Coro Allegro: Highlights from Over 30 Years

1991

• David Cutler founds Ars Nova, a classical chorus for gays, lesbians, and their friends.
  • Thomas Kim, Conductor
  • Karen Harvey, Accompanist

1992

• Ars Nova becomes Coro Allegro, Boston’s classical chorus for members & friends of the LGB community.
  • Jane Ring Frank, Conductor
• September
  • David Hodgkins becomes Artistic Director.
• November
  • First concert with Kristina Nilsson, concertmaster
  • First concert at the Church of the Covenant

1993

• June
  • Coro Allegro sings at our first Boston Pride Interfaith Service.
• September
  • Darryl Hollister becomes Accompanist.

1994

• Boston premiere: Salmo 51 by Marianne Martines

1995

• World premiere: In the Clearing by Kenneth Fuchs
  • Coro Allegro’s first commission

1996

• May
  • World premiere: Daniel Pinkham, The White Raven
    • Commissioned by Coro Allegro
• July
  • Coro Allegro attends GALA Chorus Festival V, Tampa
• November
  • Boston premiere: Arvo Pärt’s Te Deum

1997

• February
  • World premiere: Requiem by Ruth Lomon
• March
  • VOICES of FREEDOM with NE GALA choruses
  • Coro Allegro’s first commercial CD In the Clearing is released.
• December
  • First Night, Boston in Trinity Church

1998

• March
  • Collaboration: Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra
• November
  • The Voice of the Tenth Muse by Patricia Van Ness
    • World premiere, commission, Artist in Residency

1999

• And They Lynched Him on a Tree by William Grant Still
  • Boston premiere, with the New Haven Heritage Chorale

2000

• July
  • GALA Choruses Festival VI in San Jose, CA
• October
  • Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Symphony Hall
    • Christopher Hogwood conducts Handel & Haydn, Coro Allegro, and Boston Cecilia.

2001

• Coro Allegro affirms Transgender inclusion (LGBT).
• May
  • World premiere: Casey: Play Ball! by Robert Kapilow
  • • Boston Celebrity Series, with Boston Musica Viva in the Cyclorama

2001-2002 Season

• Coro Allegro celebrates our 10th Anniversary.

2002

• Spring
  • Commercial CD release: somewhere i have never traveled
• November
  • Boston premiere: James MacMillan’s Cantos Sagrados

2003

• March
  • Collaboration: Coro Allegro & Boston Cecilia
    • Donald Teeters conducting Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, Jordan Hall
• April
  • Collaboration: Boston Landmarks Ensemble
• May
  • World premiere: Infinite Fraternity by Charles Fussell
    • Commissioned by Coro Allegro
• November
  • American premiere of 3 songs by Rebecca Clarke

2004

• February
  • MacMillan’s Cantos Sagrados at Eastern ACDA
• March
  • Collaboration: Coro Allegro & Boston Cecilia
    • David Hodgkins conducting 20th-century masters, Jordan Hall
• May
  • Collaboration: Horace Clarence Boyer, Boston City Singers
• July
  • GALA Festival VII in Montreal
• October
  • World premiere: Requiem by Patricia Van Ness
    • Commissioned by Coro Allegro

2006

• May
  • World Premiere: Joseph Fear, St. Francis Prayer for Peace
  • World Premiere: Joseph Marcello, Three spirituals
• November
  • World premiere: Shofar by Robert Stern
• December
  • A Tribute to Congressman Gerry E. Studds

2008

• February
  • Coro Allegro establishes the Daniel Pinkham Award.
  • First Pinkham Award recipient: Sanford Sylvan
• July
  • GALA Festival VIII in Miami

2009

• 2nd Daniel Pinkham Award to Bishop Gene Robinson

2010

• 3rd Daniel Pinkham Award to Fenwick Smith

2011

• March
  • 4th Daniel Pinkham Award to Patricia Van Ness
• May
  • World premiere: The Son of Man! by Kareem Roustom
    • Collaboration with United Parish Chancel Choir, Susan DeSelms, Director

2012

• March
  • 5th Daniel Pinkham Award to Donald Teeters
• May
  • Coro Allegro wins the Chorus America/ASCAP Alice Parker Award
• July
  • GALA IX Festival in Denver
  • Coro Allegro’s first two albums on the Navona label are released:
    • In Paradisum, Requiem and Voice of the Tenth Muse by Patricia Van Ness;
    • Awakenings: Why I Wake Early by Ronald Perera; Shofar by Robert Stern.

