Message from the Director

While I earn my living as an attorney, my true passion is choral music.  I am the founding Artistic Director of The Choristers.  Given our repertoire and quality of performance, we are the premier concert choir in Montgomery County and one of the best in the Philadelphia suburbs.
 
I believe live performances of choral music are incredibly important for the singers as well as the professional musicians who perform with us and the attendees of our concerts.  There is incontrovertible scientific evidence of the social and health benefits from participating in a choir and attending concerts.  This alone is a reason to support the live performance of music.  But there is more … much more.

There is simply nothing like that special moment when everyone in a performance hall … the choir, instrumentalists, soloists & audience … everyone comes together emotionally to experience live music.  One can palpably experience that union when I drop my baton after the last note … but before the applause.  I live for that moment.  It is humankind at its best, surrendering self-interest for a greater good.

I founded the choir when I was 25 years old and had no idea where it would go.  The choir is now well into our fourth decade!  I have been blessed with a Board of Directors and a choir that has enabled me to program, prepare and direct not just the well-known choral works, but many others that are just as wonderful but, for reasons known only to history, are undeservedly under-performed.  That is one of the many ways The Choristers is special.

We are a choir that treats other musicians with respect.  Despite residing in the suburbs, we adhere to Center City compensation levels and expectations regarding issues such as cartage and overtime.  Whatever a work requires in terms of instrumental or soloist scoring, that is how it is performed.  We do it right.  That is what The Choristers is all about.  This is why I contribute my time and treasure to The Choristers.

If you are a singer, audition to sing with us.  If you are a potential attendee of a concert, come hear us.  You will not be disappointed.  If you are a potential donor, please support us.

Like all performance arts organizations, we struggle mightily to raise the revenue necessary to present our concerts.  Our annual budget is now approximately $50,000 and ticket sales to our concerts raises between $10 – 12,000.  The rest must come from financial supporters.

This is nothing new.  For centuries churches, municipalities and monarchs financially supported music.  We would not have Bach’s music were it not for his employment by Leipzig and his positions in the city’s churches.  Haydn composed his mature works while employed as the Kapellmeister for the House of Esterházy.  Today, arts organizations must depend upon very modest state support (for The Choristers, approximately $2,000 per year), seek assistance from foundations which are simply deluged with proposals … and upon people like you.

I encourage you to seize this opportunity to become a financial supporter of The Choristers and help us accomplish this important work.  The Choristers is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) organization.  We pinch our pennies in every way possible so that we can accurately state that over 90% of a donation goes directly to our musical colleagues in the making of live music.  Click here to make a donation.  Thank you.  It is deeply appreciated.

David M. Spitko, Artistic Director