Chorale opens its 24th season with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil.  Completed in 1915 and immediately hailed as a masterpiece, the All-Night Vigil was the last piece of sacred choral music that Rachmaninoff wrote, as the Russian Revolution two years later culminated in a ban on religious music and necessitated his flight to Europe and then the United States.  The work was not heard again in Russia until the 1960s.  Publication in the U.S. brought it to the attention of American conductors, and its stature has steadily grown with choirs and audiences throughout the world.  The richness and beauty of the music, as well as the themes explored through its liturgical framework, appeals to listeners from all religious traditions.  This is Chorale’s final season with our founding Artistic Director, Bruce Tammen, at the helm.  Don’t miss it!

Saturday, November 22 at 8pm St. Vincent de Paul Parish 1010 W Webster Avenue

Sunday, November 23 at 3pm Hyde Park Union Church 5600 S Woodlawn Avenue

In celebration of our long and fruitful relationship with Monastery of the Holy Cross, Chorale returns this fall to share our singing with the Benedictine monks in a service of Advent Vespers. Experience the timeless texts of this season of waiting and anticipation through plainchant, hymns, and motets, in the monastery chapel’s otherworldly acoustics. In the midst of what is often a stressful, rushed season, this service offers an island of quiet and peace, and an opportunity to meditate on the deeper meaning of the season.

Saturday, December 6 at 5pm Monastery of the Holy Cross 3111 S Aberdeen Street

Chicago Chorale is excited to bring the holiday tradition of community caroling to long-time and new audience members alike. We invite you to join this convivial sing-along event that is sure to be a highlight of the holiday season. This event is free, with proceeds from audience goodwill donations benefiting the music programs at Ray and Shoesmith Elementary Schools. We will have seasonal refreshments in the Social Hall after caroling.

Sunday, December 14 at 2pm Hyde Park Union Church 5600 S Woodlawn Ave

Chorale's second major concert of the season features The Peaceable Kingdom, an extended choral work by American composer Randall Thompson.  Commissioned by the League of Composers in 1935, it was inspired by the primitivist painting “The Peaceable Kingdom” by Edward Hicks (1780-1849).  Thompson selected eight passages from the Book of Isaiah referencing themes of peace and vividly depicts stark contrasts between good and evil, peace and war, imaginative text-setting, appropriately dissonant harmonic passages, and large sections of recitative-like declamation with luscious, lyrical sections.  The concert will also feature motets by Kerensa Briggs, Javier Centeno, Rene Clausen, Herbert Howells, Steven Paulus, and Jeff Smallman.  

Saturday, March 14 at 8pm St. Vincent de Paul Parish 1010 W Webster Avenue

Sunday, March 15 at 3pm Hyde Park Union Church 5600 S Woodlawn Avenue

Our 2025-26 season concludes with a performance of the 1883 version of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, with orchestra and soloists. Fauré’sRequiem differs significantly from others composed during the nineteenth century in that he omitted the Dies Irae and Tuba Mirum movements, which for most composers were the dramatic center of the work, and added the Pie Jesu and In Paradisum movements.  Consequently the prevailing mood is one of peacefulness, serenity, and hope. Other composers create stronger, arguably more dramatic movements; Fauré’s art is on a far more ethereal plane.  Its unearthly beauty and tenderness have made it one of the most enduring works of our present time.  Come hear Artistic Director, Bruce Tammen, as he conducts this masterpiece and motets by Heinrich Schütz, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, and Nikolai Golovanov, in his final concert with Chicago Chorale.

Sunday, May 31 at 3pm St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church 5472 S Kimbark Avenue