OUR STORY

In December 1976, the BCS gave its debut performance: Handel's Messiah. At the podium was Prof. Francis Weinrich of the University of Vermont Music Department, co-founder of the group with his colleague Prof. Frank Lidral. In the early years, organist John Henzel usually accompanied our singers in performances. When Weinrich retired in 1983, Henzel took up the baton and began employing orchestral accompaniment for most concerts.

The organist at Henzel’s debut was Thomas Strickland, who became music director when Henzel stepped down in 1988. Strickland led the chorus for seven years, expanding the scope of its musical offerings.

UVM Prof. David Neiweem became the Burlington Choral Society's fourth music director in 1995. During his 17 years as director, the size of the chorus and the range of works grew. World premiere performances during Neiweem's tenure included Michael Hopkins’ From Revenge to Forgiveness, Neiweem’s own The Choir Immortal and Patricia Julien’s Stars.

In 2012, Richard Riley was hired as artistic director. Since then, the Burlington Choral Society has presented even more innovative programming, balancing the familiar with exciting new discoveries. We present concerts each spring and fall. In December, we host a Messiah sing, where chorus and community celebrate the season.

The BCS has performed many of the greatest works of the choral repertory, including oratorios, masses and requiems of major classical composers, as well as less familiar works such as Henry Purcell’s King Arthur (the first BCS concert with Richard Riley), Britten’s St. Nicolas, Handel's Solomon and Bob Chilcott’s St. John Passion. 

In spring 2019, we presented a program of music from Lithuania, completing our choral explorations of the three Baltic countries’ traditional and classical works. We began with music from Estonia in November 2015 and featured music from Latvia in April 2018.

We postponed our spring 2020 concert because of the pandemic, and we returned to performing in the Fall of 2021.