Chorale History

The Oratorio Chorale was founded in 1974 by Bowdoin College alumnus and music scholar C. Russell Crosby, in part to continue the traditional Christmas Messiah concert begun by his Bowdoin teacher and friend, Frederic E. T. Tillotson, who directed the Bowdoin College Chorus and the old Brunswick Choral Society. Within the larger, unauditioned Chorale, Crosby organized the auditioned, 20-member Bach Choir and orchestra, which performed the Christmas Oratorio in Portland and Harpswell in late 1976, Crosby's last performance. He died in March of 1977.

Carroll "Sonny" Googins, who had been the rehearsal accompanist, took over the conductorship to perform Fauré's Requiem and Tantem Ergo in a memorial concert for Crosby in the spring of 1977. Sonny, who has been Brunswick High School chorus director for years, continued as conductor for a year, after which Robert Mills assumed the position. In the spring of 1979 the Chorale sang with other choirs in the Portland Symphony production of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. George Emlen became the Oratorio Chorale's first salaried conductor in the fall of 1979. The chorus had swelled to 65 members and he was encouraged to take on major works, such as the Verdi Requiem with the Portland Symphony, three concerts with the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival. He organized community Messiah sings with the Brunswick Regional Youth Orchestra for several years at St. Charles Church in Brunswick. Before George left the Chorale in 1983 the group participated in the “Belfast Choral Festival, an Eisteddfod for Maine" for two years.

The Chorale joined forces with the Bowdoin College Chorus when associate professor of music Robert Greenlee took over as director after Emlen's resignation in 1984. Robbie remembers well his two years with the Chorale, which included participation in the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival and a Portland Symphony production of Holst's Planets. "Handel's Israel in Egypt was our first big one and the Chorale pulled it off splendidly”. The highlight, though, was Evangeline by Otto Luening who at the age of 85 attended all performances.

When Peter Frewen became director in 1986, the Chorale became an auditioned chorus. He has seen the chorus grow "through a combination of cohesion and renewal, as members who have been with the Chorale for a long time continue to bring a lasting enthusiasm to the group and to pass it on to newer members”.

An ambitious and highly successful production of Benjamin Britten's Noye's Fludde in 1992 was the Chorale's second venture into full-blown theater and community involvement with the former radio host Robert J. Lurtsema as God. The project was supported by the Maine Community Foundation and produced by the Oratorio Chorale, which sang "Prayers from the Ark" by Ivor Davies as a prelude to the pageantry.

Continuing its educational outreach, the Chorale presented an introduction to choral music for young people, "Choral Music from the Inside Out," featuring Michele Livermore Wigton as MC in 1994, a program that was repeated by request the following fall as the first in the Chocolate Church's season series for children.

Under Frewen's direction the Chorale has sung two more Messiahs, in 1987 and 1991, as well as Medieval and Renaissance music, the latter with the Calderwood Consort, works of Bach, Vivaldi, Britten, Barber, Schubert and others have celebrated the holiday season. Most prominent among these was the production of Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ with the Maine Music Society in 1996, which included a series of workshops on French Romanticism for area high school French classes, organized by Julianna Nielsen. French scholar Karen Dillman presented lectures on French culture to students and as prelude to the concert. The Chorale received a $4,000 education grant for this from the Davis Family Foundation.

Recent years have seen the group focus on major classical works in conjunction with the Maine Chamber Ensemble. Faure’s Requiem and Durufle’s Requiem (1998), Bach’s St. John Passion (2000), Handel’s Samson and Judas Maccabeus (2001, 2002), Mozart’s Mass in C Minor and Coronation Mass (2002 and 2004), Dvorak’s Requiem (2003), and Schubert’s Mass in A-flat Major (2007) have been highlights. A special treat for the Chorale was the opportunity to perform Mozart’s Requiem with the internationally renowned soprano, Barbara Bonney, in the winter of 2006. Finally, rounding out the repertoire with some exciting contemporary works by Argento, Vaughan Williams, Bernstein, Crumb and Shende (of Bowdoin College) has provided an exciting challenge for the Chorale.