Founded
in 1949, the Choral Society of Durham (North Carolina) has a long-standing reputation for excellence in
performing great choral literature with professional orchestra and regionally and nationally
known soloists. We also engage in outreach to music students in
area public schools. Our 32-voice Chamber Choir, often featured
in portions of Choral Society concerts, also presents its own
concerts and makes guest appearances in the community.
Our
Christmas concerts feature classical works for the season and
arrangements of traditional carols. Our spring concerts and our collaborations
with the North
Carolina Symphony have featured such choral masterworks as
the Requiems of Mozart, Brahms, Verdi, Berlioz, and Fauré, Bach’s
B-Minor Mass and St. Matthew Passion, Haydn’s Creation and Mass in Time of War, Beethoven’s
Missa Solemnis, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil (Vespers), Bloch’s Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service), Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem, Janácek’s
Glagolitic Mass, and Glass’s Itaipú.
We
rehearse on Monday evenings from 7:30 to 9:45 at the Durham Arts
Council Building, from September to May. Auditions
are held in September and January.
Milestones
and Honors
On
May 9, 1999, the Choral Society presented the world premieres
of two choral works. One was Daniel Gawthrop’s Call Me
Thine: Four Modern Psalms, for chorus and orchestra, which
we commissioned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Choral
Society’s founding. The commission was made possible in part
by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council and donations
from our Golden Anniversary Friends. The second premiere was At
a Solemn Music, the winning entry in our first-ever Young
Composers’ Competition, written by Antony John, then a graduate
student in composition at Duke University.
Conductor
Rodney Wynkoop and the Choral Society were honored in 1996 as
the only community chorus chosen to perform at the Southern Division
convention of the American Choral Directors Association, on March
2, in Norfolk, Virginia. Our program included three movements
of Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil (Vespers), sung
in Old Church Slavonic; Verdi’s Ave Maria, from Four
Sacred Pieces; the Libera Me from Verdi’s Requiem,
with Monique McDonald as soprano soloist; and Slavsya,
from Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar.
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Mission
To
bring together persons who share a common interest in high-quality
performance of significant choral literature, both sacred and
secular.
To
ally our musical experiences with the cultural development and
enrichment of our community through concert appearances.
To
establish and maintain a standard of excellence in performance
of choral music.
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Artistic
Staff
In
addition to conductor and artistic director Rodney
Wynkoop, our artistic staff includes accompanist Jane Lynch
and assistant to the conductor Michael L. Meyer.
Jane
Lynch has served as rehearsal accompanist for the Choral
Society since 1981. A Durham resident, she is organist and choir
director at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, in Durham,
and teaches piano and organ privately. Ms. Lynch earned her
bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organ perfomance
from Oberlin Conservatory and Northwestern Conservatory, respectively.
She was formerly Associate Chapel Organist at Duke University
Chapel.
Michael
L. Meyer has served the Choral Society as assistant
to the conductor since 2002. A Durham resident, he is Director
of Upper School Music at Durham Academy. Mr. Meyer received his
bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education from
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University
of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, respectively. He
previously worked as a public school music educator and choral
conductor in New York and at Chapel Hill High School, and he has
worked as an arranger, orchestrator, accompanist, and music engraver
with organizations both regional and nationwide.
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Funding
A
nonprofit corporation, the Choral Society receives funding through
the following sources:
- ticket
revenues
- Friends
donations
- grants
- CD
sales
- membership
dues
The
Choral Society is a funded affiliate of the Durham Arts Council,
which currently provides about 3% of our budget, plus office and
rehearsal space in the Arts Council Building.
 |
Our
concerts are made possible in part through gifts to the Durham
Arts Council United Arts Fund and support from the City of
Durham, which believes that a great nation deserves great
art. |
Please
help support live performance of great choral music —
become a Friend of the Choral Society.
You
also can support us by joining iGive.com
and naming the Choral Society as your cause. Over 400 participating
merchants will donate a percentage of your on-line purchases to
us, and you get a tax deduction. For more info, click
here.
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Governance
The
Choral Society is operated by a Board of Governors elected annually
from the membership. Board members are volunteers who serve as
the executive and administrative staff of the Society. Click here
for contact information for key Choral
Society personnel.
Choral
Society of Durham Board of Governors, 2007–08
President
— Kristen Blackman
Vice President — Dan Gunselman
Secretary — Celia Grasty Lata
Treasurer — Lynn Wilson
Historian — Nan Dickman
Policy and Planning — Chris LeGrand
Financial Oversight — Gwen Lamb
Financial Development — Jeff Clark
Membership — Susan Van Eyck
Publicity — Pati Darak Barrow
Concerts — David Stuntz
Programs — Susan Dakin
Tickets — Eileen Duryea
At Large — Laura Jones
At Large — Andy Stewart
Conductor — Rodney Wynkoop
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History
The
Choral Society was founded in 1949 by Jane Watkins Sullivan and
Marian Wallace Smith, two Durham housewives and musicians who
were tired of commuting to Raleigh to sing in the Raleigh Oratorio
society. First organized as the Durham Oratorio Society, the group
incorporated in 1951 as the Durham Civic Choral Society. We simplified
our name to Choral Society of Durham in 1997.
We
owe much of our success to the outstanding conductors we have
had over the years. These four of our past conductors had the
longest tenures:
Allan
H. Bone (Duke University), 1949–56, 1967–70, 1971–72
Paul R. Bryan (Duke University), 1957–67
Robert Porco (UNC at Chapel Hill), 1972–80
Larry Cook (UNC at Chapel Hill), 1982–86
Concert
List (PDF)
— Click this link for a list of every Choral Society
concert, from 1949–50 to 2005, in PDF format (viewable with
Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0 or later). The list will open in
a new window.
Past
Board Members
— Click these links for lists of all past members of the
Choral Society Board of Governors (of whom we could find records),
from 1949–50 to 2004–05, in PDF format (viewable with
Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0 or later). Each list will open in
a new window:
Board,
Part I (PDF) — President,
VP, Secretary, Treasurer, Historian, Librarian
Board,
Part II (PDF) — Membership,
Publicity, Concerts, Receptions (Social), Finance, Development
Board,
Part III (PDF) — Tickets,
At Large, Programs, Policy and Planning, Friends
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