Spring 2021 Update

To our beloved Masterworks Chorale community,

So much has happened since our last update in the fall of 2020! Since then, as with most choral and other arts organizations, the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic eventually forced the cancellation of our entire 2020-2021 season. The future schedule for Masterworks Chorale is still unclear; but rest assured that we are thriving, planning, reworking, updating, and—most importantly—singing. Many chorale members have connected through weekly Zoom meetings, which have allowed us to get to know one another in a way that isn’t often possible at weekly rehearsals in the midst of concert preparations. Additionally, we are staying mentally primed for our eventual return to the concert stage by studying and singing Beethoven’s Missa solemnis each week since January 2021.

Masterworks Chorale’s long-standing Messiah Sings tradition continued in a virtual format on December 19, 2020. Our music director, Dr. Kevin Leong, offered Messiah Sings, Reimagined: A Guided Listening Tour via Zoom. In this new twist, Masterworks Chorale has continued our 58-year Messiah Sings tradition without interruption.

The chorale’s board of directors has put our enforced downtime to good use and has taken this extended opportunity to examine several aspects of how our organization does business. You can look forward to several new upgrades to the Masterworks Chorale experience:

  • An ever-expanding presence on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
  • Messiah Sings, Reimagined: Part the Second on Saturday, May 22, 2021, at 7:30 pm via Zoom. Attendees will have a chance to sing along to several choruses from Handel’s most famous oratorio. Registration information will be posted in early May on our website and social media channels.
  • An all-new website, expected in summer 2021.
  • We are formulating plans for a potential 2021 season of our 50-year Summer Sings tradition.

In every concert and event that Masterworks Chorale presents, our goal is to provide a high-quality, uplifting, joyous musical experience. We hope that when we return to live performing, you will continue to support us by attending our exciting concerts at our beautiful venues, Sanders Theatre and Old South Church.

Stay well and stay in touch!

With warmest wishes,

Paula Eldridge and Rebecca Lightcap, Co-Presidents of Masterworks Chorale

To contact Masterworks Chorale

Email:  info@masterworkschorale.org
Phone:  (617) 858-6785

Masterworks Chorale
PO Box 382231
Cambridge, MA 02238

Auditions: click here

For tickets and subscriptions, please see our Tickets page.

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Music Director

Kevin Leong

KEVIN LEONG was named Music Director and Conductor of the Masterworks Chorale in 2017. He is also Music Director of both the Jameson Singers and the Concord Chorus and previously served as Associate Conductor of the Harvard-Radcliffe Choruses at Harvard University, where he directed the Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus and, with Jameson Marvin, co-conducted the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum.

Dr. Leong’s teaching interests include presenting a wide repertoire to singers and audiences alike. His ensembles have performed in many venues around the country and abroad, and he has worked as a choral clinician with high school choruses from the United States and Canada. Dr. Leong has taught courses in choral conducting and choral literature at Harvard University and Boston University and has won several teaching awards.

Dr. Leong earned a doctoral degree in Choral Conducting from Boston University, where he studied with Ann Howard Jones, David Hoose, Jeremy Yudkin, and Craig Smith. His dissertation on the hymn settings of Ludwig Senfl won the Julius Herford Prize of the American Choral Directors Association, awarded for the outstanding doctoral thesis in choral music. Dr. Leong is also the Research Assistant for Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works, an editorial and publishing project of the Packard Humanities Institute. He graduated with a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard and a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, where he directed the Princeton Katzenjammers.