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CHORAL GUILD OF ATLANTA:
A
DISTINGUISHED HISTORY
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For
many years, the Choral Guild
of Atlanta has given the city of Atlanta, the surrounding metropolitan
counties, and cities in Europe and Australia a diversity of exemplary
choral music. Originally organized by the Atlanta Music Club in 1939,
the amateur chorus gained a position of importance in the musical life
of metropolitan Atlanta, and today is one of the oldest and most widely
recognized independent choral groups in the United States.
Since the time of its organization, the Choral Guild has
been a “community chorus” with membership available to all who are
interested and able to qualify. It is a self-sustaining organization
not associated with any school, college or church. Its members are
professional men and women, office workers, housewives, choir directors.
. .people from all walks of life, and they have a great pride in the
Guild and in the fine contribution it has made to music.
Under the able leadership of its founder, Haskell Boyter,
the Music Club Chorus, as it was first known, grew rapidly. In April
1941, Mendelssohn’s oratorio, Saint Paul, was performed. On the
weekend of December 7, two performances of The Swan And The Skylark
by Thomas and The Christmas Oratorio by Saint-Saens were given
jointly with the Chattanooga Civic Chorus. The thrilling success of the
concerts was marred by the shock of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the
chorus was forced to disband until after the war.
In 1947, with the pre-war personnel as a nucleus, the
Atlanta Music Club and the Atlanta Chapter of the American Guild of
Organists co-sponsored a revival of the organization, which was renamed
Choral Guild of Atlanta. Haskell Boyter was appointed permanent
Director, and its first concert was given at Glenn Memorial Church with
the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Henry Sopkin conducting. Mr. Boyter
continued as Director until the fall of 1962, when he chose to retire to
the position of Director-Emeritus. His successor was Donald Robinson,
who had been Associate Director for several years, and he conducted the
Choral Guild of Atlanta until 1975.
Keenly interested in bringing performances of the greatest
choral works to Atlanta, the Choral Guild urged the Atlanta Symphony to
present Belshazzar’s Feast by William Walton. Don Robinson
prepared the chorus and with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Georgia
State Brass Ensemble, and Peter Harrower as soloist, Walton’s brilliant
masterpiece was performed in the Auditorium on Monday, April 1, 1963.
The Atlanta Constitution said of this concert, “Without reservation, the
most magnificent performance the Symphony has given in years.”
The chorus toured
in Georgia, North and South Carolina, and sang the Ninth Symphony
by Beethoven with the London Symphony Orchestra for the Florida
International Music Festival in 1967 at Daytona Beach, Florida.
With the arrival of maestro Robert Shaw in 1967, the Guild’s
200 members were asked to perform each season with the Atlanta Symphony
Orchestra. The Choral Guild of Atlanta sang more than twenty
performances under Mr. Shaw’s direction. Following the establishment of
the Atlanta Symphony Chorus as a separate ensemble, the Choral Guild
reorganized in 1973 as a fully independent performing ensemble and has
since sponsored its own subscription series.
In 1975,
Thomas Schwartz, who had served as assistant conductor and accompanist
since 1966, was appointed musical director and conducted two
performances of a Bicentennial concert assisted by members of the
Atlanta Boy Choir. Also, on that program were two works by Atlanta
composers: Psalm of Praise by Charles Knox and Motet: Psalm 51
by M. Lee Suitor. In collaboration with the Atlanta Ballet and the
Atlanta Community Orchestra, two performances of Carl Orff’s Carmina
Burana were presented in November 1977. Atlanta newspapers stated
that this “musical triumph” was received with “thunderous appreciation”
by the overflow audiences.
Under the direction
of William Noll, Music Director beginning in 1978, the Choral Guild
regularly delighted critics and standing room only audiences with its
performances some of which have been broadcast over WPBA-Channel 30/WABE-FM
90.1 in Atlanta, National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” program and
Parkway Production’s nationally syndicated “America in Concert” series.
Compact disc recordings include Vaughn Williams’ Sea Symphony,
Carl Orff's Catulli Carmina and Stravinsky’s Les Noces,
and a Christmas Potpourri.
