Our mission statement

The Providence Singers Inc. supports the excellence and continued development of the choral art by presenting choral performances of distinction, fostering the musical growth of its membership, and contributing to the increased knowledge and appreciation of choral music in New England. The Providence Singers Inc. sustains the choral tradition by performing diverse choral masterworks and advances the choral art by performing contemporary works and commissioning new compositions.

Comment: We recognize a dual responsibility as a Providence performing arts organization. On the one hand, we want to keep the choral tradition alive and in the ears of our audience, so we perform great works of Western choral literature, from the earliest motets to music written last year. On the other hand, we are more than an aural museum, so we do our part to advance the choral art by commissioning and performing serious new choral music and by reaching out to new audiences and new singers. We honor our commitment to the increased knowledge and appreciation of choral music by undertaking projects of choral education, including high-caliber choral experiences for children and young adults.

Our musical leadership

Andrew Clark became The Singers’ fourth artistic director on July 1, 2006, succeeding Julian Wachner. Clark began his association with the Singers in the 2003-04 season, serving as resident conductor for Wachner, who had moved to McGill University in Montreal. The Singers Board of Trustees appointed Clark artistic director designate in 2005, allowing Wachner and Clark a full season for the transition in musical leadership.

With his appointment as resident conductor in 2003, Clark also became the founding music director of the Junior Providence Singers, a collaboration between the Providence Singers and the Music School of the Rhode Island Philharmonic. The Junior Providence Singers, an auditioned chorus of the area’s outstanding high-school voices, has provided young singers with an intensive choral experience of consistently high quality that has included a performance in New York’s Carnegie Hall and an appearance on NBC’s Today Show.

The Providence Singers Treble Chorus, a companion organization for children in grades 5 through 8, began during the 2005-06 season and grew into a year-round program at the start of its second season.

Recent musical history

During ten seasons, from 1996-97 through to 2005-06, Julian Wachner transformed The Singers and set the group on a path to unprecedented achievements in repertoire, musical growth, audience development, critical acclaim and artistic collaboration. Guest appearances with jazz legend Dave Brubeck at the Newport Jazz Festival and in Lincoln Center, subscription concerts with the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and appearances with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra and other organizations have marked the Providence Singers’ growing reputation throughout the region.

The Providence Singers takes the lead in bringing new works to the Rhode Island community. In 1998, the Providence Singers commissioned and premiered Wachner’s Sometimes I Feel Alive (selected as first prize winner in the 2000 Boston Choral Consortium Composition Competition and in the 2001 Cambridge Madrigal Singers Competition); offered the world première of Providence composer Elaine Bearer’s Magdalene Passion in 1999; commissioned and premièred a major new choral/orchestral work, Proud Music of the Storm, by Carlyle Sharpe on November 3, 2001; commissioned and premièred Trevor Weston’s Ma’at Musings in 2005; premièred Dave Brubeck’s Ten Commandments in 2005; and in 2006 premièred Julian Wachner’s Jubilate Deo (commissioned by Patricia Fuller, Singers Board Chair), for triple chorus and children’s choir a cappella.

In March 2007, The Providence Singers hosted a weekend of choral music and workshops sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. As part of that weekend, the Singers and their guest choral organizations presented the world premières of three newly commissioned works.

Our emerging organization

Beginning in the late 1990s, the Singers entered a period of explosive growth. Already there had been successful collaborations in Boston and enthusiastic critical notice. Talented choral singers were seeking auditions in greater numbers, and the group had begun to expand from 75 voices toward its current membership of almost 120. Audiences doubled; the budget doubled, then doubled again. It became clear that the Singer’s original provisions for governance – internal and all-volunteer – were being stretched to capacity. The group needed a larger, more flexible structure to accompany its musical and artistic growth.

In January 2000, as part of its investment in Rhode Island’s non-profit leadership, the Rhode Island Foundation had given Singers President Allison McMillan a 12-month fellowship to study choral groups that had made the transition from small amateur associations to performing arts organizations of regional or national significance. The Singers also became a member of Chorus America, the national association for choruses and choral leadership, and sought additional information from national associations designed to support non-profit organizations.

A year later, in January 2001, the Board of Directors of the Providence Singers held a day-long retreat to discuss the group’s mission, organization, and plans for the future. That retreat, a turning point for the organization, led to the development of the Singers’ first long-term plan. Among its key points:

• The Board reiterated and made explicit the Singers’ overarching principle: that performance excellence is the group’s goal and that all its activities should contribute to and be evaluated by progress toward that goal.
• The Singers would expand the scope of its Board by including non-Singer Board members from the community.
• In an effort to provide continuous and consistent management, the Singers would hire its first professional management. (The artistic director and the accompanist had been the group’s only paid positions.)

In August 2001, the Singers hired McMillan as its first executive director. Planning continued during the 2001-02 season, and at its annual meeting in June 2002, the membership of the Providence Singers adopted new bylaws effective July 1, 2002.

The expansion in the Singers’ numbers, activities, and budget brought with it the need for additional staff and for a permanent office. In 2005 the Board authorized rental of an administrative office and hiring of a part-time operations manager and a part-time marketing director.

Governance

The Providence Singers is governed by a Board of Trustees consisting of as many as 18 trustees who serve staggered three-year terms. In addition, the artistic director and executive director serve as non-voting ex officio members of the Board.

The Board of Trustees is responsible for the strategic direction, planning, and financial health of the organization and for assuring that the Providence Singers fulfills its musical and artistic mission.

Management of operations

The executive director serves as chief executive officer of the organization and leads a managing committee that is responsible for the day-to-day management of the group during the year. The committee consists of staff and volunteer leaders who are responsible for various elements of the concert season. The 2007-08 committee includes:

A very brief history

In the beginning, the Providence Singers was a group of approximately 60 auditioned voices advertising its programs as “little-known works by well-known composers and well-known works by little-known composers.” The group provided satisfaction and enjoyment for singers and audience in small spaces throughout the East Side of Providence with occasional forays into small spaces outside the city.

The Providence Singers was officially established in 1971-72 by Robert Molison, then director of the Brown University Chorus, and Glenn Giuttari and John Duffy, graduate students at Brown. Molison served as artistic director the first two seasons. In the fall of 1973, Charles Fassett, a Wheaton College professor and chorus director, became artistic director and, with accompanist William MacPherson, led the Singers for 22 seasons, establishing it as a permanent part of the Providence musical community.

Fassett retired in 1995 and Julian Wachner was appointed artistic director in 1996. After Wachner’s ten-year collaboration with the Singers, years marked by increasing artistic excellence and critical and popular acclaim for the group, Andrew Clark became artistic director in 2006.