WELCOME TO THE HOMEPAGE OF
THE ASO CHORUS
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Norman Mackenzie, Director of Choruses
The Frannie and Bill Graves Chair
Jeffrey Baxter, Choral Administrator
Todd Skrabanek, Accompanist

Acclaimed for the beauty, precision and expressive qualities of their singing, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Choruses have been an important part of the Orchestra's programming since their founding in 1970 by the late Robert Shaw. Both are composed entirely of volunteers, who meet weekly for rehearsals and perform with the ASO several times each season. They are also featured on the majority of the ASO's recordings, having garnered 14 Grammy awards (9 for Best Choral Performance; 4 for Best Classical Recording and 1 for Best Opera Recording).

The ASO Chorus, 200 voices strong, performs large choral-symphonic works with the full orchestra, under the batons of ASO Music Director Robert Spano and ASO Principal Guest Conductor Donald Runnicles. The Chorus has also sung for guest conductors such as John Adams, Roberto Abbado, Charles Dutoit, Alan Gilbert, Bernard Labadie, John Nelson and William Fred Scott.

The ASO Chamber Chorus performs music of the Baroque and Classical eras, as well as works by modern masters such as Golijov, Tavener, Pärt, Paulus, Poulenc and Britten. Highlights of its history include a residency with the ASO and Robert Spano for California's Ojai Festival (read a review), participation with the ASO in Telarc recordings of masterworks by Bach, Golijov, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Vivaldi and a 2005 a cappella recording that features the Vaughan Williams Mass under Norman Mackenzie, an appearance on national television in 1987 performing Handel's Messiah with Robert Shaw, and several Carnegie Hall appearances which include performances of the B-Minor Mass, the Matthew and John Passions of Bach, the Rachmaninoff Vespers and the Mozart/Levin Requiem. The Chamber Chorus has also performed under the batons of Robert King and Nicholas McGegan.

The ASO Chorus made its Carnegie Hall debut in 1976 with a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and has returned to perform there on a number of subsequent occasions, most recently on March 11, 2006 with the ASO and Robert Spano for an acclaimed performance of the Verdi Requiem. It performed in the Kennedy Center for President-elect Jimmy Carter's Inaugural Concert in 1977. In 1988, it accompanied the Orchestra on its first European tour, performing in New York, East Berlin, Zürich, Ludwigsburg, Paris, Bristol and London. It has appeared with the ASO for televised concerts on several occasions, including the 1995 national broadcast of the orchestra's 50th-anniversary celebration, in which it was conducted by both Yoel Levi and Robert Shaw, and the statewide telecast honoring the Chorus's own 25th anniversary. With the ASO it appeared in the Opening Ceremony of the 1996 Olympic Games, broadcast worldwide. The ASO Chorus has also participated for 30 years in the Martin Luther King Ecumenical service sponsored each January by the King Center in Atlanta.

The Chorus has twice been a special guest at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago: in June 2003 the Chorus, ASO and Robert Spano opened the festival with a critically acclaimed performance of John Adams oratorio El Niño, followed by a 2006 visit by the women of the Chamber Chorus, the ASO and Robert Spano for Golijov's Ainadamar. In December 2003 the ASO Chorus traveled to Berlin for a series of three triumphant performances of Britten's War Requiem with the Berlin Philharmonic and conductor Donald Runnicles. They return to Berlin this May for a series of Berlioz Requiem concerts. The Chorus has also opened the Atlanta Falcons 2003 and 2004 seasons with a 200-voice rendition of the National Anthem.