Join us for our next SPARKLE, Backstage with Thomas Colohan, Artistic Director of the Washington Master Chorale who will discuss how Holiday concerts are conceived and produced.
The Washington Master Chorale is a vibrant, sixty-voice professional and volunteer chorus that has quickly garnered a reputation throughout the Washington region for vocal excellence and discriminating concert programing. Since its debut concert in 2010 under the baton of Artistic Director Thomas Colohan the Chorale’s performances have received repeated critical acclaim. The Washington Post hails the ensemble’s singing as “remarkable for its beauty,” “seamlessly blended,” and “a sound worth hearing.”
Equally at home singing the work of both American and European masters, the Chorale is noted for its innovative presentation of choral works within the context of their culture and time. The group focuses on choral repertoire from the 19th century onward with a particular emphasis on music of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Chorale is also dedicated to the the expansion of the choral canon, and maintains that commitment through its annual commissioning of new choral works by leading American composers.
Thomas Colohan, Artistic Director of the Washington Master Chorale and the Fairfax Choral Society, is an award-winning conductor, composer, and teacher. The Washington Post has acclaimed Colohan’s work with the Master Chorale as “skillfully wrought and moving.” He has led choruses at Carnegie Hall, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington National Cathedral, The Library of Congress, Prague’s Rudolphinum Concert Hall, and the Stephansdom in Vienna. Colohan is active as a guest conductor, teacher and clinician on both the East and West coasts, and serves as Artist-in-Residence at the distinguished Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat in Dublin, NH. He has received a number of well-regarded choral commissions from churches and schools, including St Luke Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia, and the Montgomery County Public Schools. In his choral/orchestral engagements he has conducted members of the Prague Radio Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, the San Jose Symphony, the California Chamber Symphony, and the Richmond Symphony. Colohan has earned numerous honors, including regular recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He has twice been the recipient of a Choralis Foundation Washington Area Choral Excellence Award.
Before coming to Washington, Colohan served as Director of Choral Activities at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, Music Director of the Santa Clara Chorale, and Founder and Artistic Director of the James River Singers in Richmond, Virginia. His teachers have included renowned choral musicians such as Robert Shaw, Dale Warland, Morten Lauridsen, Helmut Rilling, Donald McCullough, and William Dehning. Colohan has held the post of Music Director for a number of well known churches, including All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, DC, St Mark’s Episcopal Church in Palo Alto California, and Little River United Church of Christ in Annandale, Virginia. A lyric baritone who maintains an active voice studio, Mr. Colohan has sung professionally with the Washington Bach Consort and on Public Television’s “Great Performances” series at the Kennedy Center with the Washington Opera Chorus. He holds a Master of Music in Choral Music from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Wednesday December 9, 2:00 to 3:00.
COMPUTER: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85605761996?pwd=c05TY2VQTnZVcEZQRHErTWRqaWpoUT09
PHONE: 301 715 8592
MEETING ID: 856 0576 1996
PASSCODE: 279374