The Kansas City Symphony Chorus
The Kansas City Symphony Chorus (KCSC), led by Grammy Award-winning Chorus Director Charles Bruffy, is a 163-voice ensemble that serves as "the choral voice of the Kansas City Symphony." The KCSC continues its long tradition of excellence with the Kansas City Symphony, and additionally serves as Kansas City's unofficial chorus, providing music for civic events such as the Lighting of the Mayor's Christmas Tree at Crown Center every Thanksgiving.
The Kansas City Symphony Chorus has been offering quality choral music to the greater Kansas City metropolitan area for more than forty years, first as the Mendelssohn Choir, then as the Civic Chorus. In 1988, shortly after the creation of the Kansas City Symphony, the choir became the Kansas City Symphony Chorus, an independent 501(C)3 not-for-profit organization. This relationship has led to performances with conductors Klauspeter Seible, Nicholas McGegan, Anne Manson, William McGlaughlin, Timothy Hankewich, Lawrence Leighton Smith, Henry Smith, Jahja Ling, Roberto Minczuk, Raymond Leppard and David Lockington.
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. We consider this a significant gift to our community, but also consider it a privilege to perform with the Kansas City Symphony.
World Premiers and Concert Tours:
The Chorus' 2008 concert tour included a performance as part of the Lucerne Festival, 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 Festival'.
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' 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.
