History of the Montgomery Chorale

Montgomery has been blessed by the arts, and in the case of the choral arts, it has been doubly blessed to receive 34 years of professional quality music from the Montgomery Chorale, the city’s oldest performing arts organization and its official performing choral group. The Chorale has made a significant contribution to the musical enrichment of the community.

The Chorale’s dedication to presenting professional quality choral performances and its requirement that all members must audition in order to participate have helped produce a musically compatible blend of voices at ease with any musical composition from Beethoven to Berlin.

It has been a long and productive journey for the Chorale since it was formed in the spring of 1974 by Dr. James Elson, Chairman of the Music Department at Huntingdon College, and since its first performance, Schubert’s “Mass in G” and Shaw/Parker arrangement of spirituals.

The Chorale made its international debut in 1992, when under the direction of Richard A. Smith, it was chosen to participate in the Vienna International Choral Festival. Singing the music of Mozart in the city where he established his reputation was as exhilarating for Chorale members as it was for the Vienna audience, which received the performance enthusiastically. The Chorale also performed at other cities in Austria and in Switzerland. For its national debut, the Chorale traveled to Washington, D.C., to perform in the Vespers at the National Cathedral.

Following the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the great classical music tradition of that region was open to the world once again, and in 1997, the Montgomery Chorale toured Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Austria. During their tour in Hungary, they performed in Budapest’s National Gallery and St. Stephen’s Cathedral; and in Austria, at the 12th Century Church of St. Othmar in Moodling and in the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Heiligenkreuz.

For all of its national and international accomplishments, the Chorale’s first priority is the citizens of Montgomery and the surrounding region, and it has been involved in a broad range of community events, including Jubilee Weekend, the Christmas Light Show at the Montgomery Zoo, Festival in the Park, Zoo Weekend, and in working jointly in concerts with other arts organizations, including the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, whose members frequently accompany Chorale concerts, and the Alabama Dance Theater.

The Chorale’s audiences have been the real beneficiaries of the group’s unique ability to master both classical and popular compositions, from Mozart to Gershwin. Year in and year out, the Chorale’s talented singers have provided something for everyone.

Montgomery is a city rich in tradition, and it is replete with landmarks glorifying that tradition. One of its finest and certainly its oldest performing arts tradition is the Montgomery Chorale, still young at 34 and looking forward to many more years and many more generations of music lovers to entertain.

For more information on ordering tickets to a performance of the Montgomery Chorale, see the Chorale's Tickets page.