Dear current, past and future singers of Choral Arts Cleveland,
Allow me to express my utter thrill and immense joy at being selected as your new Artistic Director.
I look forward to meeting each and every one of you in person and beginning what I know will be a fulfilling and fruitful musical collaboration. You will hear more about me in the coming weeks, and I’ll of course look forward to getting to know you all in person, but the primary purpose of this letter is not introduction but invitation.
I want to personally invite each and every one of you to join me, your fellow musicians and friends on the exciting musical adventure that will be Choral Arts Cleveland’s 49th season!
This season, we focus on the passing of time, the changing of seasons, and a reflection on the rich history of the choral tradition which stretches behind us.
We begin the season with a celebration of the life of one of America’s greatest choral composers on the 20th anniversary of his death: Moses Hogan, and end the season by celebrating one of western music’s best composers, Gabriel Fauré, 100 years after his passing:
For that, I am thrilled to announce that Choral Arts will be performing Fauré’s stirring and poignant Requiem.
Fauré’s Requiem, a tender and passionate farewell to a lost loved one (in Fauré’s case, his father), will serve for us as a tribute to the family and friends and neighbors we lost during the pandemic and to all the musicians who were masked and silenced during that period of uncertainty and fear. The Requiem will be paired with the world premiere of brand new choral music by one of northeast Ohio’s own talented composers, who has set multiple texts about loss and the deathless beauty of love.
In addition to the works of Hogan and Fauré, Choral Arts will be performing masterpieces by Eric Whitacre, Johannes Brahms, Linda Kachelmeier, Alice Parker, Aaron Copland, Brent Michael Davids, Steven Paulus and many more!
My ambition for Choral Arts 49th season is one of renewal, return, and reinvigoration–one where all voices young and old, high and low, experienced and novice gather in miraculous conspiracy to share our heartfelt passion for the choral art with our community.
I hope to see all of you at our first rehearsal on September 10th. Tell the singers in your life–friends, family, church choir members–about what CAC has planned and invite them to join us on an adventurous season as I now invite you!
Sincerely,
Peter Wright
pwright.lessons@gmail.com
Peter Wright, Music Director, Choral Arts Cleveland
Peter Wright is a conductor and singer in the Northeast Ohio area. He has been the music director for Church of Our Savior Episcopal and an assistant conductor of Cleveland Chamber Choir. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati and the University of Akron, Mr. Wright also has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, Cleveland Chamber Choir, Quire Cleveland, Cleveland Opera Theatre, and Alchemy Baroque. In addition to performing and conducting, Mr. Wright maintains a private studio where he teaches singing in a wide range of styles. A trained Latinist, Mr. Wright specializes in Latin dialect for choral singing and professionally translates choral Latin text.