Choral Voices
Plus One

Sunday, April 19, 2026 · 3:00 p.m.
Indian Hill Church · 6000 Drake Road, Cincinnati 45243

Join Cincinnati Choral Society (CCS) for our spring concert, Choral Voices Plus One, on Sunday, April 19, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. at Indian Hill Church, 6000 Drake Rd, in Cincinnati.

Come listen to pieces for choral voices plus one instrument, including violin, horn, percussion, and organ. With selections from mostly living composers, we are excited to collaborate with local Cincinnati musicians to bring you this program. Each of the instrumentalists will be featured with the choir in the set of three pieces. The concert will close with two pieces that feature the choir and the entire instrumental ensemble.

There is a great variety of music in the program representing different musical time periods, styles, and cultures. From well-known “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” by J.S. Bach, to the moving “Ngothando” with djembe by South African composer Mbuso Ndlovu, to the beautiful “Set Me As a Seal” with horn by Richard Nance, there is truly something for everyone. The addition of the violin, horn, and percussion instrumental colors to the beautiful SATB voices of the Cincinnati Choral Society will be an exciting combination. This concert is free with donations appreciated. 

This will be the final concert for Artistic Director Phil Clary and Associate Director Lisa Peters who will both conduct pieces during the concert.

Announcing our new Director!

On May 1st, the Cincinnati Choral Society (CCS) welcomes our incoming Artistic Director, Dr. Scot Buzza.

CCS is grateful to current Artistic Director Phil Clary who has expertly led the choir since 2015, and to Associate Director Lisa Peters who will jointly conduct “Choral Voices Plus One” this spring.

presented by the
Cincinnati Choral Society
and the
Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra
with the
Walnut Hills High School Vocal Ensemble

Sunday, October 25, 2026 · 3:00 p.m.
St. Barnabas Episcopal Church.
10345 Montgomery Road, Montgomery, Ohio 45242

In 1779, the 23-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart begrudgingly wrote the Coronation
Mass (K. 317) to fulfill the requirements of a job he didn’t want. Despite bristling under
the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, the composer managed to create the most beloved
of his sacred works. That same year, with an eye toward escaping to Vienna, he
composed the quintessential double concerto of the keyboard repertoire, his Concerto
for Two Pianos and Orchestra in E-flat (K. 365). A decade later, Mozart wrote
his Overture to The Magic Flute for Vienna’s Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden, as
prelude to the opera (K. 620) that would be the composer’s final completed work.

This fall, the Cincinnati Choral Society, under its new artistic director, Dr. Scot Buzza,
and in collaboration with the Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and the
Walnut Hills High School Vocal Ensemble, will commemorate the 270th anniversary of
Mozart’s death by presenting these three representative masterworks written for
cathedral, court, and stage. Please join us for this exciting event!

Gloria! will be presented on Sunday, November 16, 3:00 pm, by the Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra (BAMSO) and the Cincinnati Choral Society (CCS). The performance will take place at Armstrong Chapel United Methodist Church, 5125 Drake Road, Cincinnati OH 45243 at 3pm. The Indian Hill High School (IHHS) Premieres will join the collaborators for this program of celebratory music. The concert, which will last approximately one hour, will be presented free of charge, although goodwill offerings would be appreciated. Free ticket reservations can be made at bamso.ludus.com. 

Jubilant, exultant, and devotional, the concert’s signature piece, John Rutter’s Gloria, will be performed by the combined choirs with brass, timpani and organ under the direction of CCS Artistic Director Philip Clary. Inspired by the Latin text from the Ordinary of the Mass, composer John Rutter based much of the melodic material on Gregorian chants. IHHS Director of Vocal Music Angelo Sylvester leads the Indian Hill Premieres.

In addition, BAMSO will present brass and percussion musical arrangements including Barbara York’s Like an April Day, Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and Charles-Marie Widor’s Toccata, from Organ Symphony No. 5, under the direction of Michael Chertock.

Commissioned by Mel Olson, a widely respected American choral conductor, Gloria received its premiere performance in Omaha, Nebraska, in May 1974, with the composer conducting—his first premiere in America. This performance by the Cincinnati Choral Society, Indian Hill High School Premieres, and Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra will utilize the same orchestration as the original presentation: organ, brass, and percussion. Mel Olson had worked closely with John Rutter during the composition process, traveling to England to discuss specific requirements for the piece. In a review of a 2010 Naxos recording of Gloria, John Quinn quoted Rutter’s acknowledgment that “much of the credit” for his success as a choral composer “must go to Mel Olson … because, in telling me what he was looking for in a new choral work, he was telling me what thousands of other choral directors were looking for too.”

The Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization of professional musicians who seek to enrich the lives of people of all ages by providing concerts of diverse music at accessible venues. The Cincinnati Choral Society, a 40-voice choir currently based at Indian Hill Church, offers quality musical experiences not only to audiences in and beyond Cincinnati, but also to talented singers seeking a satisfying choral ensemble experience. The IHHS Premieres is an elite choral ensemble comprising dedicated high school students with a passion for vocal music. 

BAMSO, CCS, and IHHS Premieres are grateful to the Ohio Arts Council, Matinee Musicale, the Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund, and many individual donors for making this musical collaboration possible. For more information, please visit the BAMSO website at www.bamso.org or CCS at cincinatichoralsociety.org.

