Cor Cantiamo was founded with the mission to perform and promote contemporary choral music and foster new composers for the art form. Since their inception in the spring of 2009, the choir has emerged as an energetic and accomplished vocal ensemble, receiving accolades for their performances. Morten Lauridsen, has praised the ensemble for presenting “choral artistry at its finest.”
In August 201
4 Centaur Records released Cor Cantiamo’s first commercial album, Canticum: Choral Music of Jaakko Mäntyjärvi. Maestro Mäntyjärvi participated in all of the recording sessions and commended Cor Cantiamo as representing “professional excellence in choral music, examples of which are few and far between.”
In the summer of 2014 Cor Cantiamo recorded with Abbey Road Studio Grammy Award winning engineers for their second album - "Psallite" - which was commercially released in April 2016 on the Divine Arts record label. This second CD features many world premiere recordings of works commissioned through Soli Deo Gloria’s Psalms Project. Cor Cantiamo performed at the American Choral Directors Association Central Division Convention 2014 in Cincinnati, OH to great critical acclaim and appeared as the featured professional choir for the Michigan Choral Directors Association State Conference in October 2015. In August 2016, Cor Cantiamo recorded with Abbey Road Studio engineers again, for their 3rd album - "Psallite II", which should be released soon. In November 2016, Cor Cantiamo performed the premiere of "The 7 Heavens" by British composer James Whitbourn. In May 2017, Cor Cantiamo recorded their 4th album, also with Abbey Road Studio engineers - a compilation of works by British composer James Whitbourn, "The 7 Heavens" being the titular work. Also in May 2017, Cor Cantiamo performed the premiere of "The Wings of Our Children" by American composer, Timothy Takach. From 2015 onward, Cor Cantiamo also expanded their artistic activities with educational outreach programs. This includes All-State Honor Choir Audition Clinics each year, for area high school singers and Masterworks Projects, a program that pairs professional singers with aspiring high school vocalists to perform choral/orchestral masterworks. In January 2016, Cor Cantiamo partnered with the Woodstock High Schools to present Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. In February 2017, Cor Cantiamo partnered with La Salle-Peru and Mendota High schools to present Mozart's Requieum. In 2018, Cor Cantiamo partnerned with Vernon Hills High school to present Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass. For more up to date details on recent concerts, events and CD recordings, stay tuned to this page or visit our website at http://www.corcantiamo.org.
