Long Beach Camerata Singers was founded in 1966 by Frank Allen as the Vocal Arts Ensemble and served as the resident chorus for the Long Beach Bach Festival, which he founded in 1973. In 1983, Dr. David Wilson, a professor of choral music at USC, succeeded Frank Allen and led the choir for over twenty years, expanding the Camerata Singers’ repertoire and changing its name. Under his baton, the chorus first toured Europe in 1999. In 2005, CSULB choral director Dr. Jonathan Talberg was appointed artistic director. He added a core of professional singers to the ranks and led a second European tour in 2006. From 2009 to 2017 Dr. Robert Istad, director of choral studies at CSU Fullerton, led the choir as its artistic director, expanding the auditioned ensemble to 90 voices and raising the group to the professional level for which it is known today. The 2019-2020 season marks the third season of the choir’s newest artistic director, Dr. James K. Bass, professor of choral studies at UCLA and Associate Conductor of the professional chamber choir Seraphic Fire.

Currently in its 54th season, the Long Beach Camerata Singers offers the Peace Project in the fall, two performances of Handel’s Messiah, and a June concert of song classics, as well as producing and headlining the new ChoralFest Long Beach, an expansion of the venerable Long Beach Bach Festival. This season the Chorus will join the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra’s “Violins of Hope” project, performing the Verdi Requiem.

In 2015, the choir established an artistic partnership with the Long Beach Symphony as its official chorus. Long Beach Camerata Singers also performs regularly with other arts organizations, including Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony, the Long Beach Opera, Long Beach Youth Chorus, and the South Bay Children’s Chorale.

LBCS offers two education programs: the Camerata Kinder Konzerts, provides interactive learning experiences focused on the vocal arts for 3 to 8 year old children and are performed on a regular basis at Rancho Los Alamitos and Young Horizons Child Development Centers. Our newest program, Peace4Youth, brings the Peace Project into Long Beach Middle Schools.