Masterworks Chorale

Founded in 1964[1] by Galen Marshall (born 1934 in Greensburg, Kansas and died December 4, 2014), and currently conducted by Dr. Bryan Baker, the mixed chorus presently consists of 120 members, and performs a wide variety of music from the Renaissance and Baroque to modern masterpieces.

The Fall and Spring concerts generally include major choral works in which the chorus is usually accompanied by a professional orchestra and renowned soloists.

[3] During its early years under Galen Marshall the chorus gradually grew in size and started giving concerts throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 1972 the group was renamed the Masterworks Chorale and gave its first complete performance of Handel's Messiah that December at St. Bartholomew's Church, San Mateo.

[5] One of the most exciting performances took place on December 12, 1988, when Masterworks, Geneva’s Suisse Romande Choir, and the USSR State Academy Russian Choir—all linked by satellite—joined the World Philharmonic Orchestra in Montreal to sing the “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

[7] The tour featured the Beethoven Choral Fantasy with pianist Jon Nakamatsu, who three years later won the acclaimed Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Masterworks’ 40th anniversary concert featured Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances, Brahms’ Nänie, and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, again with pianist Jon Nakamatsu.

That New York trip was so successful that it was repeated in 2010, this time with a performance of Whitacre’s Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, in Carnegie Hall.

The music included selections from Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil, Fauré’s “Cantique de Jean Racine,” works by Lauridsen, Whitacre, and Gjielo, and spirituals.