Music Institute Of Chicago Chorale Continues 25th Anniversary Season With Three Choirs Festival March 31

Welcoming two guest choirs, the Music Institute of Chicago Chorale, conducted by Daniel Wallenberg, continues its 25th Anniversary Season with the Three Choirs Festival, presented by the Music Institute of Chicago, March 31 at 7:30 p.m. at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston. 

Joining the Music Institute of Chicago Chorale are City Voices (based in Oak Park), directed by William Chin, and the Choir of the First Congregational Church of La Grange, directed by Ryan Cox. Singers from all three choirs come together in polychoral works with brass by early Baroque composers Giovanni Gabrieli and Heinrich Schütz, in Josef Rheinberger’s Abendlied, and contemporary New Zealand composer David Hamilton’s The Moon Is Silently Singing for two choirs and two French horns. The program also includes performances by the individual choirs featuring music by Henry Purcell, Gabriel Fauré, Healey Willan, Robert Applebaum, Rene Clausen, Edwin Fissinger, and Percy Grainger.

The Chorale’s 25th season concludes at Nichols Concert Hall with “25 Great Years” Sunday, June 10, highlighting audience favorites from the Chorale’s history.

Daniel Wallenberg, conductor of the Chorale since 1987, noted, “Although our Chorale is Evanston-based, participants come from as far south as Chicago and far north as Zion and everything in between. Several members have been in the Chorale for more than 15 years, and a few have been members since its inception in 1986.”

About the Music Institute of Chicago Chorale

The Music Institute of Chicago Chorale is a community chorus that provides an opportunity for adult singers with prior experience to study and perform the best in sacred and secular choral music. Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Chorale has one continuing goal: to perform the finest sacred and secular choral music with the highest of standards in a community setting. Under the leadership of Conductor Daniel Wallenberg, the Chorale has developed a wide range of repertoire, including motets, madrigals, part-songs, folk songs, and larger choral-orchestral works by Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Durufle, and many others. Throughout the years, the Chorale has collaborated with local choirs and symphony orchestras and has produced two fully costumed Elizabethan madrigal dinners. In addition, the Chorale has collaborated several times with the Music Institute’s voice faculty for concerts of opera and Broadway music.

Chorale conductor Daniel Wallenberg is also on the staff of the Chicago Children’s Choir, working with the In-School Chorus and After-School Programs for the Rogers Park and Humboldt Park Neighborhood Choirs, as well as its world-renowned Concert Choir with whom he toured Ukraine and the United States. He is the director of the junior and adult choirs at the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation and the founder and artistic director of “Zemer Am,” the Chicago Jewish Choral Festival. A native of Bogota, Colombia, Wallenberg founded several adult and children’s choirs while living in Israel.

About the Music Institute of Chicago

The Music Institute of Chicago believes that music has the power to sustain and nourish the human spirit; therefore, our mission is to provide the foundation for lifelong engagement with music. As one of the three largest and most respected community music schools in the nation, the Music Institute offers musical excellence built on the strength of our distinguished faculty, commitment to quality, and breadth of programs and services. Founded in 1931 and one of the oldest community music schools in Illinois, the Music Institute is a member of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts and accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music. Each year, our world-class music teachers and arts therapists provide the highest quality arts education to more than 5,000 students of all ability levels, from birth to 101 years of age at campuses in Evanston, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Lincolnshire, Winnetka, and Downers Grove. The Music Institute also offers lessons and programs at the Steinway of Chicago store in Northbrook and early childhood and community engagement programs throughout the Chicago area and the North Shore. Nichols Concert Hall, our education and performance center located in downtown Evanston, reaches approximately 14,000 people each year. Our community engagement and partnership programs reach an additional 6,500 Chicago Public School students annually. The Music Institute offers lessons, classes, and programs through four distinct areas: Community School, The Academy, Creative Arts Therapy (Institute for Therapy through the Arts), and Nichols Concert Hall. All programming is subject to change.

The Three Choirs Festival, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Music Institute of Chicago Chorale, takes place Saturday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m. at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $7 for students and are available at 847.905.1500 ext. 108 or at musicinst.org.