THIRTEEN CHAMBER CHOIR
PO Box 32065, Washington, DC 20007 www.thethirteenchoir.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: Inspiration, education, and community-building through choral arts: via concerts, workshops, recordings, and commissions The Thirteen performs choral music spanning many times and cultures, inspiring new audiences and fostering empathy in our communities.

Concerts & Workshops: Committed to life-affirming, excellent and relevant programs, The Thirteen presented 19 choral concerts for over 2800 audience members as well as a workshop for 26 youth singers. These activities occurred in DC, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, and online. Among the subscription series concerts were October's Tallis Through the Looking Glass, combining Renaissance masterworks of Byrd, Purcell, and Tallis with stunning new American compositions by Pulitzer-winning Caroline Shaw, Meredith Monk, and Ted Hearne, among other pieces. The "Lost Vespers" of 1641 concert in November reconstructed an evening service from the magisterial compilation of sacred music that Claudio Monteverdi prepared toward the end of his pathbreaking life. For the 50th moon landing anniversary, Kile Smith's brilliant Consolation of Apollo headlined December's concert, Silent Night, Starry Night, about space exploration and Christmas celebrations, illuminated with NASA imagery. Mystic was the title in March 2020 for exploring the concept of Divinity in concert, spanning a millennium of music from medieval Hildegard von Bingen to the Kennedy Center's very now Mason Bates, and covering other countries and eras as well. Covid-19 forced postponement of the May concert, a commission discussed below, and other activities. Still, in cooperation with DC's GenOUT chorus for LGBTQ and allied youth, The Thirteen held a workshop aimed at helping these singers find their voice and make their mark. Pivoting in the wake of Covid, The Thirteen presented a June concert online, mostly live-streamed from around the country and offering solos and duets. In addition, this program included a video premiere of Scott Ordway's Litany of the Birds for chamber chorus as well as solace for grief with a virtual selection from Brahm's Requiem. The Washington Post, WETA-FM, and critics in Ohio all praised the exceptional quality of The Thirteen's performances and programming. The concerts and workshops program also benefits from expenses associated below with recordings and commissions.

Recordings: The Thirteen offered fine recordings of exciting music via compact discs (CDs) and online distribution of video and audio. Among 362 physical CDs distributed last season was the new album, Truth & Fable, issued on the ACIS label in November 2019. It featured Absalom by Daniel Elder a breathtaking oratorio commissioned by The Thirteen that addresses not only the story of King David and his slain son, but conflict, hubris, consequences, and gun violence in America today. Choral gems from six other American and European composers completed this album. The recording program also benefits from expenses associated above and below with concerts and commissions.

Commissioning: The Thirteen fosters new works in a commitment to reimagine the power of vocal music. We commissioned esteemed composer and Rutgers University professor Scott Ordway for a choral opera, The Outer Edge of Youth. For two soloists, chamber choir, and low strings, this tender and deeply human work of vocal theater, explores the ways in which boys and young men relate to each other and to the natural world, the overlap and occasional conflict between our aesthetic and our ethical commitments, and the role of compassion in contemporary life. While the Covid pandemic forced postponement of the premiere to a later season, Ordway's work has helped define an evolving genre and made a worthy addition to the repertoire. The Thirteen was pleased at least to present a virtual choir performance of one of the work's movements as part of its June livestream and we look forward to staging the whole work before long. In addition, our December 2019 concert premiered The Apotheosis of Apollo, our commission for composer Melissa Dunphy with words by Clinton Kelly. This piece is a timely paean to science and exploration. To quote the award-winning composer regarding the moon landing anniversary, "As the human race continues to consider its place in our world and our universe, 50 years later, it seems particularly important - even urgent - to recall the unifying impact of that moment." Our programs included several other new and innovative works. While not paid commissions by The Thirteen, we were pleased to provide the first or second performance and in some cases help inspire their creation. For example, our Fall Gala included two premieres by local composers, P. Lucy McVeigh and Christopher J. Hoh. The commissioning program also benefits from expenses associated above with concerts and recordings.

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