The Oregon Repertory Singers (ORS) is a mixed vocal ensemble in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, founded in 1974. The choir performs a wide range of works from all time periods and languages, although over the years a special emphasis has been placed on contemporary music of the Americas.

Recordings

Since 1980, ORS has commissioned and/or debuted 20 new works by American artists. In October 1988, ORS completed a four compact disc contract with

Koch International Classics Koch Entertainment was an American record label and a distributor of film, television, and music. It was purchased by Canadian entertainment company ROW Entertainment in 2005. History First years The company began in 1975 as part of Koch Inte ...

to record new American music. These recordings include * ''

Berliner Messe ''Berliner Messe'' (or ''Berlin Mass'') is a Mass (music), mass setting by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. Commissioned for the 90th Katholikentag in Berlin in 1990,

'' by

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in p ...

and ''Mass to St. Anthony'' by

Lou Harrison Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer, music critic, music theorist, painter, and creator of unique musical instruments. Harrison initially wrote in a dissonant, ultramodernist style similar to his for ...

* ''Missa Gaia'' by

Libby Larsen Elizabeth Brown Larsen (born December 24, 1950) is a contemporary American classical composer. Along with composer Stephen Paulus, she is a co-founder of the Minnesota Composers Forum, now the American Composers Forum. A former holder of the Pa ...

and ''Echoes Between the Silent Peaks'' by

Stephen Paulus Stephen Paulus (August 24, 1949 – October 19, 2014) was an American Grammy Award winning composer, best known for his operas and choral music. His style is essentially tonal, and melodic and romantic by nature. His best-known piece is his 1 ...

* A collection of holiday music called ''The Glory of Christmas'' * ''

Fern Hill "Fern Hill" (1945) is a poem by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, first published in ''Horizon'' magazine in October 1945, with its first book publication in 1946 as the last poem in '' Deaths and Entrances''. Creation Thomas had started writing ''F ...

'' by

John Corigliano John Paul Corigliano (born February 16, 1938) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. With over 100 compositions, he has won accolades including a Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and a ...

Other ORS recordings include a compact disc of ''

Rachmaninoff's Vespers Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of t ...

'' with members of the Moscow State Chamber Choir under Vladimir Minin. In 1995, ORS was included, along with Chanticleer and

The King's Singers The King's Singers are a British a cappella vocal ensemble founded in 1968. They are named after King's College in Cambridge, England, where the group was formed by six choral scholars. In the United Kingdom, their popularity peaked in the ...

, in a compact disc ''Christmas Around the Country'', which was distributed nationally by

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

. An excerpt from the 1995 Glory of Christmas concert broadcast on NPR's

Performance Today ''Performance Today'' is a classical music radio program, first aired in 1987 and hosted since 2000 by Fred Child. It is the most listened-to daily classical music radio program in the United States, with 1.2 million listeners on 237 stations. ...

was so well-received that two hour-long specials on ORS followed. In 2018, ORS released "Shadows on the Stars" with Gothic Records, an album featuring the music of Pacific Northwest composers, including among others

Morten Lauridsen Morten Johannes Lauridsen III (born February 27, 1943) is an American composer and teacher. A National Medal of Arts recipient (2007), he was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1994 to 2001, and is professor emeritus of c ...

. The album earned the group the America Prize in Choral Performance for the community chorus division.

Directors

Following the retirement of thirty-five year veteran artistic director Gil Seeley, the ensemble has been headed by Ethan Sperry, Director of Choral Activities at

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the next ...

, since 2011.

References

External links

Oregon Repertory Singers homepage
Choirs in Oregon Musical groups from Portland, Oregon Music of Portland, Oregon Musical groups established in 1974 1974 establishments in Oregon {{US-singing-group-stub