About the Stafford Regional Choral Society
Mission
To promote music and the arts in the greater Fredericksburg area. We offer concerts to the community, and scholarships local high school seniors who wish to pursue music studies at the college level.
Service to the Community and the Arts
Concerts.
Since 1999 we have provided free choral choral concerts and scholarships for musicians. We present a traditional holiday concert in December featuring Christmas selections from Handel's Messiah with soloists and orchestra. We also produce at least one other free concert during the Summer. Past themes have been patriotic, Oldies, Broadway, and programs of classical choral works. We have also presented, or participated in major works including Hayden's The Creation, and Karl Orff's Carmina Burana with the University of Mary Washington Community Orchestra.
Scholarships
Since our inception we have also worked to build the future of appreciation and support of musical arts by providing annual scholarships to local college-bound musicians. Our recipients are now pursuing musical and performing careers at institutions such as VCU, George Mason, the Massachusetts Conservatory and Berklee School of Music.
Performance and Education
We provide an outlet for singers and musicians from the local area to develop their talents. A key feature of our composition is the inclusion of talented high school and college musicians in our ranks -- both vocalist and instrumentalists. The dynamic relationship of seasoned performers and aspiring and talented younger musicians is a feature that provides energy, new ideas, and experience and builds and challenges the musical skills of all our performers.
History
The Society's roots go back to the mid-1990's when a group of singers got together informally led by various directors to prepare for an annual presentation of Handel's Messiah in December of each year.
In 1998, Barbara Perry stepped forward to lead the informal group, which came together each year by word of mouth from various local church and community choirs. The 1999 performance saw an increase in the size, technical proficiency and community attendance at the concert. A group of singers from that group decided to form a more formal governance structure to ensure that the performances would continue and the Stafford Regional Choral Society was formed with Barbara Perry as the founding musical director.
With more formal governance, and Barbara's dynamic leadership, the newly formed Choral Society immediately expanded to offer addition concerts throughout the year. Currently we produce a minimum of 2 free community productions and one fund-raiser annually.
For More information, email us at info@staffordchoral.org.