November 16, 2025 the Cincinnati Choral Society (CCS) will feature the Rutter Gloria with the Indian Hill High School Premiers and players from the Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra (BAMSO). The program is a powerful combination of voices, brass, organ, and percussion, and will include additional selections by BAMSO.

A second performance on December 8th will also be used to support raising funds for The Center for Respite Care based in Cincinnati, OH. Their mission is to provide quality, holistic medical care to people experiencing homelessness who need a safe place to heal, while assisting them in breaking the cycle of homelessness. This music will contribute not only to supporting raising needed funds but also provide uplifting music for ourselves and others.

December 7th, the Cincinnati Choral Society will be featured guests at the BAMSO Kindle Concert.

The Cincinnati Choral Society 2026 Spring Cycle will be titled “choral voices… + 1”. The program will be made up of a wide range of selections for choral voices with an additional single obbligato instrument, likely flute, clarinet, violin and cello. The texts of the choral pieces will focus on nature, life, and love.

This concert program will present the audience with an opportunity to hear unique and seldom performed repertoire for SATB choir and solo instruments. It is our hope that the audience will enjoy hearing the variety of instrumental colors being added to each choral piece as much as the singers in the Cincinnati Choral Society will enjoy learning and performing them in collaboration with each instrumentalist. The concert will be held April 19, 2026.

St. B @ 3 is a concert series at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Montgomery, Ohio, designed to offer uplifting music to the community. The Cincinnati Choral Society (CCS) will be performing on Sunday, May 4th at 3:00 p.m.

Since 1974, the Cincinnati Choral Society has provided quality musical experiences to audiences in and beyond Cincinnati while offering talented singers a rewarding choral ensemble experience. They have performed with esteemed orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the Cincinnati Pops, the Kentucky Symphony, and the Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony. The CCS has appeared at prominent venues in the greater Cincinnati area as well as Carnegie Hall in New York City, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and All Hallows by the Tower in London.

On May 4, they will present an all-a cappella program of American hymns and spirituals. The repertoire will feature classic selections by Alice Parker and Robert Shaw, alongside innovative arrangements by Moses Hogan. Come and be inspired by the great music of these three American choral icons.

All concerts in the series take place at 3:00 p.m. and are free. All are welcome!

For more information, visit: https://www.st-barnabas.org/stbat3

Upcoming programs:

September 14, 2025 – Queen City Cabaret

November 2, 2025 – Mambo Combo Latin Jazz

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

10345 Montgomery Road, Montgomery, Ohio 45242

Save these dates! Our spring concerts will be on Sunday, April 27, 3pm @ Indian Hill Church, and on Sunday May 4, 3pm @ St Barnabas Church. More details to come!

Join the Cincinnati Choral Society for an evening of holiday music as Christmas and Hanukkah approach! We will be performing at Indian Hill Presbyterian Church (6000 Drake Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45243) on Tuesday December 17th, 2024 at 7pm. Take a break during a busy month to celebrate the season with the joyful sounds of the Cincinnati Choral Society. The program will include “Light One Candle” (Peter, Paul, and Mary), “The 12 Days of Christmas”, “Good King Wenceslas”, “Hallelujah Chorus”, and other holiday favorites. Enjoy singing along with CCS and M.P. Rathke Opus 15, the new organ currently being installed at Indian Hill Church, where there is ample parking in a well lit parking lot. This short program will be conducted by Philip Clary, Artistic Director of the Cincinnati Choral Society.

For all those that attended our spring concert, THANK YOU! Our next concert will be in December 2024, details to come. Over the summer we will be again singing the National Anthem at the Florence Y’alls baseball games tentatively Fri, Jun 28 at 7:03 PM and Fri, Aug 23 at 7:03 PM.

If you’d like to join us singing in our next concert, AUDITION! Press the blue Audition button on the right to contact us and set up an audition.

Cincinnati Choral Society will be presenting a 2024 Spring Concert entitled “From Mountain to Shore”. The concert program will present compositions by American composers which musically depict the beauty of our country’s diverse natural landscapes. The program will be performed in partnership with an established local woodwind quintet, the Wayside Winds. The concert will be held on Sunday, April 28, 2024, at 3 pm at Indian Hill Church at 6000 Drake Road in Cincinnati.

The program will start with the simple hymn-like piece Top of the Hill by Kevin Siegfried and is the first movement from his work “At the Water’s Edge”. Using a poem by longtime resident, Sarah Orne Jewett, the piece describes the beautiful natural surroundings of the coastal town of South Berwick, Maine. Next on the program will be the three-movement work “Northwest Passage” by Z. Randall Stroope. The individual movements – A Willow by the River, Mountains and The Prairie – combine to give the listener a sense of the varied beauty and vast expanse of the American Northwest. Following this, The Wayside Winds will present one movement from the larger work “Roaring Fork” by Edward Ewazen. Written specifically for woodwind quintet, the music depicts the dramatic beauty of the Roaring Fork River in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The last piece on the program is the cantata, “The Great Lakes”, by Gwyneth Walker.

Written for choir, woodwinds and percussion, this multi-movement work takes the listener on a journey through the five lakes that lay between the US and Canada. With sections of music and poetry that range from reflective to humorous, the movements depict the unique character and beauty of each of the magnificent Great Lakes.

All it takes is a click of our blue Audition button on the right side of our home page. You’ll be asked to give us your contact info, what you sing (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass), and a brief singing background. We’ll then contact you to set up a quick in-person audition. Sounds easy, right?

Come join us!