Large Ensembles
The Cali School of Music supports a broad range of large ensembles including Chorale, Symphonic Band, Symphony Orchestra, and Wind Symphony.
Chorale
The Montclair State University Chorale is the core mixed-voice choir of the Cali School. The 160 singers comprise music students majoring in voice performance, music education, instrumental performance, music therapy, 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 musicians in their subsequent student and professional lives. The MSU Chorale specializes in performance of symphonic masterworks. Previous season highlights include 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 John Maucceri, the regional premiere performance of Let My People Go! by Don McCullough, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Verdi’s epic Messa da Requiem with the NJSO under the baton of Neeme Järvi. The Chorale’s highly acclaimed performances of Orff’s Carmina Burana with the NJSO and maestro Jacques Lacombe were also celebrated with a limited edition CD release in September 2011. In May 2011, the women of the Chorale performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the NJSO and the American Boy Choir under Jacques Lacombe’s direction. Other performance highlights include Requiem’s by Fauré and Duruflé, the Poulenc Gloria, Britten’s Saint Nicholas, and Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem. In 2011 the MSU Chorale collaborated with the MSU Symphony for the first time in a performance or Robert Aldridge's Parables.
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 Mahler's Symphony No. 1 ("Titan"), Bartok's Dance Suite, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 with guest artist Bruce Murray; 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; Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon's blue cathedral, and Grammy winner Robert Aldridge's Parables. 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 La cambiale di matrimonio, 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 MSU 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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