BCI Announces 2025 Season

BCI Announces 2025 Season

Berkshire Choral International, the leading non-profit educational organization for adult amateur choristers, has announced programming for its 2025 Summer season. Over the past 42 years, BCI has enriched the lives of more than 9,000 singers through our week-long choral music programs under the batons of the world’s great conductors in prestigious venues throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Steven Smith, BCI’s President & CEO said, “after a 35% increase in participation during our 2024 season, we look forward to reaching more singers with opportunities to expand their choral horizons.”
The five programs include three full-week programs with professional orchestra, as well as 4-day choral festival at Tanglewood’s Linde Center and a long-weekend workshop featuring the music of Alice Parker.

New Love Songs at Tanglewood
May 21-25
Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, Lenox, MA
Anthony Trecek-King, conductor
Tanglewood’s Linde Center for Music and Learning will be our home for four days of rehearsals and a glorious final concert at Ozawa Hall. Join newly-appointed BCI Artistic Director Anthony Trecek-King for a program inspired by choral music for piano four-hands including the Brahms Neue Liebeslieder Waltzes, Copland’s The Promise of Living, and exciting music of Handel, Hagenberg, and Shank.

Celebrating Alice Parker
June 12-15
Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA
Cameron LaBarr, conductor
Generations of choristers have sung the works of iconic composer Alice Parker. This long-weekend workshop in The Berkshires is the perfect location to explore her choral legacy – from the early Robert Shaw arrangements through her original compositions. Cameron LaBarr, Director of Choral Studies at Missouri State, worked with Alice and co-wrote the book The Melodic Voice: Conversations with Alice Parker.

Into the Light: Haydn, Brahms, & Runestad
June 22-29
UMass Amherst, MA
Rob Istad, conductor
Haydn: Lord Nelson Mass
Brahms: Nänie
Runestad: Into the Light
Rob Istad, the Grammy-winning conductor of The Pacific Chorale, has planned a dream program for the choral-orchestral music aficionado. Haydn’s stirring masterpiece, the Lord Nelson Mass, is paired with Brahms’ transcendent Nänie and Jake Runestad’s luminous and colorful Into the Light.

Considering Matthew Shepard
July 5-12
University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Washington National Cathedral, Washington D.C.
Jeffrey Benson, conductor
Johnson: Considering Matthew Shepard

Responding to the hate crime murder of young Matthew Shepard, acclaimed conductor and composer Craig Hella Johnson created a compassionate and ultimately hopeful musical response. Conductor Jeffrey Benson, Director of Choral Activities at San José State University, will be our musical guide for this powerful journey.

Mozart & Bernstein in Berlin
July 27-August 3
Haus Des Rundfunks, Berlin, Germany
Jenny Wong, conductor
Mozart: Requiem
Bernstein: Chichester Psalms

Berlin, a city of stunning historic and contemporary contrasts, is the perfect setting for a program that juxtaposes Mozart’s timeless Requiem with Bernstein’s jazzy and bold Chichester Psalms, set to a text in Hebrew. Jenny Wong, recently appointed Chorus Director of the San Francisco Symphony, returns to BCI to lead our week.

Berkshire Choral International expands the horizons of singers through participation in exhilarating performances, enriching travel and cultural exploration, lifelong music education, and connection to an inspiring community of choral artists. Further details and program registration is available at BCI’s website at http://developer.island-wizards.com.