Choral Stream

The Minnesota Boychoir performs two pieces from a song cycle composed by Julia Singer and Tim Takach.

Cantus made a few stops during their Greater Minnesota Tour to work with high school choirs. On the campus of Vermilion Community College Theater, they coached singers from Ely, Babbitt and Tower-Soudan.

This week on our Morning Glories, we explore the land of 10,000 choirs... and in just five days, it's only a handful of the best.

It may be the greatest work in all of Western Music -- St. Matthew's Passion -- premiered Good Friday in 1727 and then entirely forgotten for 100 years until Mendelssohn revived it. Alison Young is your host this Good Friday at 10 a.m. of Bach's masterpiece. You can follow along with the original score online.

The St. Olaf Choir "Home Concert" from the choir's Winter Tour is the Regional Spotlight this week.

All three ensembles from the Minnesota All-State Choir from last summer are represented in this week's Regional Spotlight.

MPR's 2011 Artists-in-Residence Cantus have been sharing the microphone with Alison Young each month, taking your questions and requests and sharing some of their favorite music. There's never enough time to answer all the questions on-air, so they've kindly agreed to do so online. Check it out, and send another if yours was missed for this Tuesday at noon's session.

Singing in a choir is about love, love of the music, love of singing "together," and loving the audience. The Choral Arts Ensemble from Rochester demonstrate why they are one of the best choirs in the region from a performance given earlier this season. The sound the ensemble produces in two works by Handel and Mozart is full and round and joy filled. It is a pleasure to feature the Choral Arts Ensemble and director Michael Culloton in this week's Regional Spotlight.

He led one of the finest choirs around - and set the bar in sound and blend that vocal ensembles everywhere try to reach: Dale Warland. He still conducts, consults, teaches and writes music and took a few moments out of his busy day to share a few of his favorites for the season, including a not-oft heard work by Arvo Part and a spectacularly atmospheric setting of "Lo, How a Rose" with a Swedish Choir.

He's one of the great choral conductors and program innovators in our midst - Philip Brunelle. He shares his favorite pieces for the season - a couple that will make you feel misty-eyed and one he plays with Garrison Keillor guaranteed for a lot of laughs!