The May Festival Chorus is endowed by the Betsy & Alex C. Young Chair
Matthew Swanson, Director of Choruses
Jason Alexander Holmes, Associate Director of Choruses & Youth Chorus Director
Heather MacPhail, Accompanist
Andrew Miller, Conducting Fellow
Kelly Haney, Interim Chorus Manager
Kathryn Zajac Albertson, Supporting Chorus Manager
Kathleen Moran, Chorus Librarian
The May Festival Chorus has earned national and international acclaim for its musicality and command of repertoire. Consisting of 150 avocational singers who collectively devote more than 45,000 hours in rehearsals and performances annually, the Chorus is the core artistic element of the Cincinnati May Festival and the official chorus of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops. The premier choral ensemble in Cincinnati, the May Festival Chorus has garnered national and international attention through numerous PBS broadcasts and award-winning recordings, many in collaboration with the CSO and Pops. Most recently, a live recording of Robert Nathaniel Dett’s The Ordering of Moses featuring Music Director Laureate James Conlon conducting the Chorus and CSO at Carnegie Hall was released to critical acclaim in 2016 on Bridge Records, and, in 2017, the Chorus re-released its popular a cappella holiday recording Christmas with the May Festival Chorus on the Fanfare Cincinnati label. The Chorus is also featured on several Pops recordings, which have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.