MISSION STATEMENT
Under the leadership of Tony Award-winning maestro Ted Sperling since 2015, MasterVoices’ 80-year legacy began with the breaking of barriers as the nation’s first interracial chorus – “the melting pot that sings”. We performed at the opening of the United Nations, and on multiple recordings under the batons of conductors such as Arturo Toscanini, Leonard Bernstein, Ricardo Muti, and Zubin Mehta.
In the following decades we expanded beyond the classical choral repertoire, and are now known for lively multidisciplinary concert productions of opera, musical theater, and newly commissioned work. We have premiered works by Philip Glass and Paul McCartney, presented critically-acclaimed restorations of “forgotten” gems such as Scott Joplin’s TREEMONISHA, Kurt Weill’s LADY IN THE DARK, and the Gershwins’ LET ‘EM EAT CAKE; and commissioned new works by Ricky Ian Gordon, Marisa Michelson, Tariq Al-Sabir, and Randall Eng.
Under Sperling’s leadership we’ve moved toward even more inclusive programming. We’ve performed with such artists as John Holiday, Julia Bullock, Nicolas Phan, Jose Llana, Nicole Cabell, Justin Austin, Shereen Pimentel, Take 6, and Jennifer Holliday. Recent cross-disciplinary collaborators have included the Veteran Artist Program, Kevork Mourad, Sammi Cannold, Lear deBessonet, Anthony Roth Costanzo, and Zac Posen. Since 2018 over 50% of our collaborators and soloists have been artists of color and our audience has increased exponentially – in 2019 our live audience increased by 45%, and our 2021 Drama League Award-nominated digital concert production, MYTHS AND HYMNS, has drawn over 57,000 individual views to date.
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