Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus

Call Directions Website Contact the organization

Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus A chorus of more than one hundred voices dedicated to musical excellence in our home of WNY.

The last section to introduce you to is the basses!The lowest voice part in the Chorus, basses are often responsible for...
10/09/2026

The last section to introduce you to is the basses!

The lowest voice part in the Chorus, basses are often responsible for anchoring the harmonies of the ensemble. When the basses are in tune, the whole chord locks and rings; when they drift, everyone above them sounds wrong without knowing why.

The common vocal range for the average male singer is as a baritone, a subsection of basses. This slightly higher section is the largest among our Tenors and Basses, helping to provide a nice, warm color to our ensemble sound.

Are you a bass or baritone? Have you ever sung the Rachmaninoff Vespers or other Russian Oktavist repertoire? Let us know in the comments!

Last night, we had our first rehearsal with Maestro JoAnn Falletta and composer Richard Danielpour. They worked with us ...
10/06/2026

Last night, we had our first rehearsal with Maestro JoAnn Falletta and composer Richard Danielpour. They worked with us on how they will be interpreting the work with the orchestra. These Chorus rehearsals are an invaluable part of the process, as they bridge the gap between our learning and shaping rehearsals and the fast-paced rehearsals with the orchestra.

Later this week, we will come together with the Orchestra for the first time, before we finally get to bring this work to life in front of an audience for the first time!

Be sure to get your tickets now for Francis: An Oratorio in Nine Scenes at https://bpo.org/event/francis/all/

Performances will be on Saturday, October 10 at 7:30 PM and Sunday, October 11 at 2:30 PM, both at the historic Kleinhans Music Hall.

The next section we're meeting is the Sopranos!Probably the most well-known section, the sopranos are notorious for carr...
10/02/2026

The next section we're meeting is the Sopranos!

Probably the most well-known section, the sopranos are notorious for carrying the melody. But that is not always true! Some of the greatest choral works use the sopranos to add a rich, high harmony part that rounds out a full sound.

The expectation of the soprano section means that they need impeccable blend to bring the melody together, strong intonation and breath support, and the ability to withstand the pressure of being compared to Renee Fleming, Maria, Callas, and every other great soprano!

Are you a soprano? Do you wish you ever got to sing a harmony? Let us know in the comments!

We wrapped up our preparatory rehearsals this week! Next week, we will rehearse with the conductor and the orchestra bef...
09/30/2026

We wrapped up our preparatory rehearsals this week! Next week, we will rehearse with the conductor and the orchestra before finally bringing the piece to life for all of you! We hope to see you there!

Rehearsal is such a wonderful process, but there are many moving pieces to learning a landmark piece such as this. You always need to have a pencil on hand for notes from the conductor, and putting tabs in your score can help find the correct movement quickly during a hectic rehearsal. There's also lots of standing and sitting during a rehearsal as well, so our singers need to be flexible and ready to move their bodies!

What is your #1 must-have for a rehearsal? A pencil? Tabs for your score? Comfortable shoes? Something else? Let us know in the comments and we hope to see you in concert next week!

Next up in our Meet the Sections segment is the Tenors!Did you know there is a worldwide shortage of tenors? It's true!...
09/26/2026

Next up in our Meet the Sections segment is the Tenors!

Did you know there is a worldwide shortage of tenors? It's true! According to an article in the Economist (link in bio), women outnumber men in choirs two to one! This is somewhat true in the BPC as well, as the Tenor section is certainly the smallest. The tenor section is the most likely to have both male and female-identifying singers, with low altos often being asked to sing tenor! A great tenor section combines a unified vocal tone, accurate tuning in high registers, and strong breath support that blends individual voices into a single, resonant sound.

Have you ever sung tenor? If so, let us know (so we can ask you to audition for us!) in the comments and let us know which section we should cover next!

