The Symphony Chorus has developed into a 120-voice orchestral ensemble that, in addition to its duties with the Kansas City Symphony, performs with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, the Kansas City Ballet, the Kansas City Civic Orchestra, the Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City, the Kansas City Puccini Festival and as part of the Kansas City Bach Cantata Series. As Kansas City’s unofficial chorus, the Symphony Chorus provides music for civic events such as the Lighting of the Mayor’s Christmas Tree at Crown Center every Thanksgiving.
Every Symphony Chorus member is a volunteer from the region’s musical community, selected by rigorous auditions, with some coming many miles for the weekly rehearsals. Most of the choral artists bring extensive music education and experience as performers and teachers, and are engaged throughout the region as soloists and conductors.
Each time the Symphony Chorus appears on the Kansas City Symphony concert series, the singers each invest approximately 33 hours of rehearsal and performance time, representing in the aggregate 3,960 hours of professional-level music making. If assigned an appropriate hourly rate, this is a potential gift of almost $120,000 to the Kansas City Symphony for each set of concerts.
World Premiers and Concert Tours:
The Chorus recently returned from their 2008 summer concert tour which will include a performance as part of the Lucerne Fesitval, Lucerne Switzerland, and performances in Venice, Italy, and were broadcast live from their concert in Lugano, Switzerland, as part of the 'Celebration of American Music Fesitval'.
The Kansas City Symphony Chorus previously performed Bruckner’s Mass in E Minor as part of their 2006 Summer Concert Tour where they were featured performers in the Carnegie Hall series.
During the 2004-5 season, the Kansas City Symphony Chorus joined with the Kansas City Symphony for the world premier of American composer Robert Kapilow’s tribute to Lewis and Clark, Summer Sun, Winter Moon.
The Kansas City Symphony Chorus appeared with the Kansas City Civic Orchestra in Queen, the October 2004 North American premier of a symphonic work based on the music of Queen.
In 2004 the Symphony Chorus made four performance stops in the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro, Manaus, Ouro Preto and Belo Horizante. Highlights of the tour included well received full-house programs in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizante and Manaus. In the eighteenth-century city of Ouro Preto, the Chorus’s concert was heard in the oldest theatre in the Americas, built in 1770.
The Kansas City Symphony Chorus has also represented Kansas City in additional numerous concert tours, including performances in New York City, Boston and the Berkshires, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and Mexico City where the chorus performed with the Mexico City Symphony.
