The William Baker Festival Singers is thrilled to welcome Music Director, Ben Bedroske and Milwaukee's Chant Claire to Kansas City for their first regional tour. Chant Claire is one of America's up and coming choral ensembles, celebrating the culmination of their 10th anniversary season in Kansas City.

The 70-voice Chant Claire will perform works of Gjielo, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Paulus, MacMillan, and others. The William Baker Festival Singers will welcome Chant Claire with highlights from their 23/24 concert season. The choirs will combine to 120 voices to sing Alexander Gretchninov's 'Our Father', Ralph Vaughan Williams 'Lord, Thou Hast Been our Refuge', and Kansas City composer Sean Sweeden's 'In the Beginning'.

They will be hosted by the award-winning William Baker Festival Singers on Sunday, June 9 @ 3:00pm in the nave of the St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 1307 Holmes Street in Kansas City, Missouri. Admission is free, with donations gratefully received. A Wine and homemade Cookie Reception will follow the concert.

Since their first appearance at Charleston's Piccolo Spoleto Festival in 1989, the New South Festival Singers have performed annually to capacity audiences. Previously known as Gwinnett Festival Singers (1985-1998) and the William Baker Festival Singers Atlanta (1998-2015) the Atlanta based a cappella choir has delighted festival audiences with their signature diversity of classics from across the globe, their early American hymns and spirituals, and their rousing gospel selections. Now under the direction of Music Director Lynn Swanson the 40 singers will celebrate 35 years in Charleston with one of their most exciting concerts ever! Please arrive early for best seats.

Have you felt the wonder that flows without end?

The closing concert of Vox Venti's second season under the direction of Ed Frazier Davis largely explores the concept of dreams, of both the sleeping and waking variety—some fantastical, others grounded in the here and now. We will perform works by Eriks Ešenvalds, Adolphus Hailstork, Caroline Mallonee, André Thomas, Mari Ésabel Valverde, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Eric Whitacre, plus the first and second prize winners of the Institute for Choral Creativity’s annual composition competition, and a new commission from a composer to be announced.

The award-winning William Baker Festival Singers, a 50-voice semi-professional chorale specializing in sacred music, performs a one-hour concert of sacred choral classics and spirituals. The performance is sponsored by the Music Ministry of the St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Lee's Summit A Wine & Cookie Reception presented by the Friends of St. Paul's Music will follow the performance. Admission is free, with donations gratefully accepted. 100% of donated funds will benefit Hillcrest Transitional Housing www.HillcrestKC.org .

The William Baker Festival Singers is an ensemble of the Choral Foundation. www.WilliamBakerFestivalSingers.org

The New South Festival Singers has performed annually to capacity audiences at Charleston's Piccolo Spoleto Festival since 1989. Hear a preview of their exciting 2024 concert for their hometown Atlanta audience. Music Director Lynn Swanson has chosen a thrilling blend of classics, new works, spirituals and gospels to celebrate 35 years at the prestigious festival. Early arrival recommended for best seats.

The Wiliam Baker Festival Singers is a 50-voice semi-professional chorale specializing in sacred a cappella classics and spirituals that is Chorus in Residence at the historic St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Kansas City. The award-winning chorus has performed in 14 states and the nation's capital. Our concert is a hometown performance of repertoire for their 2024 Chicago Tour. Featured composers include Sean Sweeden, Norman Dello Joio, Eric Whitacre, Eriks Esenvalds, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The Festival Singers welcome guest artists from the Allegro Choirs of Kansas City, Christy Elsner, Music Director. The gala concert will be followed by a Wine & Cookie Reception. Early arrival is recommended for best seats.

Join the festivities at Kansas City's original Cinco de Mayo Festival at the Guadelupe Centers in Kansas City, MO! This will be the 2nd annual appearance for Voces Festivas as a featured performer. Expect to hear choral music from Mexico, Argentina, and more with the unique sounds and rhythms of Spanish music. Please support this unique choral group in our community!

Guadalupe Centers bring to the KC community its Cinco de Mayo celebration presented by CommunityAmerica Credit Union!! This fundraiser not only benefits Guadelupe Centers' programs, but it continues a neighborhood tradition that originally started in 1922, making it the original Cinco de Mayo Fiesta in Kansas City!

