Join us for
DEVOTION:
A Celebration of GALA Choruses
Encore presentations TBD this August, 2021
Move Coro Allegro Forward
We sing with pride. Help us be ready to sing live again.
Since Pride month, members of Boston’s LGBTQ+ and allied classical chorus have beenwalking, moving, and making things happen to Move Coro Allegro Forward. Our goal is to put Coro in a great position to present live concerts again as soon as it’s safe to do so — while sustaining the creative, inclusive online programming we are sharing in the meantime. Will you help by sponsoring us?
DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT: Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar up to $4K due to a gift from generous donors like you.
Why we are asking for your support: Coro Allegro has transformed itself during this challenging year. We’ve performed in the Terezin Music Foundation’s Concert Film with artists from around the world; We've premiered a new Amplifying Black Voices series featuring Black artists with whom we’ve partnered; launched a Coro Academy to bolster our musical skills so we can come back stronger than ever, and celebrated the Devotion of the LGBTQ+ GALA Choruses. To support this work, we’ve won grants, hosted moving and fun events, and been sustained and inspired by the contributions of our loyal supporters. But the pandemic has stretched far longer than anyone could have imagined. We need your help.
Devotion: A Celebration of GALA Choruses
Premiered Sunday, June 27, 4 pm EDT/1 pm PDT
Encores in August 2021
Part of GALA Choruses
Rise Up Singing Virtual Events
Music by:
Craig Carnahan, Kenneth Fuchs, Eric Banks,
Moses Hogan, Peter Eldridge
The event is free but your donations to support the work of GALA Choruses and Coro Allegro will be welcome.
Join us for music and stories from composers, conductors, singers, and LGBTQ+ advocates on the impact of Festival, as we honor the GALA board and staff with the Daniel Pinkham Award and celebrate GALA's mission to change the world through song. Learn more.
Watch A Conversation Still Needed...
Join Jonathan Q. Berryman, Director of the Heritage Chorale of New Haven, Coro Allegro, and guests for powerful conversation and moving music, as we look at William Grant Still's courageous 1940 work, And They Lynched Him on a Tree , Black lives, and the continued need for equal justice. Part 2 of Coro Allegro's Amplifying Black Voices series. Learn more.
WATCH "A CONVERSATION STILL NEEDED" NOW
Sponsored by David and Shiela Hodgkins.
This series is supported in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Boston Cultural Council - administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, the Boston Mayor's Office for Arts and Culture, and an Alfred Nash Patterson Grant from Choral Arts New England and has been awarded the first Choral Arts New England Board grant, "exemplifying advancement of the Board's priorities in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion."
America, We Need to Talk
Watch the Premiere of the Amplifying Black Voices Series,
hosted by Composer Fred Onovwerosuoke
"We breathe the same air, want the same things, we need to talk."
Join us for conversation, music, and poetry as we shine light on classcal music, race relations in America, and the movement for Black Lives through the prism of Onovwerosuoke's kaleidoscopic work A Triptych of American Voices: A Cantata of the People, commissioned for Coro Allegro in 2019. With guests: Adelia Parker-Castro, artist, Tai Oney, countertenor, Jonas Budris, tenor, Christopher Wilkins, Music Director of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, and Willis Emmons and Zach Durant-Emmons, commissioners. Learn more.
DONATE TO SUPPORT THE SERIES
Sponsored in part by Willis Emmons & Zach Durant-Emmons
This series is supported in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Boston Cultural Council - administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, the Boston Mayor's Office for Arts and Culture, and an Alfred Nash Patterson Grant from Choral Arts New England and has been awarded the first Choral Arts New England Board grant, "exemplifying advancement of the Board's priorities in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion."
Thanks for supporting our 2020-2021 Virtual Season
Inspiration • Innovation • Collaboration
"I'm thinking of when we will meet again."
