For more history of CASC 

 

 

About Choral Arts

 

            In 1975, the joy of singing and friendship brought together a small group of men and women which has grown to become the Choral Arts Society of Cleveland, a non-profit community chorus of forty to sixty dedicated and proficient singers.  Recognized as one of the area’s premier musical forces, CASC is under the talented and enthusiastic directorship of Martin Kessler, who continues the heritage of visionary and skilled leadership that has nurtured, enriched, and challenged the chorus.

 

            Members of CASC are drawn from throughout the Greater Cleveland area. They meet for weekly rehearsals every Sunday during the season at Grace Lutheran Church in Cleveland Heights.  They come from all walks of life, diverse cultural backgrounds, a broad age range, and include talented voices with varying degrees of musical training. 

 

            The Choral Arts Society is committed to excellence and to performance of choral masterworks of all styles and periods.  These have included folk songs, spirituals, short choral masterpieces by composers such as Aaron Copland, Brahms, Randall Thompson, Irving Fine, Howard Hanson, and John Rutter, and full-scale  works such as Haydn’s Creation, the Brahms Requiem, Bernstein’s  Chichester Psalms,  Ernest Bloch’s The Sacred Service, Mozart’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater,  and Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance.  Choral Arts also sang the Ohio premier of Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio in 1993 at the Palace Theater, and in its March 1999 concert premiered a folk song written especially for the chorus by Oberlin composer Anna Rubin. In December 2004 Choral Arts premiered a series of Christmas Carols composed by their director, Martin Kessler. The chorus has also been guest musicians with the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra, the Suburban Symphony, and the Cleveland Heights Chamber Orchestra.

 

            Choral Arts regularly makes musical contributions to the community through occasional free-admission concerts, donations of tickets to deserving organizations, minimal ticket prices, discounted tickets for seniors and students, and participation in institutional and civic events such as the Cleveland Bicentennial.

 

            Besides singing, CASC members are involved in every phase of the group’s operation. Working with its Board of Trustees, members volunteer their time as officers of the group as well as workers to perform the many jobs required to keep the chorus alive and well, including fund raising.