Monmouth Civic Chorus is a community chorus in Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA. Monmouth Civic Chorus was established in 1949 and draws its members primarily from the Monmouth County community. Its performances encompass choral classics, premieres, rare and contemporary music, musical theater, opera, and operetta. Monmouth Civic Chorus has performed on tour in Europe and the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
In addition to concerts, Monmouth Civic Chorus offers community outreach performances and awards vocal scholarships to high school seniors of outstanding vocal promise.
History William Gordon Pagdin founded Monmouth Civic Chorus in 1949. The Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance was the Chorus's first performance in May 1950 at the Carlton Theater (now the Count Basie Center for the Arts) in Red Bank, New Jersey.
Monmouth Civic Chorus's second performance, in January 1951 was Messiah (Handel). Monmouth Civic Chorus continued to perform Gilbert and Sullivan as well as sacred works under the direction of its founder until 1962.
Felix Molzer became Monmouth Civic Chorus director in 1962, the same year he founded the Monmouth Conservatory of Music. In his native Vienna, he sang in the Vienna Boys' Choir as a child and became its director. He added to the Monmouth Civic Chorus operetta repertoire and expanded its concert performances to new stages, among them the then-Garden State Arts Center with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra conducted by Henry Lewis.
William R. Shoppell, Jr. became Monmouth Civic Chorus's director in 1973. Shoppell was also District Music Supervisor for the Freehold Regional High School District, cantor at Monmouth Reform Temple, and Director of Music at Point Pleasant Presbyterian Church. Under his direction the Monmouth Civic Chorus performance schedule grew from a classical concert in the fall and a staged musical in the spring to three concerts plus a stage show. In addition to Gilbert and Sullivan, the stage repertoire expanded to include American musical theater.
Monmouth Civic Chorus began touring out of state under Shoppell's direction in 1981, which led to a performing tour of Austria and Germany in 1984. European tours were continued under subsequent directors.
Upon Shoppell's retirement in 1991, Dr. Mark Shapiro was appointed artistic director. Under his direction, Monmouth Civic Chorus recorded two CDs, increased its repertoire of new music and premieres, and performed original concert presentations of traditional music. Monmouth Civic Chorus received the ASCAP/Chorus America Alice Parker Award for the March 2007 world premiere of contemporary composer Jorge Martin's Stronger Than Darkness, an adaptation of his opera Before Night Falls, based on the memoir by Cuban dissident Reinaldo Arenas.
Dr. Ryan James Brandau was appointed Monmouth Civic Chorus artistic director beginning with the 2012-13 season, upon the departure of Dr. Shapiro, who became the music director of The Cecilia Chorus of New York. Dr. Brandau's arrangements are featured in the Monmouth Civic Chorus holiday concert performed annually in December, and on its CD, A Merry Little MCC Christmas, released in 2014. Dr. Brandau prepared Monmouth Civic Chorus for a performance of Mahler's 8th Symphony by invitation at Carnegie Hall with the Canterbury Choral Society in November 2017.
Kevin Vondrak was appointed artistic director beginning with the 2026-27 season, after Dr. Brandau's departure. Vondrak is also the associate conductor of The Crossing, based in Philadelphia.
Repertoire The repertoire since 1992 is listed on the chorus' website.
Premieres Monmouth Civic Chorus has performed regional and world premieres, including: Bound for Glory by Rollo Dillworth, with the Canterbury Choral Society, November 2017, world premiere at Carnegie Hall Brooklyn Bones by Alvin Singleton, text by Patricia Hampl, and The Wallabout Martyrs by Gilda Lyons, text by Walt Whitman; March 2011, world premieres Golden Gate, a contemporary musical by Richard Pearson Thomas and Joe Calarco, May 2008, world premiere of semi-staged version I Sing the Body Electric by Brooklyn-based composer and conductor Vince Peterson, April 2010, dedicated to Dr. Mark Shapiro Sécheresses (Droughts) by Francis Poulenc, June 2003, world premiere of English translation by Dr. Mark Shapiro Sphaera (Bubble) by French composer Guillaume Connesson, May 2009, North American premiere Stronger Than Darkness, a Cuban-American concert opera by Jorge Martin, March 2007, world premiere of concert version
Original Presentations and Commissions Monmouth Civic Chorus has performed original concert presentations and commissioned works, including: A Song Together by Ryan James Brandau, commissioned in honor of Monmouth Civic Chorus's 75th anniversary, March 2024 Vespers Fusion concert, May 2015, integrating selections from Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine and Mozart's Vesperae solemnes de confessore (Mozart) into one performance I Have a Dream concert, March 2013, honoring the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s iconic speech, and the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, through music, historical readings, and dramatic re-enactment Lincoln Bicentennial Tribute concert, February 2009, featuring songs, narrative, skits, and quotes by Abraham Lincoln Concert portraits of the lives and works of great artists, with dramatic skits and readings, including William Shakespeare, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, and Franz Liszt Fill My Dreams, Stir My Soul by Paul Siskind, June 2001, based on Monmouth Civic Chorus's student poetry contests with the winning poems set to music and performed by Monmouth Civic Chorus, supported a grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Annual holiday concerts in December, combining traditional music, new arrangements of well-known carols by Dr. Brandau and other contemporary composers, selections from choral classics, and poetry readings Monmouth Civic Chorus commissioned Artistic Director Dr. Ryan James Brandau to compose a new work in honor of the Chorus's 75th anniversary. The work will be performed in March 2024.