This year’s fiesta will be a three-day event, where families can enjoy local and national entertainment, mariachis, folkloric dancers, food, kids activities, petting zoo, vendors, artists, contests, raffles and much more!.

Free Admission

The William Baker Festival Singers and Chicagoland's own Vox Venti perform a joint concert at the culmination of the Festival Singers' 2024 spring tour. Vox Venti, Ed Frazier Davis, Artistic Director, is an ensemble of the Choral Foundation in its second concert season. The performance will be in the spectacular nave of the 1893 era St. Chrysostoms Episcopal Church. The program will be wide-ranging, including classics, works by living composers, and American spirituals.

As part of their 2024 Chicago tour, Kansas City's William Baker Festival Singers sing a Vigil Mass followed by a mini-concert in the magnificent St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church in the Pulaski Park area of Chicago. The 19th century church is one of the most beautifully ornate worship spaces in Chicago. Choral selections will include works by Bruckner, Brahms, Durufle, Vaughan Williams and Esenvalds. This is a service of Christian worship open to everyone followed by a public concert.

The William Baker Festival Singers & Chamber Orchestra presents the 12th annual Kenneth Babcock Memorial Masterworks Concert in the splendor of St. Mary's Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Featured works include Benjamin Britten: FESTIVAL TE DEUM; William W. Dreyfoos: SONGS OF THE HOLOCAUST; Leonard Bernstein: CHICHESTER PSALMS; Ralph Vaughan Williams: DONA NOBIS PACEM, and Ed Frazier Davis' AT OUR LAST AWAKENING. Wine and Cookie Reception following the concert.

Music Director Lynn Swanson leads The New South Festival Singers, soloists and orchestra musicians in Leonard Bernstein's thrilling "Chichester Psalms" and other works of Jewish composers. This is the annual Andrew Cain Memorial Masterworks Concert. In the 39 seasons of the Festival Singers, the Atlanta-based ensemble has performed an impressive array of choral-orchestral classics.

Vox Venti under the direction of Ed Frazier Davis presents an emotional concert exploring these two titular themes, both central to the human condition, through repertoire full of moving and inspiring choral art.

The chorus will perform works by Calixto Álvarez, Kim André Arnesen, Bob Chilcott, Ed Frazier Davis, Adolphus Hailstork, Gabriel Jackson, Bernice Johnson Reagon, and John Tavener, plus Herbert Howells' funereal masterpiece Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing (composed for a memorial for John F. Kennedy) and a new commission from Vox Venti’s own Bass II section leader Tabes Bridges.

Each February The William Baker Festival Singers present an outreach concert in the Heartland region. Our 2024 performance will be a joint concert with the St. Joseph Community Chorus, Timothy Jon Tharaldson, Artistic Director. Each chorus will perform highlights from their own repertoire before joining in thrilling mass choir selections led by Mr. Tharaldson. The program will be a special tribute to music of black composers and of the African-American song tradition.

Since its founding in 1985, The New South Festival Singers has championed the music of black composers and the folk songs and spirituals of the black experience. For our annual "Tribute to the American Black Composer" concert in 2024, Music Director Lynn Swanson has chosen the deeply moving cantata, "Changed My Name" by Linda Twine. Using traditional songs and composed music the cantata tells the story of seeking freedom through the words of 19th century heroes Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. Dr. Norma Raybon plays the role of Sojourner Truth, and the Reverend Henrietta Andrews plays the role of Hariett Tubman.

Join The Institute for Healthy Singing & Voice Research (IHS&VR) and the William Baker Choral Foundation for an incredible evening of music and philanthropy at the Carriage Club in Kansas City, MO! The Kenya Music Education Benefit Gala is a not-to-be-missed event where you can make a difference while enjoying talented musicians, as they take the stage to support music education in Kenya. This in-person event promises a night filled with soulful melodies and heartwarming stories of the IHS&VR's work in Kenya. Come and show your support for this noble cause. Be a part of something extraordinary!

Candlelight, Carols & Cathedral has become of the city's most beloved holiday traditions, celebrating the beauty and wonder of Christmas. The William Baker Festival Singers join with Organist John Schaefer and guest choir Kansas City, Kansas All-City Children's Chorus, Donna Johnson, Director, to perform timeless classics, beloved carols in traditional forms, and the story of Christmas in scripture and song. See the beauty of Kansas City's glorious cathedrals. Hear the words of the story and rousing choral singing. Raise your voice in treasured carols with the voices of the Festival Singers and a magnificent pipe organ. Early arrival recommended for best seats.

