Choral Programs

The Green Lake Festival of Music is pleased to offer two choral programs, which will run concurrently in June 2023. Singers may participate in either program or both!

choral institute -Festival Chorus

Tuesday, June 20 - Friday, June 23, 2023

The Choral Institute is a beloved tradition at the Green Lake Festival of Music and welcomes anyone who loves to sing! Each season, this Festival Chorus rehearses and performs significant works from throughout the choral repertory. In 2023, the Choral Institute will feature Carl Orff’s thrilling Carmina Burana with professional soloists in a concert at Ripon College on Friday, June 23.

Cost is $150 ($125 if also participating in the Composer Residency). Participants are responsible for meals, housing, transportation, and music purchase.

Registration is due by April 15.

John C. Hughes

Director of Choral Programs & Conductor

Composer Residency - Chamber Choir

Thursday, June 22 – Sunday, June 25, 2023

The Green Lake Festival of Music is pleased to welcome Reena Esmail as its featured artist for the 2023 Composer Residency. Rehearsals of Esmail’s works by the Chamber Choir will begin the morning of Thursday, June 22, culminating in an afternoon performance on Sunday, June 25 at Ripon College.

Chamber Choir participants work at a high artistic level. They are expected to have advanced reading and vocal skills, and a screening recording is required for participation. Submission procedures can be found by clicking the link below and are due by March 15.

Cost is $150 ($125 if also participating in the Choral Institute). Participants are responsible for meals, housing, transportation, and music purchase.

Reena Esmail

Green Lake Festival of Music’s
Composer-in-Residence for 2023

Choral Conducting Apprentice program

The Green Lake Festival of Music (GLFM) is pleased to announce a Choral Conducting Apprentice Program for the 2023 season. This new initiative will select one apprentice and is designed for career-track singers, choral conductors, composers, and music educators enrolled in undergraduate or master’s degree programs. Doctoral students or very recently graduates may also be considered. 

Click here for more information

**The Green Lake Festival of Music is committed to creating and maintaining a diverse and inclusive experience. Black, Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islander, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ emerging professionals are strongly encouraged to apply.**

Reena Esmail, Composer-in-Residence

Indian-American composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. 

Esmail’s life and music was profiled on Season 3 of PBS Great Performances series Now Hear This, as well as Frame of Mind, a podcast from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Esmail divides her attention evenly between orchestral, chamber and choral work. She has written commissions for ensembles including the Los Angeles Master Chorale,  Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Kronos Quartet, and her music has featured on multiple Grammy-nominated albums, including The Singing Guitar by Conspirare, BRUITS by Imani Winds, and Healing Modes by Brooklyn Rider. Many of her choral works are published by Oxford University Press.

Esmail is the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s 2020-2025 Swan Family Artist in Residence, and was Seattle Symphony’s 2020-21 Composer-in-Residence. She also holds awards/fellowships from United States Artists, the S&R Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Kennedy Center.

Esmail holds degrees in composition from The Juilliard School (BM’05) and the Yale School of Music (MM’11, MMA’14, DMA’18). Her primary teachers have included Susan Botti, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis, Christopher Rouse and Samuel Adler. She received a Fulbright-Nehru grant to study Hindustani music in India. Her Hindustani music teachers include Srimati Lakshmi Shankar and Gaurav Mazumdar, and she currently studies and collaborates with Saili Oak. Her doctoral thesis, entitled Finding Common Ground: Uniting Practices in Hindustani and Western Art Musicians explores the methods and challenges of the collaborative process between Hindustani musicians and Western composers.

Esmail was Composer-in-Residence for Street Symphony (2016-18) and is currently an Artistic Director of Shastra, a non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural music connecting music traditions of India and the West.