About the Providence Singers
Our mission statement
The Providence Singers presents choral performances of distinction to connect singers, listeners, performers, and composers in creative exploration of the choral art. It performs diverse choral works to preserve the choral tradition and extends that tradition by commissioning and performing new compositions. Through its concerts and recordings, and by fostering the musical growth of its membership and
young singers, it sparks creative connections that nurture lifelong choral singing and civic engagement.
Our vision
The Providence Singers champions choral singing, innovation and public engagement. It will be a cultural resource that offers performances of consistently high artistic achievement, educational programs that expand enjoyment and participation, and recordings that bring choral music to wider audiences.
Our musical leadership
Andrew Clark became the Providence 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 and founding director of the Junior Providence Singers. Clark is also director of choral activities at Tufts University and a doctoral candidate in conducting at Boston University.
Christine Noel was appointed assistant conductor in 2008 after serving two years as conducting assistant and member of the chorus. Noel is director of choral activities at Clark University. She is also the founding director of the Rhode Island Children’s Chorus, a position she retains as she pursues her doctorate in conducting at Boston University.
Michele Holt is music director for the Junior Providence Singers, succeeding Andrew Clark in 2007-08. Holt is executive director of the Massachusetts Music Educators Association and holds a conducting position at the University of Connecticut. She taught at Stonington High School for 24 years, and has served as director of choral activities at Providence College, and past president of American Choral Directors Association Eastern Division.
Patrice Newman serves as Providence Singers rehearsal accompanist and concert pianist when programming includes piano. She is founding artistic director of Chamber Music Mystic (Mystic, Conn.), and frequently collaborates in chamber music and art song recitals. She performs and teaches at Connecticut College and St. George’s School in Newport, R.I.
Recent musical history
During 10 seasons, from 1996-97 through to 2005-06, Julian Wachner set the Providence Singers 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, Newport Baroque Orchestra and other organizations have marked the Providence Singers’ growing reputation throughout the region.
In 2003-04, the Providence Singers expanded its programs to include an educational program for high school students. Founded collaboratively with the Music School of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Junior Providence Singers is now a 15-week intensive choral training and performance program administered by the Providence Singers at the Philharmonic’s Carter Center for Music Education.
The Providence Singers takes the lead in bringing new choral works to the Rhode Island community. In 1998, the Providence Singers commissioned and premièred 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 The 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. The latest commission, Tarik O’Regan’s Where All Is Buried, will have its première in November 2009.
The National Endowment for the Arts selected the Providence Singers to host one of seven American Masterpieces Choral Festivals in 2007. This included a weekend of choral music and workshops. As part of that weekend, the Singers and their guest choral organizations presented the world premières of three newly commissioned works.
The Arts and Business Council of Rhode Island honored the Providence Singers with its 2008 Jabez Gorham Award which recognizes outstanding arts/cultural organizations in Rhode Island for unwavering commitment to excellence, significant impact in the community, and successful organizational development.
The Providence Singers’ first CD recording, Lukas Foss: The Prairie, was released in 2008 on the BMOP/sound label. A second CD, Dominick Argento: Jonah and the Whale, is scheduled for release in November 2009 also on the BMOP/sound label.
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.
In January 2000, as part of its investment in Rhode Island’s non-profit leadership, the Rhode Island Foundation awarded Providence 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 Providence Singers Board began its first strategic planning process that culminated in the completion and approval of the organization’s first strategic plan in May 2001. This plan laid out a vision of the Singers as a choral organization dedicated to performance excellence. In August 2001, the Singers hired McMillan as its first executive director. At its annual meeting in June 2002, the membership of the Providence Singers adopted new bylaws effective July 1, 2002.
A second strategic plan adopted in 2005 sought to consolidate artistic gains by giving the organization a more effective administrative structure to support the artistic vision. In 2005 the Board authorized rental of an administrative office and additional administrative staff. The office and rehearsals moved to the Rhode Island Philharmonic Carter Center for Music Education in East Providence in 2008.
The current strategic plan, approved in November 2008 seeks to enhance choral excellence and leadership, and to provide the Board governance, fundraising, and administrative capacity to sustain the artistic vision and programs.
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 2009-10 committee includes: | 
Three conductors