The Washington Chorus Concert Season in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall

2004–2005

J.S. Bach Mass in B Minor

Sunday, November 21, 2004 at 3 p.m.

Music for Christmas Saturday, December 18, 2004 at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 21, 2004 at 8 p.m. Wednesday, December 22, 2004 at 8 p.m.

Sir Michael Tippett A Child of Our Time part of the worldwide Tippett centenary celebration Sunday, May 8, 2005 at 3 p.m.

Additional Concert with the National Symphony Orchestra Giuseppe Verdi Requiem Thursday, March 24, 2005 at 7 p.m. Friday, March 25, 2005 at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 26, 2005 at 8 p.m.

We, the singers, staff, and board of The Washington Chorus...

- believe that our music can improve the quality of people's lives. - are committed to excellence in artistic performance and organizational practices.

- believe that music is an important aspect of education, and that we have a responsibility to encourage and actively participate in that education.

- have a responsibility to bring our music to those who are not able to come to traditional performance venues.

- value the "family" community of singers who volunteer time, talent, and resources, reaching out to the wider community to spread the joy of choral music.

- have a responsibility to preserve and advance the choral art for future generations.

A 2000 GRAMMY® Award Winner, The Washington Chorus is considered one of the foremost choruses in the nation and a cultural leader in the Washington metropolitan area. Each year, the 180 member chorus presents its art at the Kennedy Center and often appears at the invitation of the National Symphony Orchestra, having appeared with them in more than 280 performances. Founded in 1961, The Chorus has sung under the direction of many of the world's greatest conductors, including Mstislav Rostropovich, Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos, Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Karl Richter, and Sir Neville Marriner. In addition to its regular Kennedy Center performances, The Chorus has sung throughout the metropolitan area and has been acclaimed for numerous world premieres, including the American premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki's Te Deum with the National Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. The Washington Chorus has recorded GRAMMY® nominated and winning CDs, been nationally broadcast and internationally televised, and has performed as part of a motion picture soundtrack. The Chorus has also performed for inaugurations and to honor world leaders, and has been touring internationally every other year since 1994.

Auditions. The Music Director has set high audition standards to ensure the quality of the chorus and singers have to re-audition every year. The audition process involves vocalizing, sight-singing, and tonal memory exercises. The Director does not hear any prepared pieces during the audition process.

Robert Shafer – Music Director. Recognized as one of America's major choral conductors, Maestro Shafer was honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences at the 2000 GRAMMY® Awards in Los Angeles, CA. From among such prestigious nominees as John Eliot Gardiner and Sir Simon Rattle, he received the GRAMMY® Award for Best Choral Performance of the Year for the Chorus' live performance recording of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. In addition to this GRAMMY® Award-winning recording, Maestro Shafer prepared The Washington Chorus for the GRAMMY® Award-nominated compact disc and film soundtrack recording of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov with Mstislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra.

Music director of The Washington Chorus since 1971, Maestro Shafer also conducts the Chorus' concerts and has prepared the Chorus for many of the world's leading conductors including Sir Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa, Christopher Warren-Green, and Leonard Slatkin. He has guest conducted the NSO on several occasions, and has conducted choral performances for NBC national television. A student of the distinguished Nadia Boulanger, he has been noted for his beautiful compositions, having won first prize in composition at the Conservatoire Americain in 1969. His works have been performed throughout the United States and Europe, and when he served as music director at the National Cathedral, he composed and conducted a part of Tu es Petrus in honor of Pope John Paul's 1979 visit to Washington. Another part of Tu es Petrus, which he wrote for the Children's Chorus of Washington, was published by Boosey & Hawkes.

Active as a teacher, Maestro Shafer taught at James Madison High School from 1968–1975, producing one of the finest madrigal groups in the country, and has been artist-in-residence and Professor of Music at the Shenandoah Conservatory of the Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia since 1983. In 1989, he was honored by the Virginia Council on Higher Education with an Outstanding Faculty Award for his outstanding public service, research, and teaching. Maestro Shafer is the only teacher in the arts to have received this award since its foundation.