Cantate’s 40th Anniversary
Join our Forty for Forty Campaign to Celebrate our Anniversary!
Read Artistic Director Victoria Gau’s Appeal and Support a Spectacular Season!
Dear Friends,
Every anniversary is a time for grateful reflection on a past full of challenges and successes, for celebration of a triumphant present, and for visioning and planning for a future that builds on these to realize something even greater. As we close Cantate’s 39th year and approach our 40th Anniversary Season, I can’t help but reflect with gratitude on the wonderful people who make up this special organization. Whether you have been a supporter since 1984 or 2024, your attendance, your voice, your volunteerism, and your donations big and small are at the root of Cantate’s success and are vital to furthering our mission to build community through choral music. Thank you!
One year into the implementation of our strategic plan, I’m immensely proud of the ways we have embraced this streamlined mission. Performances by Cantate Chamber Singers and Concert Choir reached 30% more audience members this season than last with superior performances of programs on incisive themes – performances that inspired the Choralis Foundation to honor our Chamber Singers with the 2024 “Ovation” Award for Best Chamber Choir. Our volunteer corps has reached nearly 60 regular participants, whose duties range from ushering to data entry to event planning. Through collaborations with Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra, Identity, Inc., and Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, and new venues including Schlesinger Hall, the George Washington Masonic Temple, and Strathmore, we broadened our reach exponentially to new regions and demographics. Our Summer Choral Institute, overwhelmingly praised by last year’s participants as an “excellent,” “wonderful,” and “amazing” experience, is poised to reach nearly 100 singers from across the region in 2024. And our commitment to nurturing diverse young talent is stronger than ever: our final concert of the year featured an extraordinary new work by Young Composers’ Competition winner David Fisher; and this spring’s pilot semester of Lift Every Voice provided a quartet of four phenomenal pre-professional BIPOC vocalists paid opportunities to perform with Cantate as well as career-promoting coaching, resume and biography consultation, and a public masterclass.
Our 40th Anniversary Season builds on these successes and expands Cantate’s impact on ever-broadening circles of musicians, audience members, neighbors, and partners. Symbolized by our spruced-up logo, this season seeks to honor our past while looking towards a bold future: a performance of Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols celebrates a mainstay of Cantate’s repertoire; a Shakespeare program presented in partnership with a troupe of phenomenal young actors explores the power of interdisciplinary collaboration and breathes new life into classic texts; and a full-scale performance of Verdi’s powerful Requiem in collaboration with National Philharmonic in the magnificent Strathmore Concert Hall marks a milestone of recognition and impact for a 40-year-old Cantate. A fresh and accessible new website, to be unveiled this summer, ushers in a year marked by festivities including a springtime gala.
I invite you to join in the celebration of our achievements and in the creation of an even more meaningful future by helping us to raise $40,000 this June in honor of our 40th year. I gratefully acknowledge the gifts of board members and core supporters that have already brought us halfway to this goal. Your additional donation of any size makes a real difference by bringing us closer to the matching $20,000: $50 provides instrumental sheet music parts for a concert; $100 covers dues for a choir member in need; $175 provides venue rental for one rehearsal; $500 provides a clinician for a LEV masterclass; $700 sponsors a soloist for a concert; $1000 sponsors a LEV fellow for a semester; $2,500 provides a performance venue; and finally, $5,000 underwrites a season concert of special meaning to you. All gifts establish Cantate as a resource for the whole community to be transported, challenged, and transformed through artistic excellence, bold innovation, and embracing welcome.
Thank you for your part in bringing Cantate this far, for being an integral member of our family today, and for joining us as we forge a path into a bright future where choral music – and Cantate – are at the center of community.
With My Deepest Appreciation,
Victoria Gau, Artistic Director
Cantate Unveils a New Logo in Celebration of its 40th Birthday!
Cantate’s new logo honors 39 years of excellence in the choral field by preserving the graceful “C” that has so long been a symbol of our musical achievements, programming prowess, and welcoming community. Balanced and bold, the new logo symbolizes a timeless sensibility with a modern twist, and a fearless approach to a future in which Cantate is a leader and a resource not only to our musical peers, but also to the community at large. For this year only, the beautiful red represents the celebration of our Ruby Jubilee, nodding to the traditional gift for a 40th anniversary. Keep your eyes peeled as the new logo pops up on the website, social media, emails, and even in your music folder or on your water bottle… (Purchase Cantate Merchandise HERE to benefit our community-building initiatives.)
Photo by Ruth Faison
A Big THANK YOU to all who joined our Ruby Anniversary Picnic!
Nearly 100 Cantate community members RSVPed to join us for the Ruby Anniversary Launch Picnic this June 9th, and we couldn’t have been happier to celebrate this milestone with better friends or with more beautiful weather. We extend a special thanks to the extraordinary volunteers who put together such a wonderful event, decorated the pavilion, grilled the burgers, honored still more volunteers, and cleaned up when the fun was over. This joyful moment marks the beginning of a full year of celebration, and we hope you’ll join us as we explore Cantate’s history, uplift its recent accomplishments, and chart a bold future of building community through choral music.
Photos below are by choir member and photographer Ruth Faison:
