Celebrate!

Artistic Director Victoria Gau’s 2024 Holiday Address

Dear Friends,

The season of celebration is here, and Cantate has much to celebrate! With three blockbuster concerts already under our belt, our 40^th anniversary has begun with a bang and continues at a steady crescendo into a very exciting 2025. We celebrate these successes; we celebrate the 39 precedent-setting years of artistic excellence, bold innovation, and embracing welcome that have brought us to this stage; and we celebrate you – the members of this community who, by attending concerts, singing with our choirs, volunteering, and providing financial support, have made Cantate the hub of community and the musical resource it is today. Thank you!

While Cantate has grown by every measure in its forty years, it is our capacity to fulfill our mission to build community through choral music that is the most meaningful indicator of our success. The numbers you see on our “Cantate at 40” document tell only a small part of the story: more singers, new venues, stronger programs, and financial growth mean that Cantate is drawing in ever-broadening and more representative circles of singers and musicians, audience members, neighbors and partners around the singularly unifying experiences that only choral music can create.

We’re proud of the way community and conversation form around experiences like Much Ado, our season-opening collaboration with The Firebird Project Theater Company, which packed the hall with folks drawn to an innovative interdisciplinary exploration of some of Shakespeare’s greatest works. Cantate’s stirring full-scale performance of Verdi’s immortal Requiem in collaboration with National Philharmonic at Strathmore attracted record numbers of singers and audience members to a deeply felt shared experience. With next spring’s concerts, Young Composers’ Competition, Lift Every Voice showcase and masterclasses, Summer Choral Institute, and Ruby Jubilee, we will forge relationships with creatives, collaborators, conservatories, local leaders, and more, fostering priceless connections across backgrounds, experiences, art forms, vocations, and generations.

Please consider supporting Cantate this anniversary season with a gift of any size towards these choral experiences that unite and inspire. Every donation makes a difference and brings us closer to our $40,000 goal: $50 supports instrumental sheet music parts for one concert; $100 covers dues for a choir member in need; $175 provides a venue for one rehearsal; $500 provides a voice-building workshop for our singers or helps to sponsor a soloist for a concert; $1000 underwrites a LEV fellow for one concert cycle, $2,500 provides a performance venue; and $5,000 underwrites a season concert of special meaning to you. Your gifts, more than ticket sales, grant funding, or any other source of income, are what make our work possible.

Whether this is your fortieth season with Cantate or your first, we are profoundly appreciative of your role in our community. With much gratitude, we look forward to continuing the celebration with you throughout this landmark season.

With many thanks and warmest wishes,

Victoria Gau, Artistic Director