Rare and Contemporary Music Rare and contemporary music performed by Monmouth Civic Chorus includes: Mark Adamo, No. 10: The Supreme Virtue Dominick Argento, Peter Quince at the Clavier and Jonah and the Whale Samuel Barber, Prayers of Kierkegaard John Corigliano, Fern Hill Ēriks Ešenvalds, Only In Sleep, Stars Ola Gjeilo, Luminous Night of the Soul Leoš Janáček, Otcenas (Our Father) Ulysses Kay, Song of Jeremiah Trond Kverno, Missa in Sono Tubae (Mass with the Sound of Brass) Morten Lauridsen, Lux Aeterna (Eternal Light), O Magnum Mysterium and Dirait-on Franz Liszt, A Munka Hymnusza (Workers' Chorus) Zdeněk Lukáš, Requiem Kirke Mechem, Las Americas Unidas (The United Americas) Peter Mennin, Symphony No. 4, The Cycle Paul Moravec, Songs of Love and War Carl Nielsen, Springtime on Funen Tarik O'Regan, Triptych Vincent Persichetti, Mass Rosephanye Powell, Non Nobis, Domine and The Cry of Jeremiah Roger Sessions, Mass Dame Ethel Smyth, Mass in D Igor Stravinsky, Les Noces (The Wedding) Brandon Waddles, Ride Up in the Chariot
Musical theater Fully staged performances of musical theater classics by Gilbert and Sullivan, Frank Loesser, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, and George Gershwin & Ira Gershwin Golden Gate, book by Joe Calarco, music by Richard Pearson Thomas, May 2008 Ragtime, book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, music by Stephen Flaherty, October 2009 Titanic, book by Peter Stone, lyrics by Maury Yeston, October 2011 Leonard Bernstein centennial performance, April 2018, semi-staged selections from Candide, Mass, On the Town, and West Side Story Original musical revues sampling a variety of composers, such as American Folk, May 2010, and American Songbook, March 2014
Opera and operetta Goyescas by Enrique Granados The Bartered Bride by Bedrich Smetana The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart The Merry Widow by Franz Lehar Turandot by Giacomo Puccini Stronger Than Darkness by Jorge Martin, March 2007, world premiere of concert version of his opera Before Night Falls
Choral Classics Among the choral classics performed by Monmouth Civic Chorus are: Johann Sebastian Bach, Christmas Oratorio, Magnificat, Mass in B Minor, St. Matthew Passion Ludwig van Beethoven, Choral Fantasy, Mass in C, Missa Solemnis, Ode to Joy Hector Berlioz, Requiem Leonard Bernstein, Chichester Psalms Ernest Bloch, Sacred Service Johannes Brahms, Alto Rhapsody, Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) Anton Bruckner, Mass in E Minor, Mass in F Minor, Te Deum Maurice Duruflé, Requiem Antonín Dvořák, Stabat Mater, Te Deum Gabriel Fauré, Cantique de Jean Racine, Requiem George Frideric Handel, Israel in Egypt, Judas Maccabeus, Messiah Joseph Haydn, The Creation, Mass in D Minor (Lord Nelson Mass) at Saint Thomas Church (Manhattan), Missa Cellensis, The Seasons Zoltán Kodály, Missa Brevis Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 8 (Symphony of a Thousand), at Carnegie Hall Felix Mendelssohn, Elijah Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Coronation Mass, Grand Mass in C Minor, Missa Brevis (Sparrow Mass) at Saint Thomas Church (Manhattan), Requiem, Te Deum, Solemn Vespers Carl Orff, Carmina Burana Francis Poulenc, Gloria, Mass in G, Stabat Mater Giacomo Puccini, Messa di Gloria, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vespers (All-Night Vigil) Gioachino Rossini, Stabat Mater John Rutter, Gloria, Requiem at Carnegie Hall Franz Schubert, Mass in A Flat, Mass in E Flat, Mass in G Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dona Nobis Pacem, Hodie, Sea Symphony Giuseppe Verdi, Four Sacred Pieces, Requiem Antonio Vivaldi, Gloria William Walton, Belshazzar's Feast
Guest artists Guest artists featured in Monmouth Civic Chorus concerts and solo recitals include mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano Barbara Dever, bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, and soprano Angela Meade, who have all performed leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera. Eric Einhorn, a director at the Metropolitan Opera and many other stages, directed Monmouth Civic Chorus in the premiere of Golden Gate, a musical by Richard Pearson Thomas and Joe Calarco. Tony winner Victoria Clark led a master class for musical theater singers to benefit Monmouth Civic Chorus in 2009.
Collaborative performances Monmouth Civic Chorus has collaborated with orchestras, choruses, musical theater companies, and dance companies, including: Cabaret for Life, Ragtime by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, October 2009; Titanic by Maury Yeston and Peter Stone, October 2011; Leonard Bernstein Centennial April 2017; at Axelrod Performing Arts Center, Deal, NJ Canterbury Choral Society, Symphony #8 by Gustav Mahler, November 2017, at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY Cathedral Symphony Orchestra, December 1985, at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Newark, NJ Manhattan Philharmonic, May 1989, November 1990 and May 1991, at Carnegie Hall Monmouth Conservatory of Music Children's Opera Chorus, April 1997 and June 2000 Monmouth Symphony Orchestra, March 1994 New Jersey Bach Festival Orchestra, December 1993, Messiah by Georg Frederic Handel, at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Newark, NJ New Jersey Chamber Singers Children's Chorus, June 2001 New Jersey Gay Men's Chorus, December 2007 New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, November 2001, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, NJ New Jersey Youth Chorus, December 2017 Raritan Valley Youth Chorale, June 1994 Roxey Ballet, Carmina Burana: A Scenic Cantata by Carl Orff, April 2019, at Axelrod Performing Arts Center