Wolcum for whom we sall sing!

The annual Christmas concert of Vox Venti under the direction of Ed Frazier Davis is named after the eponymous work for chorus and harp by Benjamin Britten, the SATB version of which will be the evening’s centerpiece.

Featuring special guest Jordan Thomas, one of Chicago's most distinguished and celebrated harpists. In addition to Britten, we will perform holiday delights by Ed Frazier Davis, Jessica French, Ola Gjeilo, and Dale Trumbore, plus the Illinois premiere of Winter Ride by Mari Ésabel Valverde.

Candlelight, Carols & Cathedral has become of the city's most beloved holiday traditions, celebrating the beauty and wonder of Christmas. The William Baker Festival Singers join with Organist John Schaefer and guest choirs to perform timeless classics, beloved carols in traditional forms, and the story of Christmas in scripture and song. See the beauty of Kansas City's glorious cathedrals. Hear the words of the story and rousing choral singing. Raise your voice in treasured carols with the voices of the Festival Singers and a magnificent pipe organ. Early arrival recommended for best seats.

Voces Festivas & Friends, under the leadership of Music Director Leilani Velasco Vaughn, presents our second annual Navidad Con Voces Festivas in the splendor of the All Saints Catholic Church in Kansas City, Kansas. The voices of Voces Festivas perform joyful folk music and compositions from our Hispanic heritage.

Christmas With Kansas City Bronze has quickly become one of the community's most anticipated holiday events. In the form of a Lessons and Carols Service, the hour of song and story includes traditional readings of the Christmas season interspersed with classical music for bells, chimes and organ, along with beloved carols in traditional forms for everyone to sing. The concert will be followed by a Wine and Christmas Cookie Reception. Early arrival recommended for best seats.

Kansas City Bronze rings 72 Mallmark handbells and 60 choirchimes in works and arrangements by Cathy Moklebust, Arnold Sherman, and other leading composers of bell music.

Carols by Candlelight with The New South Festival Singers is a beloved Atlanta holiday tradition. Music Director Lynn Swanson leads the 40-voice a cappella choir in beloved carols, creative works and the traditional classics treasured across the globe. The Festival Singers will be joined by The Georgia Youth Choir, under the direction of Alyssa Gangarosa and Due West Carillon Ringers, director Barry Taylor. Early arrival is recommended for best seats.

The first-ever public performance of The William Baker Festival Singers was a benefit concert for Front Porch Alliance on the Friday before Thanksgiving in 1998. Each year the Festival Singers celebrates the holiday by raising funds for a worthy charity that brings help and hope in our community. Kansas City Bronze, called "...one of Kansas City's elite handbell ensembles" will join the Festival Singers for a gala concert.

Our 2023 concert will support the work of the Institute for Healthy Singing and Voice Research in the village of Kapkemich, Kenya, begum by Fellows of the Institute in March 2023.

100% of funds donated will support the next visit by our Healthy Singing team.

The William Baker Festival Singers open their 2023-2024, 26th concert season at the historic St. Mary's Episcopal Church, where the beloved choir is Chorus in Residence. The performance includes classic works by Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner and Maurice Durufle; along with modern works by Knut Nystedt, Eriks Esenvalds, and Sean Sweeden. The program includes the Kansas City premiers of Edmund Jolliffe's "Wessobrunn Prayer" and Zachary James Ritter's "The Sometimes Joy of Reminiscing." The concert culminates with the Festival Singers signature American spirituals and gospels. Wine and Cookie Reception following the concert. Early arrival recommended for best seats.

Music Director Lynn Swanson leads the 40-voice New South Festival Singers in the choir's 39th Season Opening Concert. Entitled Changed My Name the performance will include the Festival Singers signature classics, innovative new works and American spirituals and gospels.

The William Baker Festival Singers presents a preview of our 2023-2024, 26th concert season in Kansas City, with an informal concert expressing love and appreciation to the members, staff and community of Countryside Christian Church in Mission, Kansas, which has provided a rehearsal home for the choir since 2021. The concert will include selections from our upcoming subscription season performances, including early American hymns and spirituals. along with works by Vaughan Williams, Anton Bruckner, and Williametta Spencer.