Dale Trumbore appointed Composer in Residence for Choral Chameleon

9.24.2018 / New York City 

The Board of Choral Chameleon and Founding Artistic Director Vince Peterson are pleased to announce the appointment of Dale Trumbore as Composer-in-Residence for 2018-2019.

Dale Trumbore will be the 5th composer since the company was founded in 2008 to have the opportunity to spend a year writing for the New York City-based company’s community of adventurous professional and avocational singers, adding to Choral Chameleon’s extensive repertoire of over 150 commissions and premieres. 

Choral Chameleon typically appoints a Composer-in-Residence every 2 Seasons. Previous CIRs include Rex Isenberg, Adam Ward, Joseph Gregorio and Jeffrey Parola.

According to Artistic Director Vince Peterson: “Dale Trumbore is the most established composer that we've had in residency. Historically, at the time that the composers had been working with us in residencies, they were still what you would fairly call emerging composers. Dale is at a whole different level than they were at this point in her life.  She is a really established composer, and the fact that she wants to work with us is humbling and it's gratifying to know that she believes in us as much as we believe in her, it's a really great thing”.

Says Dale Trumbore “I'm excited to take advantage of Choral Chameleon's adventurousness. Choral Chameleon is willing to make bold programming choices as well as musical ones, all in the name of creating a compelling narrative. This residency feels like a safe space for me to take bold creative risks, and as a composer, that's the mark of a dream collaboration”.

Dale Trumbore is writing two works for Choral Chameleon:  

The first piece “Footnotes to a History of Music” is a 10-minute a capella work, set to text by poet Kristina Marie Darling, for Choral Chameleon’s professional Ensemble of 10 voices.  This piece will be premiered within in a new touring program ‘Storytime’, a concert of narrative pieces for choir, to be performed on various dates in the NY Tri-State area during the Season. The first opportunity to hear the piece will be at St Barts on Park Avenue NYC on Tuesday October 9th 2018 at 7.30pm.

The second piece, “Secular Poems for Choir and Organ”, will be a longer work, incorporating texts by poets Abigail Welhouse and Lynn Ungar, for Choral Chameleon’s semi-professional chorus of 40 voices. The work will form the cornerstone of the concert program ‘Deus Ex Machina’ – a showcase of secular music written for choir and organ – to be performed in New York in late April 2019.

As Composer-in-Residence, Dale Trumbore will also be teaching at the annual Choral Chameleon Summer Institute for Composers and Conductors from June 21-28 2019.

Artistic Director Vince Peterson is the 2018 recipient of Chorus America's Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal.  Choral Chameleon were a 2015 recipient of Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.

To read more about Choral Chameleon's CIR programme and a long-form interview with Vince Peterson and the composer about the appointment, go to http://www.choralchameleon.com/composer-in-residence.html

To learn more about the composer and her music please visit www.daletrumbore.com

To learn more about Choral Chameleon please visit www.choralchameleon.com

About Choral Chameleon

Choral Chameleon is a choir known for championing new music for voices, programming multiple musical genres together and for frequently presenting their programs with non-traditional staging. The company has premiered over 150 original compositions and arrangements to date. Choral Chameleon was 2017-2018 Group in Residence at National Sawdust in Brooklyn.

Founded in New York in 2008, by Artistic Director Vince Peterson, the Company encompasses: a professional ensemble, a volunteer chorus of 40 and an annual week-long Summer Institute for composers and conductors. 

The culture of the organization marries informality, loving support and joyful curiosity, with the expectation of solidly technical musicianship, constant learning and openness towards the unexpected.

Choral Chameleon was the 2015 recipient of Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and, in recognition of his work with Choral Chameleon over the past decade, Vince Peterson was the 2018 recipient of the Chorus America Louis Botto Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Zeal.

In addition to the Company’s self-produced programs, recent appearances and collaborations in the past 2 Seasons have included: Philip Glass ‘Madrigal Opera’ directed by R.B. Schlather at National Sawdust, ‘Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music’ 24-hour marathon show at St Ann’s Warehouse, ‘The Gauntlet’ immersive choral installation with Sxip Shirey at Ferus Festival at National Sawdust, and at MakeMusicNewYork Festival.

About Dale Trumbore

Dale Trumbore (b.1987) has been called “a rising star among modern choral composers” (AXS), and her music has been praised for its “soaring melodies and beguiling harmonies” (The New York Times). 

Trumbore's compositions have been performed widely in the United States and internationally by ensembles including the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), Inscape Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Children's Chorus, Modesto Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, and The Singers – Minnesota Choral Artists. Artist residencies at Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, Copland House, Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, and Willapa Bay AiR have provided some of the most challenging and inspiring composing experiences of Trumbore's life. ?

How to Go On: The Choral Works of Dale Trumbore, Choral Arts Initiative's album of Trumbore's choral works, debuted at #6 on Billboard's Traditional Classical Chart. Choral Arts Northwest, The Esoterics, Helix Collective, New York Virtuoso Singers, and soprano Gillian Hollis have also recorded works by Trumbore, and her music is available through Boosey & Hawkes, G. Schirmer, and MusicSpoke.

As a composer who works frequently with words, Trumbore is passionate about setting poems, prose and found text by living authors to music. She has written extensively about overcoming creative blocks and establishing a career in music in essays for 21CM, Cantate Magazine, the Center for New Music, MusicSpoke, and NewMusicBox. She is currently at work on her first book.

Trumbore holds a dual degree in Music Composition and English from the University of Maryland and a Master of Music degree in Composition from the University of Southern California, where she studied with Morten Lauridsen. A New Jersey native, Trumbore currently lives in Los Angeles, her home of nearly a decade, with her fiancé and their cat.