Summer Choral Institute
Cantate and Montgomery College Chamber Singers Present
The 2026 Summer Choral Institute
Rehearsals: Monday, June 15; Wednesday, June 17; and Monday, June 22, from 7:00 – 10:00 pm
Montgomery College Rockville Campus
51 Mannakee St, Rockville, MD 20850
Dress Rehearsal Wednesday, June 24, from 7:00 – 10:00 pm; Performance Thursday, June 25, at 7:30 (earlier call for singers)
Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center
7995 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Cantate is pleased to partner once again with Montgomery College’s Chamber Singers to reprise the popular Summer Choral Institute this June under the co-direction of Cantate Artistic Director Victoria Gau and Montgomery College Professor of Music Molly Donnelly. Experienced adult singers from around the region are invited to share the joy of community singing at this summer intensive as they refresh and develop skills to support their choral experiences throughout the year. Four intensive workshop-rehearsals over two weeks culminate in a free public concert of exciting varied choral works on Thursday, June 25. This is a not-to-be missed opportunity for singers committed to building their voices and musicianship and sharing community with local musicians.
Gerald Finzi, The Full Final Sacrifice
Jake Runestad, We Can Mend the Sky
Libby Larsen, The Settling Years
Program Leadership
Victoria Gau, Co-Director
Victoria Gau is Artistic Director and Conductor of the Capital City Symphony (DC) and Cantate Chamber Singers and Concert Choir, and the former Associate Conductor of National Philharmonic. Orchestral guest conducting includes the Open Page Ensemble, Alexandria (VA) and Akron (OH) Symphonies, the Friday Morning Music Club Orchestra, and the Kennedy Center Messiah Sing-Along. She has been active as Artistic Director of the Takoma Ensemble and is the former Conductor and Music Director of the Richmond Philharmonic Orchestra in Richmond, VA. Opera music directing includes the Other Opera Company, Washington Savoyards, Victorian Lyric Opera Company, Annapolis Opera Musicales, the Eldbrook Opera Ensemble, and the IN-Series, as well as serving on the opera faculty at George Mason University
Gau is in demand as a leader of concerts for young audiences as well as a conductor and string educator at youth orchestra festivals and workshops. For a number of years she conducted National Philharmonic’s annual concerts for Montgomery County 2nd graders and the Philharmonic’s Junior String Institute Orchestra. She is the former conductor of the Young Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra (DC Youth Orchestra Program), as well as the Akron Youth Symphony, and has conducted youth orchestra festivals in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York. Gau has conducted Side-by Side events with DC-area youth orchestras and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, the SOGO Conservatory Orchestra (Olympia, WA), and All State Orchestra festivals in Vermont, Maryland (both Junior and Senior) and North Carolina. She is a sought-after clinician for orchestral programs.
Gau has worked with such choruses as the Fairfax Choral Society, the Metropolitan Chorus, Capitol Hill Chorale, and the Congressional Chorus. She has assisted in preparation of the 150-voice National Philharmonic Chorale for approximately 6 concerts per season, and served as Co-Director of the National Philharmonic Singers, and Director and Co-Conductor of the National Philharmonic Summer Choral Institutes. She led two choral concerts in Paris in summer ‘25, and will make her Carnegie Hall debut in May ‘26.
She holds degrees in Viola Performance and Conducting from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she won the Phi Kappa Lambda Prize for Musicianship.
Molly Donnelly, Co-Director
Mezzo-soprano Molly Donnelly has sung as a soloist with Musica Sacra, The Oratorio Society of New York, The Minnesota Orchestra, The National Symphony, The Baltimore Symphony, The Berlin Philharmonic, The Bethlehem Bach Festival, The Washington Bach Consort, The Cathedral Choral Society, The Maryland Handel Festival, The Maryland Chorus, The National Philharmonic, The Washington Opera, The Cincinnati Opera, The Oratorio Society of Washington, The Masterworks Chorus, Baltimore Choral Arts Society, The Denver Symphony, The Colorado Springs Symphony, The Boulder Philharmonic, The Ohio Light Opera, The Washington Savoyards, and many other notable ensembles. Dr. Donnelly is a Fulbright Scholar and holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Maryland, a Master of Music from the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Colorado. As a scholar, Dr. Donnelly is the author of the article on the 18th-century singer Susannah Cibber in the Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
Of her performance as Tolomeo in the premiere of the North American production of Handel’s opera Tolomeo, Andrew Porter, reviewing for The New Yorker, wrote: “Her voice has character — an elusive quality, God-given, not acquirable, that makes people listen. Her countenance is clear and candid, her presence lithe and honest, her expressiveness sterling.”
As a voice teacher and choral conductor, Dr. Donnelly has been a member of the music faculty at Shenandoah Conservatory of Music, The University of Maryland, and George Mason University. Since 1997, she has taught at Montgomery College, where she teaches voice and directs the Chamber Singers and the College Chorus. She is an active adjudicator serving the National Association of Teachers of Singing, The National Symphony Young Artists Award, The Friday Morning Music Club Awards, and Montgomery County Public Schools choral festivals. Dr. Donnelly has been the co-director of the annual National Philharmonic Chorale’s Summer Choral Institute held at Montgomery College and vocal consultant for the National Philharmonic Chorale. She has many former students singing professionally around the world as well as teaching voice and choral music throughout the country.
Sooyoung Jung, Pianist
Sooyoung Jung received her master’s degree at the Juilliard School in New York as a recipient of the Samuel Sanders Memorial Scholarship. In 2002, she made her Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall with the support of the Korean Foundation. She performs actively as a recitalist and a chamber musician in the United States and Korea, with solo credits at the Seoul Symphony and McLean Symphony.
Splitting her time between New York and Washington D.C., she performs art songs, operas, and chamber music as a collaborative pianist. She has served as an official pianist for many summer festivals including the Aspen Music Festival, the Nice Music Festival in France, and the Mozarteum Festival in Germany.
Sooyoung is also a skilled organist. She is the principal organist at the McLean Baptist Church in Virginia and has played with the National Orchestral Institute in Maryland. She studied with pianist Rita Sloan as a Doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland and assisted most of the performances of the Maryland Opera Studio. In 2011, she finished her Doctoral degree as a Collaborative Pianist. She joined the piano faculty of Montgomery College in 2010 and works as the Chorus and Chamber Singers pianist under the direction of Dr. Molly Donnelly.