The Houston Chamber Choir is a professional

chamber choir A chamber choir is a small or medium-sized choir of roughly 8 to 40 singers (occasionally called 'chamber singers'), typically singing classical or religious music in a concert setting. (This is distinct from e.g. a church choir, which sings in rel ...

based in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. It was founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Robert Simpson. The ensemble regularly presents a five-concert series of diverse, innovative choral programming throughout the Houston region. They have appeared nationally at the American Choral Directors Association convention, the

Chorus America Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verses ...

convention, Spoleto Festival USA, Trinity Church in Manhattan, and Yale University. The choir has also has toured internationally in Mexico and Wales. The choir won its first

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

for the 2019 recording '' Duruflé: Complete Choral Works''.

Recordings

* ''The Blue Estuaries: American Choral Music'' (Zephyr, 2001) * ''Ravishingly Russian'' (

MSR MSR may refer to: Science and technology * Macrophage scavenger receptor, a receptor found in macrophages * Magnetic stripe reader, a device used to read magnetic stripe cards such as credit cards * M–sigma relation, in astrophysics * Mars samp ...

Classics, 2009) * ''Psalmi ad Vesperas'' (MSR Classics, 2012) * ''Soft Blink of Amber Light'' (MSR Classics, 2015) * ''Rothko Chapel: Morton Feldman, Erik Satie, John Cage'' (

ECM ECM may refer to: Economics and commerce * Engineering change management * Equity capital markets * Error correction model, an econometric model * European Common Market Mathematics * Elliptic curve method * European Congress of Mathematics ...

, 2015) * ''Behold the Star! Christmas at the Villa'' (2018) * '' Duruflé: Complete Choral Works'' (

Signum Classics Signum Records, also known as Signum Classics, is a classical musical record label in the UK founded in 1997. The label began with a project to make the first recording of the complete works of Thomas Tallis. The artists for the Tallis recordin ...

, 2019) * ''Bob Chilcott: Circlesong'' (Signum Classics, 2022)

Collaborations

The Houston Chamber Choir has performed and collaborated with some of the world's leading artists, including

Anton Armstrong Anton Eugene Armstrong (born April 26, 1956) is the conductor of the St. Olaf Choir as well as the Harry R. and Thora H. Tosdal Professor of Music at St. Olaf College of Northfield, Minnesota, in the United States. Armstrong became the fourth di ...

, Jamie Bernstein, Alex Blachly, Marguerite Brooks,

Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...

Simon Carrington Simon Carrington (born 1942) is an English conductor, singer and double bass player. He was a founding member and member for 25 years of the Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble the King's Singers; he subsequently worked for 15 years in the United ...

Bob Chilcott Robert "Bob" Chilcott (born 9 April 1955) is a British choral composer, conductor, and singer, based in Oxfordshire, England. He was a member of the King's Singers from 1985 to 1997, singing tenor. He has been a composer since 1997. Earl ...

Cynthia Clawson Cynthia Clawson (born October 11, 1948 in Houston, Texas) is a Grammy Award-winning American gospel singer. She has been called "The most awesome voice in gospel music" by Billboard Magazine, and has received five Dove Awards, 15 Dove Award nom ...

Manfred Cordes Manfred Cordes (born 1953) is a German conductor of early music, musicologist and teacher. He is professor at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen and was its rector from 2007 to 2012. Publications * ''Die lateinischen Motetten des Iacobus Regnar ...

Ken Cowan Kenneth Andrew Cowan (born December 19, 1974) is a Canadian church and concert organist who currently serves as professor of organ at the Shepherd School of Music of Rice University in Houston, Texas. Biography A native of Thorold, Ontario, he ...

, Joseph Flummerfelt, María Guinand,

Paul Hillier Paul Douglas Hillier OBE (born 9 February 1949) is an English conductor, music director and baritone. He specializes in both early and contemporary classical music, especially that by composers Steve Reich and Arvo Pärt. He was a co-foun ...

, Kim Kashkashian, Christian McBride, Bill McGlaughlin, Kim Nazarian,

Peter Phillips Peter Mark Andrew Phillips (born 15 November 1977) is a British businessman and the son of Anne, Princess Royal, and Captain Mark Phillips. He is the eldest nephew of King Charles III, and 17th in the line of succession to the British throne. ...

, Elena Sharkova,

Steven Schick Steven Schick (born May or June 1954) is a percussionist and conductor from the United States, specializing in contemporary classical music. He teaches at the University of California, San Diego and is currently the Music Director and Conductor of ...

, Anthony Trecek-King, and Sam Beam (Iron & Wine).

Commissions

Beyond the known and celebrated choral works, the Houston Chamber Choir is also a champion of contemporary choral music, having expanded the repertoire with nearly a dozen commissions of new works. All but one of the compositions from ''Soft Blink of Amber Light'' are works commissioned and premiered by the ensemble. Composers commissioned by the choir include

Dominick DiOrio Dominick DiOrio (born 1984) is an American composer and conductor. He is Professor of Music (Choral Conducting) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and serves as the conductor of NOTUS, the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, the fourth pe ...

Jocelyn Hagen Jocelyn Hagen is an American composer. She composes primarily for voice: solo, chamber and choral, but also has composed for chamber, wind, and orchestral ensembles. She has explored large-scale multimedia works, electro-acoustic music, dance, an ...

, Daniel J. Knaggs, Christian McBride, Christopher Theofanidis, David Ashley White, and Mark Buller.

Awards and accolades

In 2015, the choir was the winner of

The American Prize The American Prize is a set of annual nonprofit national competitions in the performing arts which recognizes and rewards commercial and noncommercial recorded performances of classical music in the United States based on submitted applications. T ...

for Choral Performance. Its two 2015 albums, ''Soft Blink of Amber Light'' and ''Rothko Chapel: Morton Feldman, Erik Satie, John Cage'' have been met with international acclaim. The ''Rothko Chapel'' project, recorded in partnership with Da Camera of Houston Artistic Director Sarah Rothenberg, was a US Billboard Top 10 and UK Top 20 Classical Album and was named one of the Best Classical Recordings of 2015 by the

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

. The choir is the recipient of the 2018 Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence given by Chorus America. The 2019 recording ''Duruflé: Complete Choral Works'' was the choir's first

Nomination and it won the Grammy for

Best Choral Performance The Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance has been awarded since 1961. There have been several minor changes to the name of the award over this time: *In 1961 the award was known as Best Classical Performance - Choral (including oratorio) *Fro ...

. The Houston Chamber Choir was selected to perform as one of the twenty-four choirs at the World Symposium on Choral Music sponsored by the

International Federation for Choral Music International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM) is an international association founded in 1982 to facilitate communication and exchange between choral musicians throughout the world. IFCM has around 900 members from all continents. The members ...

in Auckland, New Zealand, in July 2020.

References

External links

Official website
* {{authority control 1995 establishments in Texas Chamber choirs Choirs in Texas Culture of Houston Music of Houston Grammy Award winners Musical groups established in 1995 Musical groups from Houston Performing arts in Texas Texas classical music