Choral Programs

The Green Lake Festival of Music offered two choral programs for adults, which ran concurrently in August. Singers can participate in either the Choral Institute Festival Chorus or the Composer Residency Chamber Choir or both!

The theme for the 2024 summer Choral Programs was "Exploring the Sacredness of Nature."

choral institute -Festival Chorus

2025 Date TBA

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. 

Cost of the Choral Institute – Festival Chorus is $150; $250 if also participating in the Composer Residency. Participants are responsible for meals, housing, transportation, and music purchase.

John C. Hughes

Director of Choral Programs & Conductor

Composer Residency - Chamber Choir

2025 Date TBA

The Green Lake Festival of Music welcomed Dale Trumbore as its featured artist for the 2024 Composer Residency.  Rehearsals of Trumbore’s work by the Chamber Choir began the morning of Thursday, August 8, and cluminated in an afternoon performance on Sunday, August 11.

Chamber Choir participants work at a high artistic level, equivalent to that of a graduate-level or professional ensemble. Participants are expected to have advanced reading and vocal skills and to arrive at the first rehearsal with all the notes and rhythms completely learned.

Cost of the Composer Residency – Chamber Choir is $150; $250 if also participating in the Choral Institute. Participants are responsible for meals, housing, transportation, and music purchase.

Dale Trumbore

Green Lake Festival of Music’s
Composer-in-Residence for 2024

GLFM is also pleased to partner with The Boys & Girls Club of the Tri-County Area to offer a four-day afternoon Chorus Camp for youth ages 10-15 in June.

Chorus Camp is four afternoons of free musical learning and fun for youth ages 10-15 at the Rodman Center for the Arts at Ripon College. The Green Lake Festival of Music in partnership with The Boys & Girls Club of the Tri-County Area presents this opportunity for youngsters to explore the joys of singing, dancing, and games from different cultures, guided by director Magdalena Delgado of Uniting Voices Chicago. Chorus Camp culminates in a free concert at Ripon College. There is no charge to participate in this program.

Choral Conducting Apprentice program

The Choral Conducting Apprentice Program selects 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.**

Dale Trumbore,
Composer-in-Residence

Dale Trumbore (b. 1987) is a Los Angeles-based composer and writer whose music has been called “devastatingly beautiful” (The Washington Post) and praised for its “soaring melodies and beguiling harmonies deployed with finesse” (The New York Times). Trumbore’s compositions have been performed widely in the U.S. and internationally by the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW ensemble, Conspirare and the Miró Quartet, soprano Liv Redpath, Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Modesto Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, Phoenix Chorale, and Tonality. Recently, she released The Gleam, her second album with soprano Gillian Hollis, and She Only Remembers, a ballet for solo piano about memory loss and forgetting.

The recipient of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA)’s inaugural Raymond W. Brock Competition for Professional Composers, an ASCAP Morton Gould Award, and a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant, Trumbore has also been awarded artist residencies at Copland House, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and Ucross. Her choral works have been commissioned for premieres at the national conferences of ACDA, American Guild of Organists, Chorus America, and National Collegiate Choral Organization, and her music is available through Boosey & Hawkes, G. Schirmer, and Graphite Marketplace.

Trumbore has written extensively about working through creative blocks and establishing a career in music in essays for Cantate Magazine, the Center for New Music, and NewMusicBox. Her short stories are featured or forthcoming in Southern Indiana Review, PRISM International, New Delta Review, and F(r)iction, among other journals. Trumbore’s first book, Staying Composed: Overcoming Anxiety and Self-Doubt Within a Creative Life, was hailed as a “treasure trove of practical strategies for moving your artistic career forward” (Angela Myles Beeching, author of Beyond Talent).

Trumbore holds a dual degree in Music Composition (B.M.) and English (B.A.) from the University of Maryland, as well as a Master of Music degree in Composition from the University of Southern California. Originally from New Jersey, Trumbore currently lives in Azusa, CA with her spouse and their three cats. Learn more about Trumbore’s music and writing at daletrumbore.com.

Magdalena Delgado
Children’s Chorus Director

Choral conductor, singer and music educator from the Dominican Republic, Magdalena Delgado currently serves as the conductor of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Choir as well as school programs at the Chicago Children’s Choir. 

Prior to her move to Chicago, Magdalena served as Artistic Director of the children and youth choir, Voces del Mar, based in Veracruz, Mexico, and was the Founder and Artistic Director of Audimus, a professional chamber ensemble based in Xalapa, Mexico. While in Mexico, she also worked as an adjunct faculty member on the choral and voice faculties of Instituto Superior de Música Esperanza Azteca and the Centro de Estudios de Jazz of the Universidad Veracruzana (JazzUV), where she taught voice and voice techniques classes, courses in choral literature and conducted the preparatory vocal jazz ensemble. 

In 2014, Magdalena earned her Master of Music in Choral Conducting, with distinction, from Westminster Choir College where she studied with Drs. Joe Miller, James Jordan and Amanda Quist. During her master’s studies, she served as Assistant Conductor of the Westminster Chapel Choir, was an integral member of the Westminster Symphonic Choir and served as a section leader for the world-renown Westminster Choir. While at Westminster, she performed on tours throughout the U.S., and alongside some of the greatest orchestras in the world under the direction of conductors of the highest stature. 

Prior to her master’s studies, Magdalena studied vocal performance at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico and has served as a guest conductor for choirs of all ages throughout the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Magdalena received her bachelor’s degree in music education from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo where she graduated magna cum laude. 

As a native of Santo Domingo, Magdalena began her musical study at age five where she studied piano, recorder and most importantly was a member of the children’s choir at her area music school, which served as her initial inspiration for her career path.

Sarah Wheeler
Collaborative Pianist

Sarah E. Wheeler enjoys collaborating in musical theater, vocal, choral, and instrumental music. She currently serves as a staff pianist at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, accompanies area choirs and theater, and freelances in the Fox Valley. She is also a certified pharmacy technician. 

Sarah has held staff positions at Boston Ballet School, Interlochen Arts Camp, and College Light Opera Company. While based in New York City, she worked with New York Opera Exchange, Village Light Opera Group, Adelphi University music department, and several Manhattan voice studios. She has worked as a pianist with regional theaters including Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre and The Little Theatre On The Square. She has also performed in many student vocal and instrumental recitals at Lawrence and Boston Universities. 

Originally from Waterville, Maine, Sarah received her Master of Music in Collaborative Piano from Boston University in 2010. She received her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Lawrence University in 2007. Sarah lives in Appleton with her husband, Aaron, and her dog, Lacey.