2013

• March
  • Coro Allegro in Veterans for Peace St. Patrick’s Peace Parade
• April
  • Boston premiere: Last Letter Home by Lee Hoiby
  • Coro Allegro & area choruses: “A Song for Peace,” Trinity Church
    • After the Boston Marathon bombings
• June
  • Coro celebrates 20 Years with David Hodgkins.
  • World Premiere: The Orchard: Songs of Fruit and Love by Greg Bullen
  • Presentation of the 6th Daniel Pinkham Award to David Hodgkins

2014

• June
  • Collaboration: La Donna Musicale and RUMBARROCO
  • Presentation of the 7th Daniel Pinkham Award to Laury Gutiérrez
• July
  • Whitbourn’s Annelies with Chorus Pro Musica, Massachusetts ACDA
• November
  • Songs for a Waxing Moon by Alexander deVaron
    • World premiere at Jordon Hall
  • 8th Daniel Pinkham Award to Lorna Cooke deVaron

2015

• June
  • Te Deum by Arvo Pärt at Chorus America Conference
• October
  • Terezin Music Festival GALA in Boston Symphony Hall
    • 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Nazi Camps
    • World premiere: Pablo Ortiz, Leaving Limerick, text by Richard Blanco
    • Commissioned for Coro Allegro by the Terezin Music Foundation
• November
  • A Concert for Marriage Equality

2016

• March
  • World premiere: Howard Frazin’s The Voice of Isaac
    • Expanded version, with Boston City Singers & Toronto Children’s Chorus
• May
  • Aluta Continua: The passion of David Kato Kisule by Eric Banks
    • World premiere/commissioned by Coro Allegro tenor Tom Regan;
  • Benefit for LGBTI refugees in Kenya w/Spectrum Uganda/Refuge Point
  • Presentation of the 9th Daniel Pinkham Award to Janson Wu
• July
  • GALA X Festival in Denver
• November
  • Kristina Nilsson, concertmaster, solo performance
    • In recognition of 25 years of contributions by orchestral musicians
• December
  • World AIDS Day Service Church of the Covenant
    • Benefit performance of the Fauré Requiem for the Boston Living Center

2017

• March
  • Caprice for Piano & Orchestra by Fred Onovwerosuoke
    • World premiere commissioned in honor of Darryl Hollister
  • 10th Daniel Pinkham Award to Catherine Peterson
• May
  • Alleluia! A Celebration of 25 Years
    • World premiere commissions: To be nobody by Peter Eldridge; Psalm 116 (Alleluia) by Patricia Van Ness.
• September
  • Coro Allegro becomes Boston's LGBTQ+ and allied classical chorus, affirming  inclusion of all sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions.
  • In celebration and to launch our next quarter century, we present a new logo.
• November
  • David Hodgkins' 25th Season as Artistic Director kicks off with a performance of Mozart's Great Mass in C Minor, K. 427 

2018

• March
  • World premiere:  Rage Against the tyrant(s) by Kareem Roustom
    • Commissioned by Coro Allegro members T. Jefferson Kline, Julie Anderson, and Tom Regan
  • World premiere of expanded version of Shawn Kirchner's Songs of Ascent
  • 11th Daniel Pinkham Award to Robin Godfrey

2019

• March
  • Collaboration:  The Heritage Chorale of New Haven
  • World premiere, A Triptych of American Composers: A Cantata of the People by Fred Onovwerosuoke
    • Commissioned by Coro Allegro tenor Willis Emmons and his husband Zach Durant-Emmons
  • 12th Daniel Pinkham Award to Darryl Hollister.
• June
  • Coro Allegro named recipient of the 2019 Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.
• July
  • Collaboration:  The Boston Landmarks Orchestra and the One City Choir
• November
  • Boston Premieres: 
    • What Do You Think I Fought for at Omaha Beach by Melissa Dunphy
    • Lullaby by Shawn Crouch
    • The New Colossos by David Ludwig

