Chicago Symphony Chorus

The history of the Chicago Symphony Chorus began on September 22, 1957, when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announced that Margaret Hillis would organize and train a symphony chorus. Music Director Fritz Reiner’s original intent was to utilize the Chorus for the two weeks of subscription concerts that season, performing — George Frideric Handel’s Messiah in December and Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem in April.

The Chicago Symphony Chorus gave its informal debut at a private concert for donors on November 30, 1957. Reiner conducted the first half of the concert and Hillis took the podium for the second half — becoming the first woman to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
The Chorus made its first commercial recording for RCA on March 7, 1959 with Fritz Reiner conducting the Orchestra. The Chorus made its Ravinia Festival debut on July 9, 1960, a performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) conducted by CSO associate conductor and Ravinia Festival artistic director Walter Hendl. The Chorus made its Carnegie Hall debut on November 12, 1967, singing Hans Werner Henze’s The Sicilian Muses and Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe with Jean Martinon conducting.

The Chorus' first tour with the Orchestra was to London and Salzburg in August 1989. They performed Hector Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust with Sir Georg Solti conducting. Ten years later, the ensemble won critical acclaim for its performances of Arnold Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron under Pierre Boulez and Johannes Brahms’s A German Requiem under Daniel Barenboim while performing at the Berlin Festtage in April 1999.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra recordings featuring the Chorus have won ten Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for best choral performance. These recordings include hallmarks of the choral repertoire, ranging from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Missa solemnis to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and two recordings each of Brahms’s A German Requiem and Verdi's Requiem. Women of the Chorus (prepared by Duain Wolfe) appeared on the recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 led by CSO Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink; the recording was released in May 2007, as the first recording on the Orchestra’s label, CSO Resound.

Margaret Hillis led the Chorus as director for thirty-seven years and retired in 1994. Duain Wolfe became the Chorus’s second director in June 1994. Wikipedia