The Cornell University Chorus was founded in 1920, initially as the Cornell Women's Glee Club. The Chorus is a sixty-member treble choir, with repertoire including masses, motets, spirituals, classical, folk, 20th-century music, and traditional Cornell songs. Aside from its constantly changing and increasing selection of choral music for treble voices, the Chorus also performs major works with the Cornell University Glee Club such as Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Handel's Messiah, and Bach's Mass in B Minor and St Matthew Passion .
The Chorus performs annually during Convocation, First-Year Parents Weekend, Homecoming, Senior Week, Commencement, and Reunion Weekend. In addition to the concerts on campus, the Chorus also has experience in professional settings, working under the baton of Nadia Boulanger, Eugene Ormandy, Erich Leinsdorf, Michael Tilson Thomas, Julius Rudel, and Karel Husa on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Academy of Music, and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The Chorus has also been featured on two nationwide broadcasts: a special half hour on CBS radio, and an appearance on PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour as part of an artistic feature on former director Susan Davenny Wyner. The Chorus has collaborated with world musician Samite of Uganda, participated in a production of Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light with Anonymous 4, and performed several major works with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, including Bach's Mass in B Minor, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and Lili Boulanger's Du fond de l'abîme with the Cornell Symphony Orchestra.
Commissioning Project
In 2003, the Cornell University Chorus launched a commissioning project known informally as "No Whining, No Flowers." The goal of the project is to expand the contemporary repertoire for treble choirs by commissioning pieces from women composers using text from women writers. Furthermore, these texts are intended to explore topics that differ from the traditional treble repertoire themes of lost love and scenery admiration - hence the title of the project. Commissioning projects to date include:
Elizabeth Alexander: Why I Pity the Woman Who Never Spills (2003) Sally Lamb: The Sadness of the Sea (2004) Edie Hill: A Voice (2005) Carol E. Barnett: Song of Perfect Propriety (2006) Augusta Read Thomas: Juggler of Day (2007) Abbie Betinis: Chant for Great Compassion (2008) Libby Larsen: A Book of Spells (2009) David Conte: To Music (2010) (Special commission in honor of Chorus alumna Heather Walters, '81, who died on August 27, 2009) Sally Lamb: Voices of the Hills (2011) Kay Rhie: Kassia's Hymn (2012) Flannery Cunningham: Onion Days (2013) Lisa Bielawa: Songs from Ort (2014) Mia Makaroff: Jump the Chromosome and Perception Test (2016) Christine Donkin: The Grail Bird (2017) Melissa Dunphy: It Isn't a Dream (2018) Hanne Bæverfjord: It Comes Unadorned (2019)
Domestic and International Tours
1998 - Taiwan
1999 - Midwest
2000 - Canada
2001 - Venezuela (with the Cornell University Glee Club) 2003 - Mid-Atlantic 2004 - Great Lakes 2005 - Italy 2008 - China (with the Cornell University Glee Club) 2012 - Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana 2013 - New England 2014 - Midwest 2015 - California 2016 - Mexico and Guatemala (with the Cornell University Glee Club) 2017 - Southeastern United States 2018 - Gulf Coast 2019 - Canada and Boston 2020 - Pacific Northwest (with the Cornell University Glee Club)
In addition to these extended trips, the Chorus also travels to other universities for competitions and festivals. In the past, they have performed at Harvard for the Centennial Celebration of the Radcliffe Choral Society as well as joint concerts with the Toronto Women's Chorus, the Penn State Glee Club, and the Wellesley Chorus.