirs, businesses, and individual members through a diverse offering of services and resources. Additionally, the organization has undertaken significant national surveys documenting the impact of choral singing throughout the United States . Both ACDA and Chorus America sponsor annual conferences that involve professional training, performances, commissioning, and repertoire sessions.
GALA Choruses Inc. , an international association of GLBT choruses, was founded as a musical and advocacy organization in 1982 to serve the GLBT community through a broad offering of publications, leadership conferences, programs, and annual festivals. Its mission is to support the growing number of GLBT choruses as they “change our world through song.” In addition, the organization provides grants for the commissioning of new works, and sponsors an international festival that draws five to six thousand singers from North America and abroad.
The American Guild of Organists (AGO), founded in 1896, promotes the scholarship of organ and choral music. MENC: The National Association for Music Education , founded in 1907, supports the activity of music teachers at every level. The National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses (NCGCC) established in 1933 by Thomas A. Dorsey , Willa Mae Ford Smith , and Sallie Martin , furthers the mission and education of gospel music. Founded in 1938, the Barbershop Harmony Society – formerly the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. – promotes the art of barbershop singing. The Choristers Guild , organized in 1949, supports children’s and youth choirs within the school and church; and the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO), founded in 2005, focuses on research and performance opportunities for college and university conductors. Many choral professionals in the United States are also members of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE), the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM), and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS).
The United States is an international leader in the area of music publishing, generating and distributing professional materials that reflect all stylistic periods and musical traditions. The Music Publishers Association of the United States , founded in 1895, includes over seventy-five member organizations, including Boosey & Hawkes , G. Schirmer, Inc. , and Theodore Presser Company , which have affiliate companies and/or agents around the globe. During the latter part of the twentieth century, new publishing companies were established to address the growing need for multicultural repertoire, world music resources, and original works by international composers. World Music Press (1985), Earthsongs (1988), Alliance Music Publications, Inc. (1994), and Mj Publishing (2000) are some of the many publishers that focus on music of diverse cultures through specialized series and educational resources. Likewise, individual composers have provided broader access to their music through self-publishing and private web distribution. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) represents the greater community of creative artists. ASCAP was founded in 1914 and serves as the leading performing rights organization in the United States with over 380,000 member-owners. The organization encompasses every style of music and monitors the licensing and royalties connected with performances of all copyrighted works affiliated with its membership.
The choral culture of the United States continues to evolve as communities forge collaborative artistic and social relationships locally, nationally, and internationally. Twentieth-century choral leaders such as Elaine Brown , Howard Swan , Charles Hirt , and Robert Shaw cultivated the idea that choral music could be used to promote the common good. Building on this legacy, conductors, composers, and singers in the twenty-first century are expanding the scope and reach of choral music in the United States by looking to ethnic identity, cultural heritage, and social engagement, in addition to the Western classical canon, as they compose and program repertoire.
Despite this impressive vitality, the choral field, like most other artistic disciplines in the United States , faces significant financial challenges. The 2008 Congressional Arts Report Card published by Americans for the Arts indicated that “Congress woefully underfunds the arts despite the proven return on investment in communities, giving the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) a budget of just 48 cents per American – a little more than the cost of a first class [postage] stamp.” 17 Fluctuations in government, corporate, foundation, and private funding require that choral organizations increasingly diversify their financial base in order to remain viable. Additionally, many choral ensembles continue to grapple with issues related to audience development and the relevancy of choral music in today’s world. As Ann Meier Baker and Todd Estabrook of Chorus America assert:
One of the most surprising things about choruses may be that even though their effects are all around us – with an impressive number of beautiful concerts being sung by an enormous number of talented singers – their many positive attributes are often overlooked. In a society that seeks to enhance civic engagement and student achievement, the data [in the 2009 Chorus Impact Study ] suggests that it would be a mistake not to leverage the benefits that choruses bring to children, adults, and the communities they serve. 18
The twenty-first century offers choral musicians around the world resources heretofore unknown – the technology to communicate directly with one another, expanded performance opportunities, and global access to repertoire, publishers, research, and professional organizations. Today’s musical world is measured not by distance, but by the quality of the community and relationships it engenders. The outgrowth of these connections, combined with America’s diverse choral heritage and the efforts of civic, academic, and religious music organizations, will shape the future of choral music and the significant role it can play in contemporary society.