Syracuse Chorale begins the 2024 season on September 17th, 2024 at Pebble Hill Presbyterian Church.  You can click here to register to sing with us this season. We are always looking for new members!  

Here is our Artistic Director, Dr. Sean Linfors, with more information on the exciting Fall season repertoire:



Syracuse Chorale is proud to present a concert entitled “To Dwell Together,” with choral music drawn from composers both contemporary and canonical.  Our concert centers on Chichester Psalms, Bernstein’s beloved work for small orchestra, choir, and treble soloist.  Leonard Bernstein composed the three-movement Chichester Psalms in 1965, choosing excerpts of four different Psalms to set for choir and orchestra.  Though commissioned by an Anglican cathedral, he used the original Hebrew texts of these Psalms, focusing on the universality and “ecumenicality” of the message.  As a Jewish composer, his identity and status in the classical music world lend layers of meaning to this composition.  His complex and beautiful work concludes with the section of Psalm 133: "How good . . . it is for brethren to dwell together in unity."  We take this as our theme for this concert, for the inspiration it provided Bernstein, and for its relevance in our world today.  We’ll perform Bernstein's arrangement for organ, harp, and percussion.
Bobby McFerrin’s setting of the 23rd Psalm and Eric Whitacre’s meditative This Marriage, on text by the poet Rumi, feature beautiful unaccompanied choral singing, rich with the colors of these composers’ harmonic language.  These pieces speak to the idea of unity, acceptance, and inclusion - as Rumi states: “May this marriage be a sign of compassion.”
Felix Mendelssohn, like Bernstein, was a Jewish composer who wrote music for Christian audiences, and as in the case of the oratorio Elijah, used stories drawn from the shared history of these faiths.  He Watching over Israel refers to the protection God offers to his people who are dwelling in safety under his watch.
Our concert concludes with Allan Naplan’s joyful setting of Hine Ma Tov, It is good and pleasant when God's people live together in peace! The audience itself becomes part of the message, as this work engages all to sing the hopeful refrain.

Syracuse Chorale performed THe Ballad of the Brown King by Margaret Bonds in collaboration with the Onondaga Civic Symphony at their 2022 Winter Concert which was held at Plymouth Congregational Church on December 10, 2022.

Tha Spring 2023 season will begin Tuesday, January 31 from 7PM-9PM at our rehearsal venue: Pebble Hill Presbyterian Church, 5299 Jamesville Rd, Dewitt NY. 

We cannot wait for you to join us this spring and make wonderful music together. If you would like to join us, click here to fill out the Member Registration Form or you can email info@syracusechorale.org for more information

​Here we are again – I have good news and bad news.  The BAD news is that the board met last week and many board members voiced continued concerns about the increasing numbers of COVID cases in Onondaga County. We know that many of our members also have concerns as they did not register for the 2021-2022 season. So, with both relief and sadness we announce that the Syracuse Chorale will NOT be resuming in-person rehearsals and concert for Fall 2021.
 
The GOOD news is that the Board reached consensus that we WILL resume our rehearsals for the Spring 2022 season. Our first in-person rehearsal will be January 25 in the sanctuary at DeWitt Community Church from 7-9pm. We can hardly wait!! Our beloved artistic director, Sean Linfors, has prepared the program for the spring concert on May 14 at 4pm (SU/ESF commencement is the prior weekend and Ithaca’s is the following weekend). The concert will include The Promise of Living by Aaron Copland and selections from the Bluegrass Mass by Carol Barnett.
 
Please mark your calendars and join us in January 2022.

CALLING ALL SINGERS…

Syracuse Chorale is back! We are excited to be planning our return to  
in-person rehearsals and concerts for the 2021-2022 season. We are a  non-audition, community choir. Unfortunately, COVID is still with us. We want to take every precaution to keep our singers, director and accompanist safe.  

The science of dealing with COVID is an ever-changing landscape so we reserve the right to change our protocols at any point during the season. For starters, we will require that members be vaccinated in order to join us for the 2021-2022 season. In addition, we will provide masks that are designed for singers for those that want to take the extra precaution of wearing a mask. 

We will rehearse in the sanctuary of the DeWitt Community Church to provide more space to socially distance during rehearsals. Our attendance policy will be relaxed as we encourage folks who are not feeling well to stay home. We are exploring ways to allow folks to participate via Zoom in the case of illness. 

Please consider joining us – our first rehearsal is September 7, 2021 from 7pm-9pm. We will be collaborating with the Onondaga Civic Symphony Orchestra for our December concert which will include Mendelssohn’s Vom Himmel Hoch. Please click on this link – https://cutt.ly/JQchFpa (or copy and paste into your browser) – to register for our 2021-2022 season. If you have questions, please email info@syracusechorale.org.

Looking forward to singing with you,

The Board of Syracuse Chorale
Jeanne, Lynn, Aaron, Carolyn, Linda, Michele, David, Joanne, & Valerie

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CALLING ALL SINGERS…
The coronavirus has been particularly disruptive to vocal groups as we project our voices so well that the potential of infecting our colleagues is great. 
Therefore, the Syracuse Chorale is embarking on a virtual concert project for December 2020. Our beloved artistic director, Sean Linfors, has come up with a plan to hold 20 minute sectional rehearsals via Zoom every Tuesday from September 1st to December. We will each record our parts for each choral piece as the season progresses, and Sean will compile them into a virtual performance currently scheduled for mid-December. 
We invite singers in the greater Syracuse area to join us, but with all of the remote technology, you do not have to live in Syracuse to participate. We already have people from Rhode Island who have voiced an interest in singing with us. 
As our director and accompanist will be working tirelessly to help us put this together, we do have to ask you to pay a membership fee. Our regular membership fee for a full season (September-June) is $150. We appreciate our members who can continue to support us at this level. However, we understand the financial havoc that COVID-19 has wrought so have set a temporary membership fee of $75.
Please consider joining us. Our December program will include the premiere presentation of our commissioned work, Roots by Ola Gjeilo. Please click on this link - https://tiny.cc/SC20-21registration (or copy and paste into your browser) - to register for our December 2020 project. If you have questions, please email info@syracusechorale.org.
 

Looking forward to singing “with” you,

The Board of Syracuse Chorale
Jeanne, Lynn, Aaron, Carolyn, Linda, Michele, David, & Joanne

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