Over the last couple of weeks, we have had the pleasure of being joined by Joe Dan Harper. Professor Harper is on the Vo...
09/22/2026

Over the last couple of weeks, we have had the pleasure of being joined by Joe Dan Harper. Professor Harper is on the Voice faculty at SUNY Fredonia and is a diction specialist. He has been helping us perfect our Italian and Latin diction that occurs throughout the score of Francis.

You may recognize Professor Harper, he has performed both with us for Handel's Messiah and with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, among other prestigious orchestras around the world.

From his official bio: "A passionate interpreter of song repertoire with a noted gift for expressive and poetic diction, he has appeared with The Boston Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Academy of Music, South Carolina Opera, Utah Festival Opera and Utah Opera, and has been heard in such venues as Boston’s Jordan Hall, Berlin’s Gorki Theater, and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Germany, has been a Fellow at the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center."

Thank you, Professor Harper!

Don't know anything about singing, but enjoy coming to our concerts? Let's break down some of the sections of the Chorus...
09/15/2026

Don't know anything about singing, but enjoy coming to our concerts? Let's break down some of the sections of the Chorus and the key roles they play! First up, the altos!

What makes a great alto section? Our largest section in the Chorus, the altos are responsible for inner harmonies, connecting the high sopranos with the tenors and basses, blending their tones, and listening across the entire ensemble in a different way. At the same time, they can be asked to step up and sing the lyrical melodies in harmony with the sopranos

What section do you sing in your choir? Which part (other than your own) is your favorite to listen to? Comment down below!

How does a brand new, world premiere work like Francis get learned?With centuries-old pieces, there are countless record...
09/09/2026

How does a brand new, world premiere work like Francis get learned?

With centuries-old pieces, there are countless recordings YouTube learning tutorials, and institutional knowledge from folks who have performed the work countless times, but with this, no one has recorded or even learned the piece before!

After a few weeks of intentional work spanning the entirety of the work, we've spent time these last few weeks in sectionals, working with our fabulous Staff Conductors, Abby Brudz and Brandon Mellerski, to break down smaller sections of the piece. This allows our singers to focus more on their part and the parts immediately surrounding them, rather than hearing the entire chord and harmonic structure all at once.

The composer has also provided us with part tracks, which provide crucial learning support. You can see an example of those tracks in the last picture.

Have you ever learned a brand new piece? What methods did you use to learn it?

What is an oratorio? It's a word we use all the time in choral music, but what does it really mean?An oratorio is "a len...
09/05/2026

What is an oratorio? It's a word we use all the time in choral music, but what does it really mean?

An oratorio is "a lengthy choral work usually of a religious nature consisting chiefly of recitatives, arias, and choruses without action or scenery." While none of this is guaranteed to exist within an oratorio, these are the typical characteristics.

Some of the most famous examples of oratorio are works that fans of ours will surely recognize: Handel's Messiah, Haydn's The Creation, Moravec's Sanctuary Road, and many more standards of the choral-orchestral repertoire are oratorios!

Here, you can see examples of oratorio in written form, first, Bach's Christmas Oratorio, then, the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah.

You can come to the world premiere performances of Francis: An Oratorio in Nine Scenes on October 10-11 at Kleinhans Music Hall!

You know what DA CAPO means to us, but what does it mean to everyone else?Da capo, meaning "from the top," is a directio...
09/01/2026

You know what DA CAPO means to us, but what does it mean to everyone else?

Da capo, meaning "from the top," is a direction in music, indicating to the performer to return to the beginning of the work and play the music again. There are many variations of this, including "da capo al fine," which tells the performers to return to the top before stopping at another predetermined end-point, "da capo al coda," indicating a point at which the performers should jump ahead in the music, past the initial da capo, and others.

See if you can identify where the examples in the graphic are from! BPC fans will surely recognize two of them (hint: they come from a piece we perform every season)!

Address

341 Delaware Avenue, 2nd Floor
Buffalo, NY
14207

Telephone

+17169805701

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus:

Shortcuts

Share

Category