The Cali School of Music supports a broad range of large ensembles including Chorale, Symphonic Band, Symphonic Orchestra, and Wind Symphony.

Chorale

The Montclair State University Chorale, under the direction of  Heather Buchanan, is the core mixed-voice ensemble of the Cali School of Music. The 170 members comprise music students majoring in voice and instrumental performance, music education, music therapy and composition, as well as non-music majors from other Colleges in the University who account for one quarter of the membership. The somatically based choral pedagogy is designed to enable students to expand and refine their musical, vocal, and choral skills, enabling them to function as independent, flexible, and responsive choral musicians in their subsequent student and professional lives. The Chorale specializes in large-scale works that include performances of the New York Metropolitan area premiere of Howard Shore’s Academy Award winning score The Lord of the Rings Symphony with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO) under the baton of John Maucceri, the regional premiere performance of Let My People Go! by Don McCullough, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the NJSO under the baton of Neeme Järve, and the Duruflé Requiem. In November 2008, the Chorale performed Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. In January of 2010, the Chorale performed Verdi’s epic Requiem with the NJSO under Maestro Neeme Järvi. In May 2011, the women of the Chorale performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the NJSO and the American Boy Choir under Maestro Jacque Lacombe.

Parables (Movement IV) - Robert Aldridge [Video]
MSU Chorale and Symphony Orchestra
Heather J. Buchanan, conductor

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Symphonic Band

The Montclair State University Symphonic Band, directed by Thomas McCauley, is an ensemble of nearly 60 musicians who are all MSU students. The majority are instrumental music majors, but non-instrumental and non-music majors are welcome to audition. The Symphonic Band and smaller Wind Symphony perform at least four concerts each year. The repertoire for these concerts includes important works from the band literature of all periods. The ensemble also supports contemporary composers by premiering new works. The Symphonic Band offers opportunites to perform classics and rehearse new works with their composers. Works by Aldridge, Burns, Rachmaninov, Grainger, Mennin, Ticheli, Arnold, Vaughn Williams, Holst and Delibes have been performed in recent seasons. The band has collaborated with distinguished guest artists, including pianists David Witten and Ruth Rendleman, bass clarinetist Dennis Smylie, saxophonist Paul Cohen and the New Hudson Saxophone Quartet. Recent performances have included celebrations of the works of American masters Bernstein, Gershwin and Copland, and performances of Dello Joio's Scenes from "The Louvre" and the premiere of Beckel's Symphony for Band. In December 2010, the MSU Bands performed a concert titled "The Jazz Influence" featuring the Manhattan Brass Quintet, New Hudson Saxophone Quartet, and guest artist Warren Vaché in a concert of music illuminating the influence of jazz in 20th and 21st century wind music.  

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Symphony Orchestra

The MSU Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Ken Lam, is composed of undergraduate and graduate students, and performs repertoire from all periods by classical and modern composers. It regularly engages both faculty and guest soloists, and sponsors an annual concerto competition. In addition to more standard repertory, featured works in recent seasons have included Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 with guest artist Bruce Murray; Bottesini's Double Bass Concerto No. 2; the world premiere of David Bixler's Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra; Chen Gang and He Zhan Hao's The Butterfly Lovers, with violinist Weigang Li; and Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon's blue cathedral, Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto, Mahler's Symphony No. 1 (“Titan”), Debussy's Premiere Rhapsodie with faculty member David Singer, and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Opera and musical theater collaborations have included fully staged productions of Weill's Street Scene, Brown's Parade, Menotti's The Consul, Handel's Saul, and Rossini's La scala di seta, and Britten's Albert Herring. Tony Award winning actor and singer Chuck Cooper performed with the orchestra in the world premiere of The Star Across the Ocean by composer Scott Davenport Richards. Students joined with professionals in the orchestra for the regional premiere of Robert Aldridge's opera Elmer Gantry. Recent students have won auditions with the New World Symphony, Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, Haddonfield Symphony, Shanghai Symphony and many others. Participation in the University Symphony is determined by auditions at the beginning of the academic year.

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Wind Symphony

The MSU Wind Symphony, directed by Thomas McCauley, is a 45 member auditioned ensemble of undergraduate & graduate students who are experienced instrumentalists. Students from all schools in the university who are in good academic standing are welcome to audition. It performs a wide variety of works from the standard band repertoire, commissioned pieces, and chamber works. The Wind Symphony has appeared with such notable soloists as Donald Batchelder, Principal Trumpet of the New York City Opera, and James Markey, principal trombone of the New York Philharmonic. In 2007, the group presented the world premiere of David Gillingham’s Symphony No. 2 (“Genesis”). In spring 2010, they performed the premieres of Transformed Spring by composer and faculty  member Patrick J. Burns, and Harriet by O’Neal Douglas. Recent performances have included works by Chagrin, Bernstein, Harbison, Higdon, Verdi, Colgrass and Mozart.

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