Conspirare connects hearts through music. We nurture a circle of creative voices and thoughtful listeners. Our choral concerts provide audiences around the country with transformative experiences long remembered, talked about, and treasured.
HISTORY
Established in 1991 as the New Texas Festival to present a summer classical music festival in Austin, Conspirare has evolved into an international phenomenon, lauded for artistry, innovation and mastery at making music that matters to audiences worldwide.
Conspirare’s professional core is its chamber choir, Company of Voices. Its members are renowned choral and solo artists who come to Austin from all over the country for our annual concert season. The highly acclaimed volunteer Symphonic Choir and gifted Conspirare Youth Choirs also perform throughout the year in collaboration with other Austin cultural organizations.
HIGHLIGHTS
Conspirare's first commercial recording,through the green fuse (Clarion, 2004), established an abiding musical legacy.
Conspirare's second commercial recording receives Grammy nominations and Edison Award
Requiem (Clarion, 2006) earned Grammy® nominations for Best Choral Performance and Best Engineered Album, Classical. Harmonia Mundi’s 2009 re-release of Requiem in America and Europe garnered the 2010 Edison Award (Denmark) for recording excellence in the Choral Music category.
Our first collaboration with the prestigious harmonia mundi label leads to Grammy nominations
Threshold of Night (2008) earned Grammy® nominations for Best Choral Performance and Best Classical Album.
“A Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert” brings Grammy nomination
A Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert premiered to universal acclaim on PBS in March 2009, showcasing our choral work to millions of viewers and earning a Grammy® nomination for Best Classical Crossover.
We are a recognized choral leader and innovator,
winning Chorus America’s Margaret Hills Award for Choral Excellence (2005) and the Dale Warland Singers Commission Award (2010). We are also proud to be a featured performer at the yearly regional and national conferences of the American Choral Directors Association.
The National Endowment for the Arts has honored us repeatedly.
In 2007, the NEA selected Conspirare to present “Crossing the Divide: Exploring Influence and Finding Our Voice,” a four-day choral festival celebrating composers, conductors, singers, musicians and audiences. Conspirare was one of a handful of organizations around the country chosen to be part of this national celebration of singing. Recent major grants have supported our 2011 CD release Sing Freedom! African American Spirituals, our 2012 recording of Samuel Barber’s choral works, and a multi-city tour of the Midwest in March 2012.
We are musical ambassadors at home and abroad,
representing America at the Eighth World Symposium on Choral Music in Copenhagen (2008), joining choirs from nearly 40 nations. The following year we led a Peace Event at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. In 2012 Conspirare traveled to France by invitation to participate in the biennial Polyfollia World Showcase in Normandy. After the festival the group presented a concert at Église Saint-Louis-en-l’Île in Paris.
Our “Big Sing” represents a deep commitment to the power of singing.
In our 2009-2010 season we began transforming the audience into the choir. Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson leads music lovers in vocal warm-ups and easy-to-learn melodic songs. These events, instantly popular in Austin, have also inspired audiences in New York City, which hosted two Big Sings in February 2010.
Ground-breaking weekend festival
“Renaissance & Response: Polyphony Then & Now,” in January 2011, showcased the works of Josquin Des Prez, Orlandus Lassus, Tomás Luis de Victoria and J.S. Bach in four distinct programs, each featuring a world premiere by series composer-in-residence, Robert Kyr. The Wall Street Journal called it “a powerful new achievement in American music that vividly traces a journey from despair to transcendence.”
Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute 2011
brought us to the Big Apple to perform three concerts in February 2011, part of Weill’s Neighborhood Concert series which introduces world-class artists to diverse audiences in all five boroughs. This followed our 2003 performance at Carnegie under the auspices of the American Choral Directors Association.
Tour of the Midwest in March 2012
Conspirare presented public performances in Michigan and Indiana and headlined the American Choral Directors Association Central Division conference in Fort Wayne. The program featured American music, two U.S. premieres of works by Eric Whitacre and selections from Conspirare’s 2011 CD, Sing Freedom! African American Spirituals.
International music festival and Paris performance October 2012
Conspirare traveled to France by invitation to participate in Polyfollia in Lower Normandy. The biennial Polyfollia festival showcases the best of international choral art and facilitates the meeting of vocal ensembles with international professionals from broadcasting and musical entertainment. After the festival the group presented a public concert of American, Russian, and French works in the heart of Paris at Église Saint-Louis-en-l’Île.