In April of 1980, the Choral Guild made its Carnegie Hall
debut to unanimous critical praise in a concert presentation of Wagner’s
first mature opera, Rienzi, with the Opera Orchestra of New
York. The great success of this performance encouraged these groups to
again join forces in March 1982, to present Rienzi in repeat
performances in Washington’s Kennedy Center and New York’s Lincoln
Center. The review from the New York Times: “The star for the
night;” The Washington Post: “a tightly disciplined body which
sang with stylistic authority,” and the national and international press
dramatically confirmed the Choral Guild’s stature as a major performing
ensemble. The Choral Guild’s European debut in a three-city tour of
Belgium in April, 1985, performing Bach’s B Minor Mass with the
Orchestre des Juenes de la Communaute Française de Belgique, provoked a
similar enthusiastic response: “an unforgettable performance (La
Nouvelle Gazette, Mons), and “a superb B Minor Mass,” (De
Niewe Gazef, Antwerp). Truly, “under Noll’s baton, the Choral Guild
has developed into one of Atlanta’s leading cultural resources.” (Atlanta
Journal) In 1988, the Guild also performed at Lincoln Center with
the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as part of a festival celebration of a
Millennium of Christianity in the Ukraine. The Millennium of
Christianity concert was repeated in Atlanta to a standing-room only
audience with distinguished Metropolitan Opera Bass Paul Plishka as the
principal soloist.
The Choral Guild has a strong history of collaboration with
other Georgia arts groups including the Sandy Springs Chamber Orchestra
(1986 Christmas concert featuring the premiere of Bryant’s Magnificat
in a revised and expanded version, Lee Harper Dancers (Stravinsky’s
Les Noces, the Macon Symphony (the world premiere of Pasatieri’s
Mass), the Savannah Symphony (Verdi’s Aida), and the Georgia
State University Music Department (Les Noces, and the
International Symposium of Women in Music). In October 1992, the Choral
Guild presented the world premiere of James Oliverio work, The
Lessons of Time, commissioned for the opening of the Fernbank
Science Center in Atlanta.
Continuing
the commitment of programming choral literature that is not often
performed, Dr. Richard Zielinski in the 1993-1994 concert season
programmed several outstanding multi-cultural compositions including
Amen, Opus 34 by the Polish composer, Henryk Gorecki, Siph’
Amandla arranged by the South African composer, Anders Nyberg, and
Domite mi Nino by the Venezuelan composer, V.E. Soto. From 1994
to 1997, under the direction of Gregory Colson, the Choral Guild
continued to present a broad variety of choral music including
Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise, the Magnificats of Bach and
Rutter, David Fanshawes’s African Sanctus, the music of the
coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and Verdi’s Requiem with the
Georgia Tech Chorale and the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra.
In
1997, James Bohart became conductor/musical director. Under his
direction, the Choral Guild commissioned a work in memory of Haskell
Boyter and in honor of Mabel Boyter, The Children’s song of the
Nativity. The Guild was twice invited to perform for the Georgia
summer convention of the American Choral Directors Association, and
presented a concert on the Spivey Hall Choral series. The Choral Guild
of Atlanta accepted an invitation to participate in the pre-Olympic
festivities during the summer of 2000 in Sydney, Australia, presenting
concerts in Sydney Town Hall, Newcastle Town Hall, and the Cairns Choral
Society Center. On November 12, 2000, the first complete performance in
the South of the Grand Mass in E-flat by Mrs. H.H.A. Beach was
presented at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church. In July 2004,
members of the Choral Guild sang in the Holy Trinity Church in Bern,
Switzerland, and the Basilika Wilten in Innsbruck, Austria. Attending
the concert in the Hallstatt Catholic Church in Salzburg, Austria, was
Archduke Markus Hapsburg, great, great grandson of Emperor Franz
Joseph. "You were engaged singers and presented so well. Thank you for
your coming here. We had both your music and chorals from the previous
epochs; music as such is universal!"
The history of the Choral Guild of Atlanta was complied and edited by
James Bohart from previous published documents and interviews.
“Thanks for the excellent concert presented by the Choral Guild of Atlanta at the Georgia American Choral
Directors Association Convention at Spivey Hall. I was very impressed
with the caliber of musicianship that
was evident throughout each section of the choir, the choice of literature and the reaction of the audience. …
Your performance transcended the constraints of time and space and that is what musical performance is all about.”
Susan Patterson Cotton
GA ACDA, Past President |
"I recently attended a
Sunday afternoon of Lenten music performed by the Choral Guild of Atlanta.
I was impressed with a program of music that was so well planned and
beautifully executed. The music flowed from one setting of the Stabat Mater
to the other in a very smooth and flowing manner. As the performance
reached a conclusion, the audience rose to their feet and applauded with
interspersed sound of “Bravo”.
Congratulation,
Michael B. Kingsbury, BA., MA., SPC.
Atlanta Music Club, Vice President
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The program was one of the best I ever saw, with notes to tell you
something about the history of the selection and in many cases, all
the words…These people are singers to watch and to hear. Their
beautiful program promises concerts to come.”
Celestine Sibley - Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hallstatt Catholic Church July 19, 2004
"You were engaged singers and presented so well.
Thank you for your coming here.
We had both your music and chorals from the previous epochs; music as
such is universal!"
Archduke Markus Habsburg
(Great, great, grandson of Emperor Franz Josef)
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