Our season opened with Coro Allegro performing in the Terezín Music Foundation's concert film with pianist Garrick Ohlsson, other celebrated artists from around the world, and speakers and honorees Madeleine Albright, Holocaust survivor Anna Ornstein, and Khizr Khan. Virtual choirs from Coro Allegro performed “Eliahu HaNavi" by Terezín composer Viktor Ullmann, and "I'll Be Seeing You" arranged by Peter Eldridge, and collaborated on Brother Dennis Slaughter's arrangement of "We Shall Overcome" with his Boston Community Gospel Choir and the Brookline High School Camerata, led by Coro alumnus Michael Driscoll.
• • • • • • • •
Amplifying Black Voices
A retrospective series amplifying the voices of Black artists, advocates, composers, and conductors with whom we have been proud to collaborate. Join us as we look back at works we have performed together in the context of the current Black Lives Matter movement.
Featuring Fred Onovwerosuoke • Phil Lima • Reginald Mobley • Jonathan Q. Berryman and others.
This series is supported in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Boston Cultural Council - administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, the Boston Mayor's Office for Arts and Culture, and an Alfred Nash Patterson Grant from Choral Arts New England and has been awarded the first Choral Arts New England Board grant, "exemplifying advancement of the Board's priorities in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion."
WATCH THE PREMIERE WITH FRED ONOVWEROSUOKE
WATCH "A CONVERSATION STILL NEEDED" WITH JONATHAN Q. BERRYMAN
• • • • • • • •
Launched this October, the Coro Academy offers music training courses for singers to help us emerge from the pandemic, stronger than ever!. Offerings include music theory/harmony and solfege, in collaboration with the Kodály Music Institute of Boston, plus vocal training masterclasses with beloved Coro Allegro Guest Artists.
This program is supported in part by grants from the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, and the Boston Cultural Council administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture.
Dear Friends,
in March 2019, long before the pandemic silenced our concert halls and our communities poured into the streets to cry out for justice following the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, Coro Allegro and the Heritage Chorale of New Haven joined forces for a concert called America/We Need to Talk . . .
. . . Coro Allegro stands with the Black community in turn. To our Black singers and audience members, and all the Black artists with whom we have the honor to make music, please know that we support you. Even if we can't sing together right now, we will still raise our voices with you to call for justice, to hold you safe, and to affirm that Black lives matter.
Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson lays out with clarity why America needs to talk about race and its role in our history:
"We have been practicing silence about our history for a very long time. In this country, we don’t talk about slavery, we don’t talk about lynching, we don’t talk about segregation, we have a hard time talking about race . . .We react to the effort of trying to talk about it as if that’s the threat. Not our continued silence."
Fred Onovwerosuoke closed his Cantata of the People with these words by his friend, the late Poet Laureate of St. Louis, Michael Castro: "We breathe the same air, [we] want the same things, we need to talk."
For the full statement, links to support our partners, and an extraordinary video by the Intercultural Music Initiative, visit the Coro Allegro blog.
Look for Coro's upcoming album
In the spring of 2018, Coro Allegro and Artistic Director David Hodgkins were proud to record We Are Here at Futura Productions. The album features Kareem Roustom's Rage Against the tyrant(s) and Eric Banks' Aluta continua: The passion of David Kato Kisule, two works by American composers bearing witness to international human rights. Keep an eye out for the full album in 2021!
Join us!
Coro Allegro is Boston's LGBTQ+ and allied classical chorus. Under the baton of Artistic Director David Hodgkins, Coro Allegro is known for award-winning programming, powerful commissions, and critically acclaimed performances and recordings of works by diverse classical and contemporary composers. We are proud to offer a welcoming, affirming and supportive environment for performers and audiences alike.
Experience that pride and community for yourself. Join the Coro Family of friends, allies, and members of the LGBTQ+ community as a singer, supporter, or volunteer.
Auditions
Coro Allegro is seeking new singers for its 2021-2022 season. Auditions will be held by appointment for all voice parts! Learn more about the process and schedule an audition today!
Mailing List
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