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The Chamber Choir is Georgia Tech’s premiere mixed vocal ensemble. Founded in 1998, the choir has established itself as one of the foremost college vocal ensembles in the Southern USA. Singers are selected through audition, and the Chamber Choir attracts the finest choral musicians on the Tech campus. Its members are principally all-state-level singers who have extensive background and experience in ensemble singing. The Chamber Choir performs challenging literature with a special emphasis on Baroque, and modern works. The GT Chamber Choir was recently featured with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, New Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Atlanta Opera, and Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. The Chamber Choir also recently won the top prize in the First Annual Conference of Music and Architecture at the University of Texas-Austin. The Chamber Choir was recently featured at the College Music Society National Conference, and served as the chorus in the Atlanta Ballet production of W.A. Mozart’s Magic Flute. |
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The Georgia Tech Chamber Choir was founded in 1998 in order to provide especially skilled vocal musicians the means to perform a more challenging choral repertoire. Under the direction of Dr. Jerry Ulrich, the Chamber Choir has become known for its proficiency, artistry, and professionalism. Over the last decade, this group has performed in various venues across the Southeast to critical acclaim.
The Chamber Choir has recently established a reputation for its use of multimedia presentations during its performances. In 2008, the choir participated in a large-scale multimedia production entitled Phos Hilaron. Performed in Atlanta, St. Simon's Island, and North Carolina, the program included world-renowned authors Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. The presentation featured photography, animation, and videos, along with live accompaniment provided by the Chamber Choir.
In the spring of 2009, the Chamber Choir brought to Atlanta a production entitled Beginnings and Endings (and Life in Between). This concert focused on themes of creation, aging, death, and the afterlife. The capstone of the concert was Copland's In the Beginning, a complex work which sets the creation narrative from the Book of Genesis to music. In addition, the concert featured a moving piece inspired by the events of September 11th with text from John Donne's Death Be Not Proud and music by Dr. Jerry Ulrich.
Later that year, the Chamber Choir performed a concert celebrating music in worship titled Hymn of the Universe at All Saints' Episcopal Church in Atlanta. Selections from that concert, such as J.S. Bach's Ein Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott (BWV 80) and Maurice Duruflé's Ubi Caritas, also returned for the Florida tour in early 2010. This series of concerts was followed by performances for Georgia Tech Alumni and for medical professionals at a local conference. The 2009-2010 season concluded with a concert at St. John United Methodist Church, entitled The Flower of Youth, in which the Chamber Choir performed Alberto Ginastera's Lamentaciones de Jeremías Propheta and Samuel Barber's Agnus Dei.
For the 2010-2011 season, the Chamber Choir presented J.S. Bach's masterpiece, Mass in B Minor (BWV 232), in collaboration with the New Trinity Baroque Orchestra, a period-instrument ensemble. The Chamber Choir performed the work in Atlanta, Birmingham, Sarasota, and Tampa. Audience members heard this iconic piece performed in the Southeastern premiere of the Breitkopf edition, edited by Joshua Rifkin. The season ended on a strong note with Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy, an exciting collaborative performance with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Arnie Roth.
The Chamber Choir began the 2011-2012 season by participating in the Music in Architecture-Architecture in Music international symposium at the University of Texas in Austin. The Choir received great reviews for performing Dr. Frank Clark's creative and nuanced multimedia piece Theatre of the Imagination, which was declared the number one exhibit at the symposium. Dr. Clark's piece was performed again in the November concert titled Theatre of the Imagination: A Journey Through Choral Music of the Past 75 Years along with several other selections including Górecki's Totus Tuus, Arvo Pärt's An den Wassern zu Babel saßen wir und weinten, and Anton Webern's Cantata No. 1.
In the spring of 2012, the Chamber Choir collaborated with another Baroque period orchestra, the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, to perform George Frideric Handel's Dixit Dominus as well as Dr. Jerry Ulrich's newest piece Psalm XLVI, a contemporary piece composed for a Baroque orchestra and choir in response to G.F. Handel's work. This concert series was seen at Roswell Presbyterian Church and First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta. To end the season, the Chamber Choir combined with the Georgia Tech Women's Chorus, Georgia Tech Chorale, and Georgia Tech Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Marilyn Brown to perform Theofanidis' The Here and Now, Jerry Ulrich's Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth, and choir member A.J. Kolenc's video game medley Fus Ro Dah. This was the Chamber Choir's first collaborative effort with the rest of Georgia Tech's music groups.
Spring 2013 was one of the choir's busiest semesters. Early in the semester, we sung Berstein's Chichester Psalms along with the Lovett Choir, accompanied by organ, harp, and a small percussion ensemble. They then extended their collaboration with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra by peforming G.F. Handel's Messiah. This concert had particular historical significance for being the original Dublin version of the piece, with special care taken to assure that the performance was authentic to the way it would have originally been heard. Finally, towards the end of the semester they performed once again with the Georgia Tech Symphony Orchestra for a 'Movie Magic' concert, featuring pieces from popular film scores and classical pieces uses in films such as W.A. Mozart's Requiem and Orff's Carmina Burana.
Fall of 2013 saw the choir collaborating with the other vocal ensembles at Georgia Tech (Chorale and Women's Chorus) for the 'Reflections and Rebirth' concert. The Chamber Choir performed Respighi's Laud to the Nativity with professional instrumentalists and vocal soloists. |
