Celebrating 43 Years of Performing
for the Nation’s Capital and the World

Now entering its 43rd Season, The Choral Arts Society of Washington, under the leadership of its founder and artistic director Norman Scribner, is one of the major symphonic choruses in the United States. Composed of more than 190 professional-caliber volunteer singers, The Choral Arts Society of Washington has sung under the world’s leading orchestra conductors, recorded a number of acclaimed CDs, and toured nationally and internationally.  The Chorus is regularly called upon to help inaugurate presidents, honor world leaders, celebrate national holidays, and participate in televised performances.  Each year CASW presents a four-concert season subscription series at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and other DC area venues, performing virtually all of the standard repertoire plus numerous world premieres, Washing­ton premieres and new works commissioned by the Society. CASW also presents an Annual Choral Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Performers, guest conductors, celebrities, and composers come together to create a celebration of artistic diversity and expression dedicated to Dr. King’s vision. 

In addition to regular performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Society has appeared with the orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Israel and Paris Opera, under the direction of Adams, Rostropo­vich, Slatkin, Conlon, Frühbeck de Burgos, Leinsdorf, Rudel, Kunzel, Maazel, Bernstein, Shaw and Dorati. The Chorus has performed in New York City on several occasions under Leonard Bernstein, Mstislav Rostropo­vich, and Leonard Slatkin, appeared with the New York Philharmonic, and has toured the Northeast with the Cracow Philharmonic and Krzysztof Penderecki.

The Choral Arts Society has performed special commemorative concerts including the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of Msti­slav Rostropovich's American debut, the American premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki's Polish Requiem, and the centenary of Prokofiev’s birth with Rostropovich and the National Symphony at Lincoln Center. Nationally televised performances include A Capitol Fourth with the National Symphony Orchestra led by Erich Kunzel, Christmas at the Kennedy Center with Leontyne Price, and for eleven straight years, the annual Kennedy Center Honors featuring honorees Robert Shaw, Mstislav Rostropovich, Stephen Sondheim, Pete Seeger, Marilyn Horne, Neil Simon, and Johnny Cash.  In the summer of 2004, Choral Arts debuted on the subscription series of the New York Philharmonic under conductor and composer John Adams for the Philharmonic’s Charles Ives Festival. In 1991, the Choral Arts Society sang Prokofiev's cantata Alexander Nevsky with Rostropovich and the National Symphony, which included a performance at New York's Lincoln Center, in celebration of the centenary of the composer's birth.

The Choral Arts Society of Washington is frequently invited to tour internationally. Under the baton of Norman Scribner, the chorus returned to Italy in 2001 to perform at the Spoleto Festival, having sung Rachmaninoff’s Vespers at the Festival in July 1993. The chorus also joined the Westminster Choir and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, under the direction of Stephen Mercurio, to perform Berlioz’s Requiem for the Festival's grand finale. On an historic tour to Russia in 1993, the chorus joined forces with the National Symphony Orchestra and Mstislav Rostropovich, performing in both Moscow and St. Petersburg. The highlight of the tour was a performance of Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky in Moscow's Red Square, which was attended by 100,000 people.  In October 1994, WETA-TV in Washington, DC aired a 30-minute documentary about the historic tour. In May of 1996, Mr. Scribner led the chorus on a 13-day, six-concert tour of France with performances at the Evian Festival, the Sorbonne, the Festival of Auvers-sur-Oise and Notre Dame.  In the summer of 2000, the chorus performed at the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming under the direction of Eiji Oue.  In 2002 the chorus embarked on a ten-day tour of England to perform in four major music festivals, including the renowned Proms at Royal Albert Hall in London.  In July and August of 2005, Choral Arts became the first Washington-area chorus to tour South America, performing Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana at the world famous Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  In addition, the chorus performed Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem with the Orquestra Petrobras Pro Musica at the historic Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Gabriel Faure's Requiem at the beautiful Candaleria Church.

In recordings, the men of the Choral Arts Society were featured in John Corigliano’s Of Rage and Remembrance with the National Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin on RCA Victor Red Seal, which won the 1996 Grammy for Best Classical Album. Featured on Teldec is the album Make Me Drunk With Your Kisses, a world premiere recording of Alexander Knaifel’s Chapter Eight  (a work for cello, four choruses and cathedral) with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and Norman Scribner conducting for the first time on an international label. In December 1996, the Society released Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem recorded live at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall under the baton of Norman Scribner. On the Erato label are recordings with Maestro Rostropovich, including Rachmaninoff’s Vespers and, with the National Symphony Orchestra, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar) and Learner’s Manual and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. In 1991, Choral Arts released Christmas with The Choral Arts Society of Washington, a critically acclaimed and popular recording of Christmas carols and other Yuletide favorites with over 10,000 copies sold to date, and in 1999 and 2000 on the Naxos label, released A Choral Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – The First Ten Years, There Shall a Star: Choral Jewels for Christmas and Thomas Beveridge’s Yizkor Requiem.  In 2006, CASW released Celebrating Sacred Rhythms featuring Navidad Nuestra and Missa Criolla by Argentine composer Ariel Ramirez and a Congolese version of the Mass, Missa Luba, arranged by Guido Haazen on the international Naxos label.

CASW has been the recipient of the prestigious Mayor’s Art Award, the ASCAP Award for adventurous programming and the Washington Post Award for Non-profit Excellence.  In keeping with CASW’s commitment to the community, the Society implemented artsACCESS: Arts for Children Creates Educational Success in Schools, a cutting edge arts-integrated elementary school program, now in its eighth year.  The goals of CASW are to strengthen and deepen the artistic excellence of its programming, build upon its local, national, and international reputation, and further enhance the impact of its outreach initiatives.