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The Jackson Chorale is celebrating it's 54th season! The Jackson Chorale made its official debut on March 9, 1955 in an appearance with The Jackson Symphony. The Symphony, in its fourth season, was under the direction of Pedro Paz. An outgrowth of a group formed for the 1954 Freedom Festival, the chorale was organized by George V. Cripps, vocal music director at Jackson High School. The Chorale was reorganized the following year under the guidance of Jackson Junior College. Mac William Disbrow was selected to direct the group.
Roots of the Chorale go back 100 years or more. Many groups formed and dissolved over the years. Most were church related and/or sponsored. A newspaper article from 1911 mentions the fine singing of The Jackson Choral Society upon the occasion of a visit from President Taft. Many excellent conductors have led the group in the years since 1955, among them being Steven Jones, James Holleman and Thomas Sheets. The current director Stephen Osmond is also the music director of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra.
With the formation of the Jackson Chorale, there began a tradition of presentations of major choral works of Beethoven, Bach, and Saint-Saens to Bruckner, Bernstein, Pinkham and Rutter. The chorale had the honor of presenting the premier performance of Jackson's own J. Bruce Brown's composition “Legacy of Vision - Martin Luther King.” The Chorale has become a regular guest of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra both during its regular season and for the pops concerts.
The creation of the Chorale filled a long standing need for a community chorus in 1955 but has gone many steps further since that time. Now an independent organization, the Chorale is a group of auditioned singers who perform works of ever increasing difficulty providing an opportunity for talented singers in Jackson to use their voices to promote and present high quality choral music to the community.
The Jackson Chorale Mission Statement:
The Jackson Chorale masters superior choral music for the enrichment and aesthetic enjoyment of the Chorale singers as well as listeners.
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