The Clarion Choir

The Clarion Choir is a professional chamber choir based in New York City and one of the leading vocal ensembles in the United States. Formed in 2006, the choir made its Lincoln Center debut in 2011 performing Bach chorales as part of the White Light Festival. The group has since performed in some of classical music’s most storied venues and produced five Grammy-nominated recordings. The Clarion Choir has a focus on Baroque and Classical repertoire, often performing with the period-instrument Clarion Orchestra. Yet over the last decade, it has also expanded into later literature, including the choral music of Rachmaninoff and his contemporaries, and newly composed works. In 2016, the choir premiered a lost Russian masterwork from the 1920s, Passion Week by Maximilian Steinberg, in the Grand Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, at Rachmaninoff Hall at the Moscow Conservatory, and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. The choir’s performances were featured on PBS and its recording of Passion Week received a Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance and a nomination for BBC Music Magazine’s annual Choral Award. The choir has since premiered and recorded other lost works from this period, such as Alexander Kastalsky’s Memory Eternal and Requiem for Fallen Brothers. During the 2023–24 season, the choir performed Rachmaninoff’s complete cycle of choral works in celebration of the composer’s 150th birthday, culminating with a performance of his Vespers at Carnegie Hall. Most recently, the choir premiered and recorded a new work by American composer Patti Drennan, Requiem of Light.

The Clarion Choir is joining The English Concert and Harry Bicket for a third time as part of that group’s annual presentation of Handel oratorios and operas on tour. The choir also has a special partnership with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its Met Live Arts series. It has presented eight Renaissance and early-Baroque programs in the Medieval Sculpture Hall and Met Cloisters in recent years. The choir has also collaborated with other notable ensembles and artists including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Susan Graham, Isabel Leonard, Leonard Slatkin, Raphaël Pichon, and Madonna at the 2018 Met Gala.