Our History: Only in its 12th year as a corporate
entity, it began in 1977 when an aspiring young conductor, former
Aspen Music Festival Conducting Fellow, Ray Vincent Adams, along
with the Crystal River Orchestra and a handful of valley locals
began performing Handel’s Messiah. In the
fall of 2000 this Christmas tradition became valley wide with
the expansion of the choir to include the Glenwood Springs Community
Chorus and performances in Glenwood as well as Aspen.
The
Aspen Choral Society (now including the Aspen Community Chorus,
the Glenwood Springs Community Chorus, the Aspen Women’s
Chorus and the Glenwood Springs Women’s Chorus) made its
Harris Concert Hall debut in 1999 with the Mozart Requiem. The
following year at Harris Concert Hall two performances of Mozart’s Grand
Mass in C Minor were avidly received. Subsequent performances
have included two sold-out World Premiere performances of Adams’ works, Angels and Revelation, plus
Vivaldi’s Gloria, the Brahms German Requiem and
Haydn’s Nelson Mass. The Aspen Choral Society
has also featured members of its orchestra in Mozart’s Violin
Concertos #3 and #5, the Strauss Horn Concerto
#1 and Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins.
In 2003, the Aspen Choral Society presented another World Premiere: Adams’ Requiem before a full Aspen audience at Harris Concert Hall. 2004 saw Adams’ The Passion, a masterwork for soloists, chorus and orchestra, retelling the traditional crucifixion narrative. This world premiere was dedicated to the memory of Father Theophane Boyd and was commissioned by the Aspen Choral Society along with Friends and Community members of Aspen, Colorado.
In 2005 ACS featured an evening with Mozart: the Sinfonia Concertante with four orchestra soloists on Oboe, Clarinet, French Horn and Bassoon with a reprise of the Requiem. The spring of 2006 saw the World Premiere of Creation, the fifth of Adams’ series of sacred pieces that began with Angels in 2000. Included in the program was J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins featuring Cornelius Dufallo and our concertmaster, Julian Hallmark.
The spring 2007 concert was an all-Bach program which included Cantata #80, Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott sung by the chorus, as well as 2 orchestral pieces: the Brandenburg Concerto #3 and the Orchestral Suite #3.
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