2020

• March: 
  • Coro Allegro's concert Shofar: In Memoriam is the first non student performance cancelled in Boston due to the COVID-19 pandemic.​​​​​​ 
  • Coro Allegro launches SNACK weekly experiments in music making and community gathering on Zoom
• September:
  • Coro Allegro launches Coro Academy with online Solfege, Music Theory and Harmony, and Vocal Masterclasses courses
  • Collaboration:  The Kodály Institute of Boston
• November:
  • Collaboration: Terezín Music Foundation for their 2020 GALA: “I’m Thinking of When We Will Meet Again”
  • Coro creates our first virtual choirs with the Boston Community Gospel Choir and the Brookline High Camerata
  • World premiere: "I'll Be Seeing You" by Peter Eldridge
    • Commissioned for Coro Allegro by the Terezín Music Foundation

2021

• March: 
  • Premiere: Amplifying Black Voices, a new digital series 
  • Episode 1:  "America, We Need to Talk" featuring Composer Fred Onovwerosuoke 
    • Guests: Artist Adelia Parker-Castro reading the poetry of Michael Castro, Tai Oney, countertenor, Jonas Budris, tenor, Christopher Wilkins, Music Director of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Willis Emmons and Zach Durant-Emmons, commissioners, hosted by Artistic Director David Hodgkins and Executive Director Yoshi Campbell 
• April: 
  • Premiere:  Amplifying Black Voices 2:  "A Conversation Still Needed: William Grant Still, Lynching and Black Lives" featuring Jonathan Q. Berryman of the Heritage Chorale of New Haven
    • Collaboration:  The Heritage Chorale of New Haven
      • Guests: Marietta Simpson, mezzo soprano & Distinguished Rudy Professor of Music, Indiana University, Judith Anne Still, archivist and advocate for her father's music, hosted by Artistic Director David Hodgkins and Executive Director Yoshi Campbell  
• June
  • Premiere:  "Devotion: A Celebration of GALA Choruses"
  • Guests:
    • For GALA Choruses: Robin Godfrey, Jane Ramseyer Miller, Michael Tate 
    • Composers Kenneth Fuchs and Eric Banks,
    • Craig Coogan, ED Boston Gay Men's Chorus,
    • Janson Wu, ED of GLAD (GLBTQ+ Legal Advocates and Defenders)
    • Reginald L. Mobley, countertenor and advocate for arts equity,
      • John Abdallah “LongJones” Wambere, founder of AmeriGanda, International,
      • Sam Brinton, VP of The Trevor Project
      • Coro Allegro singers, alumni, commissioners, and presidents
      • Hosted by Coro AD David Hodgkins & ED Yoshi Campbell
  • 13th Annual Pinkham Award to the GALA Choruses Staff and Board
• September:
  • Coro Allegro and Devotion featured in a Chorus America article on the resilience of GALA Choruses by Yoshi Campbell
• October
  • Collaboration: Terezín Music Foundation 2021 Virtual and Live GALA;
  • Coro Allegro performs works by Sivan Eldar and Viktor Ullmann in Symphony Hall, our first live performance since the pandemic
• November
  • Coro Allegro presents its first live concert since the pandemic, dedicated to front-line workers

2022

• Spring:
  • More Covid cancellations
  • Coro Allegro launches the Letters Project with community partners inspired by a newly commissioned work by Andrea Clearfield
• August: Collaboration: Boston Landmarks Orchestra and One City Chorus
  • World Premiere:  Many Mansions by Dr. Diane White Clayton
    • Commissioned by the Landmarks Orchestra for Coro Allegro
• October:
  • Collaboration:  The Terezín Music Foundation
  • World Premiere: Sketch for Terezin/Does Grace by Jeremiah Klarman
    • Commissioned by the Terezín Music Foundation for Coro Allegro
• November:
  • World Premiere: HERE I AM: I AM HERE by Andrea Clearfield
    • Commissioned by Alison Howe, Virginia Fitzgerald, Leah Smith, Robin Godfrey for Coro Allegro
  • 14th Annual Pinkham Award to Sam Brinton