In 1930 a community chorus contest was held in Columbia as part of the annual
Community Chest Drive. The winning chorus organized as the Shandon Choral
Society, and later changed its name to Columbia Choral Society. The purpose
of the organization, then, as it is now, was to stimulate and broaden interst
in musical activities and to actively engage in the rehearsal and rendition
of choral music. The group grew from about 40 voices to over 100 within
a few years. They sponsored and performed at an annual spring music festival
in Columbia which featured touring professional orchestras. The National
Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Symphony are listed as headliners in
the 1938 festival program, as well as Nelson Eddy - "Idol of America"
- and other leading soloists of the day. Mrs. James Y. Perry was founder and
first president of the Society which was directed by Leonard C. Moltz.
In September, 1949, Guthrie Darr came from California to accept a position with the music department of Columbia College and to direct the Columbia Choral Society. Mr. Darr was a member of the Robert Shaw Chorale while in California. He formed and directed the Guthrie Darr Chorale. During the 40 years Mr. Darr served as director of the Columbia Choral Society, the chorus became a full-season operation under the Columbia Music Festival Association, presenting three or more concerts per year. The Society's annual presentation of Handel's Messiah became a tradition in Columbia. Guthrie Darr retired as director in 1990 and was honored as director emeritus. Mr. Darr has been the director of the Chancel Choir of Shandon United Methodist Church for more than forty years. He is an ereritus professor of music at Columbia College and continues to sing with the Columbia Choral Society.
In 1990 Dr. Larry D. Wyatt, Director of Choral Studies at the
University of South Carolina since 1987,
became music director of Columbia Choral Society. Dr. Wyatt holds
degrees from Murray State University, The University of North Texas and
Florida State University. Prior to coming to USC, he served as Choral
Director and Coordinator of the Vocal Department at Loyola University in New
Orleans. While in New Orleans, he founded the New Orleans Symhony Chorus
and prepared them for performances of over forty major works with
internationally recognized conductors. At USC Dr. Wyatt directs the
Concert Choir
and supervises the master's and doctoral programs in choral conducting and the
Graduate Vocal Ensemble. He also serves as Director of Music at First
Presbyterian Church.
Dr. Wyatt has appeared
as a guest conductor and clinician throughout the United States and has
served as President of the Southern Division of the
American Choral Directors Association.
He is currently President of the South Carolina ACDA.
While under Dr. Wyatt's leadership the Columbia Choral Society continued its
tradition of providing the best in choral music. Since 1993, in addition
to its independent concerts twice a year, the Columbia Choral Society has
been selected to perform with the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra.
The group has sung at Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston for several years, gaining
critical acclaim for the 1995 a capella performance, in Russian, of
Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil
(Vespers); the 1996 performance of
Randall Thompson's The Peaceable
Kingdom and Leonard Bernstein's
Chichester Psalms
, and the 1997 performance of works by Vierne,
Britten and Perry. Concerts have been given also in Sumter, Hartsville
and Charlotte. In January 1997, the Columbia Choral Society appeared as
a guest artist in "A Night at the
Opera" during
Feste Italiano
at Hilton Head Island, SC.
In 2000, Dr. Timothy Koch (pronounced "cook") accepted the
position of Music Director for the Columbia Choral Society. Dr. Koch
has been recognized as a champion of contemporary composers and a leading
interpreter of choral/orchestral masterworks. He served a one-year appointment
in 1993-94 as Assistant Professor of Conducting and Ensembles at the Eastman
School of Music. He led the first Eastman-Rochester performances of
Karolju
by 1993 Pulitzer Prize winner, Christopher Rouse,
and Symphony No. 3,
"Kaddish," by Leonard
Bernstein, as well as world premieres of major works by Sydney Hodkinson and
Robert Morris. Also as a world premier, he conducted Samuel Adler's
oratorio Choose Life,
commissioned for Robert Shaw and
the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, a premier broadcast on National Public Radio's
Performance Today.
At the vanguard of young conductors,
Dr. Koch recently founded the Carolina Chamber Chorale, a professional
ensemble with an international roster of 26 singers, based in Charleston.
The Chorale debuted with two programs at the 2000 Piccolo Spoleto Festival.
According to Jack Gottlieb, " My
Presidential Suite, seven pieces for
a cappella choir, was performed twice and then recorded by a spectacular,
newly formed group - the Carolina Chamber Chorale. I was dazzled.
It ranks way up high among my best experiences as a composer." Said
Charleston's Post and Courier, "The results were so charming and well
performed...it was an ethereal evening."
Koch served as Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities
at the University of Southern Mississippi from 1994 until 1999. There he
conducted repertoire as diverse as Purcell's
Dido and Aneas,
Copland's
The Tender Land">, the Britten
War Requiem,
Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony, and choral music
from Josquin to Penderecki. He also served as Artistic Director of the
USM Conductors Conference, which annually attracted conductors, composers,
clinicians and performing ensembles from across the United States and
beyond.
In the Spring of 1998 Koch led a major
East Coast Tour with the University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra
and Chorus honoring the 70th birthday celebration of Samuel Adler. The
tour culminated in New York with premiere performances of Adler's
Fixed Desire of the Human Heart, Second Piano
Concerto, and Choose Life at Lincoln
Center's Avery Fisher Hall. The same yeaar Koch received a commendation
from the Governor of Mississippi and the Mississippi Legislature's Outstanding
Faculty award for Southern Mississippi.
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