Started in 1982 by Founding Director, Fred Coleman, the Seattle Choral Company has now become the region's largest oratorio society and one of Seattle's most accomplished and respected choral organizations. After their 1992 December holiday concert, The Seattle Post Intelligencer praised founding director Fred Coleman for "eliciting a beautiful choral sound from the singers." In March of 1993 The Seattle Weekly praised the Company's "beautifully conceived performance (of Brahms' A GERMAN REQUIEM) - tender and joyful, upbeat, and even triumphant." In June of 1994, The Seattle P-I again applauded the conductor and chorus for a performance which was "first class in its own right. . . At this concert, Coleman elicited performances which were exciting, vital, even thrilling to hear." On June 1 of 1998, The Seattle P-I wrote, "Seattle Choral Company's performance reached a clear, sweet purity of tone (and) sounded exquisitely beautiful . . . It became a moving experience . . . Again and again, the different voices would come together on a perfectly pitched chord, such as can give intense pleasure."

In November of 2001, the Seattle Choral Company was proud to present a major concert event as part of the City of Seattle's grand Sesquicentennial Celebration, honoring the 150th birthday of the founding of Seattle. For that occasion, the SCC commissioned a new choral work, titled, SEATTLE, by New York composer, William Hawley. Mr. Hawley chose as his text the famous 1854 Treaty Oration of Chief Seattle and scored the work for two choruses, large symphony orchestra and four soloists.

Now celebrating their twenty-second season, the Company will attract nearly 100 volunteer singers, 65 professional instrumentalists and numerous distinguished vocal artists from the Pacific Northwest. We are proud to have added to our artistic staff this season eight resident vocal artists, who comprise a faculty of vocal soloists and instructors.

On September 11, 2002 the Company was joined by the Cascadian Chorale, the Bellevue Chamber Chorus, and the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra in a public memorial to the victims of the September 11 terrorist attack. This free public event featured the renowned REQUIEM by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as part of a worldwide series of memorial concerts, called the Rolling Requiem.

On November 29, 2002 the singers appeared at the Westlake Mall Tree Lighting Ceremony in downtown, Seattle. On February 13, 2003, the SCC joined the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall for five performances of film music from classic MGM movie musicals. Other noted musical works performed last season were J. S. Bach's ST. JOHN PASSION, John Rutter's REQUIEM, and Benjamin Britten's REJOICE IN THE LAMB.

The SCC has brought a number of significant new choral works to Seattle, offering area listeners their first live hearing of such works Arvo Pärt's TE DEUM, Phillip Glass' ITAIPU, Hawley's SONGS OF KABIR, and Morten Lauridsen's LUX AETERNA. In October of 1994, the Company released its first compact disc recording titled, THE MOON IS SILENTLY SINGING, including contemporary cathedral works by such news-making composers as Arvo Pärt (Estonia), Henryk Gòrecki (Poland) and John Tavener (England). The album was among the Top Ten best selling classical CDs in Greater Seattle during 1994. To date the album has sold over 4,000 copies in North America, and internationally via the Internet.

In October of 1997 the Company issued its second compact disc recording titled, WHEN THE MORNING STARS SANG TOGETHER-a collection of a cappella works by twentieth century composers-which the Seattle P-I recently praised by stating, "The singing is precise, rich and full of grace, with excellent balance and clear high voices."

In June of 1999, the SCC recorded Carl Orff's CARMINA BURANA with full orchestra and soloists and the CD was released in time for their Millennium Celebration on New Year's Eve, 1999. About the album, The Seattle Times wrote: "This Carmina Burana packs the punch of a live performance, with first-rate soloists and an orchestra including some top local players. Fred Coleman draws a lot of excitement, power and well-focused singing from his performers."

With vision and a passion for music, members of the Seattle Choral Company have sought to encourage an active interest in the performing arts and to foster community and understanding in the Pacific Northwest and around the world. Company members shared their talents in such faraway places as the former Soviet Union (1986) and at the 1988 World Exposition in Brisbane, Australia. In 1988, SCC members were proclaimed Seattle's Cultural Ambassadors to the Australian Bicentennial by then Seattle Mayor Charles Royer. The group received still further recognition for their Australian visit by a resolution drafted by the Washington State House of Representatives.

The Seattle Choral Company is honored to have been funded for seven consecutive years by the prestigious CORPORATE COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS/ARTS FUND, a consortium of the region's largest corporate supporters of the arts. We have also received independent local support from the Microsoft Corporation, The Boeing Company, Corbis Corporation, SAFECO Insurance Companies, Lane Powell Spears Lubersky, the Washington Mutual Foundation, and the Nesholm Family Foundation. The SCC also receives funding support from the United Way of King County.

The Seattle Choral Company and its Chamber Choir have made city-wide appearances at such places as the Downtown Out-to-Lunch Series, the Argosy Christmas Ship, the Westlake Center, the Bellevue Wintergarden, the Boeing Museum of Flight, the Museum of History and Industry, the Bumbershoot Festival, Seattle Jaycees' Christmas Candlelight Carol (to benefit Northwest Harvest), and the Goodwill Games Welcoming Ceremony. During the summer of 1993, the Seattle Choral Company was privileged to provide music for the nationally televised PBS series, Death: The Trip of a Lifetime, produced by KCTS-TV in Seattle. The group has recorded for two NBC mini-series, Crime and Punishment and Noah's Ark, the motion picture, Vertical Limit, and a new CD album titled, Unearthed. Extracts from this newest recording have been heard on national television on NBC's Tonight Show and as trailers for the films Spider Man, Planet of the Apes, The Time Machine, and Minority Report.

In the fall of 1998, the chorus appeared at the Seattle Opera House in nine joint appearances with Pacific Northwest Ballet for their 26th season debut, featuring CARMINA BURANA, as choreographed by Kent Stowell. In June of 2002, the SCC again joined PNB for eight performances of HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO, at the remodeled Mercer Arena. In April of 2004, the SCC will once again join with PNB for ten performances of CARMINA BURANA at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall.

On March 9, 1996, the SCC Chamber Choir was honored to have been invited to perform in Spokane for the Northwest Division Convention of the American Choral Director's Association, joining the finest school and college choirs in the region of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska.

The artistic growth of the organization-as well as its programming innovations-have attracted new audiences to live concerts in increasing numbers. On December 31, 1991, the Company began a new community tradition for the celebration of New Year's Eve at the elegant 5th Avenue Theatre. This event has proven to be enormously popular among patrons seeking an alternative social activity at this time of year. For the past three holiday seasons, the Company presented CHRISTMAS AT BENAROYA HALL, a new community tradition featuring a wide array of classical masterworks and traditional holiday music presented in the wondrous acoustics of the new Benaroya Hall. This concert format is patterned after the successful Christmas with the Atlanta Symphony & Chorus, as designed by the late Robert Shaw. The Seattle concerts are annual sell-outs, ensuring another new holiday tradition for Seattle area listeners.

The Seattle Choral Company looks to the future with a record of successful and enriching performances and artistic achievement.