Upcoming Concerts and Events
This year marks Chicago Chorale’s 25th Anniversary Season! With the retirement of founding Artistic Director Bruce Tammen, Chorale welcomes three guest conductors to the podium: Benjamin Rivera, Maurice Boyer, and Amanda Huntleigh.
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When David Heard
Guest Conductor Benjamin Rivera
Sunday, November 15, 2026, 3:00pm
Hyde Park Union Church, 5600 S Woodlawn Ave
Chicago Chorale opens its season with two settings of David’s lament: Thomas Tomkins' early 17th-century version and Eric Whitacre’s heartrending 2012 work. Psalm settings by Johannes Brahms, George Walker, Judith Weir and others frame the program, along with Leonard Bernstein’s Missa brevis, composed for his friend and colleague Robert Shaw. The music of this program ranges from introspective and austere to rhythmic and exuberant, spanning several countries and languages, and includes works by four living composers.
Spherical Madrigals
Guest Conductor Maurice Boyer
Sunday, February 28, 2027, 3:00pm
Hyde Park Union Church, 5600 S Woodlawn Ave
Ross Lee Finney’s Spherical Madrigals, composed in 1948 for double choir, serves as the stirring centerpiece of our winter concert. Finney sets texts by John Donne, Robert Herrick and other 17th-century English poets, focusing on images of globes, circles, and orbs, to explore metaphysical themes. These themes are further illuminated in the program with works by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Motets by Claude Debussy, Ulysses Kay, Alice Parker, Randall Thompson, and others round out the program and offer a more personal, contemplative experience of the sacred.
When the Light Returns
Guest Conductor Amanda Huntleigh
Sunday, May 16, 2027, 3:00pm
Hyde Park Union Church, 5600 S Woodlawn Ave
Our final concert of the season traces the full arc of human grief and renewal. The program begins with hushed evening prayer, featuring works by Camille Saint-Saëns and William Croft, before descending into darkness with works by Hugo Distler and Anotonio Lotti. Reena Esmail's When the Violin answers with a Sufi poem of forgiveness, weaving cello and voices in the first tender opening of the heart, and György Ligeti's Éjszaka/Reggel shifts the atmosphere from night to dawn. Willametta Spencer and Shawn Kirchner carry the program into the light with radiant, roof-raising joy.