Artistic Director Dick Riley is Retiring

Press Release, January 2026

During his tenure, Riley has conducted 160+ works, big and small, ranging from national anthems of the three Baltic countries and Ukraine, to four world premieres, to more than 25 of his own arrangements of works by Bach, Beethoven, Biber, Brahms, and Byrd. Major works for chorus and orchestra during Riley’s directorship include Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio,” Handel’s “Solomon” and “Saul” oratorios, and settings of the Mass and Requiem texts by Biber, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and Verdi.

Riley’s final concert with the BCS will be on Saturday, April 18, 2026—a performance already made remarkable by its commemoration of the chorus’s 50th anniversary. The chorus will perform works including Bach's cantata "Wachet Auf,” BWV 150, Riley's arrangement for chorus and strings of the “Air” from Bach’s “Orchestra Suite #3,” and the world premiere of a new work by local composer Michael Schachter.

The search is underway for Riley’s replacement as artistic director. Please contact bcssingers@gmail.com with any questions about the role.

Interested in learning about our November 2024 concert? Listen to choir member Trish O’Kane share about her memoir “Birding to Change the World” on NPR’s “Here and Now”. BCS can be heard at the beginning and end of the segment! If you are interested in supporting the Burlington Choral Society, please click here!

Three Vermont Choruses Offer Respite in Fall Concerts

7 Days, November 13, 2024

“Birds became a guiding musical theme for Burlington Choral Society artistic director Richard Riley after he read his female tenor Trish O’Kane’s 2024 memoir, Birding to Change the World. The resulting program, “Birds, Byrd, and Birding to Change the World,” to be performed on Saturday, November 23, at the Elley-Long Music Center in Colchester, includes the author reading excerpts from her book and may be the group’s most creative concert yet.”

Two Choruses Premiere a New Work Honoring Ukraine by Burlington Composer Michael Schachter

7 Days, April 12, 2023

“This weekend, the combined forces of the Burlington Choral Society and Montpelier’s Onion River Chorus — 100 singers strong — will perform music in solidarity with Ukraine. Richard Riley, the artistic director of both choruses, drew up a program called “Deep in Song: Music From and to Ukraine” that features more than a dozen songs in Ukrainian, two piano solos by a Ukrainian composer to be played by accompanist Claire Black and a choral work in English by a UK composer.”

Burlington Choral Society Premieres Composer Don Jamison’s Setting of Wendell Berry Poems

7 Days, November 17, 2021

“In early 2020, Burlington composer Don Jamison was looking forward to hearing the Burlington Choral Society perform There Is a Day, his first commissioned piece for the group. The chorus had been rehearsing the work, which sets to music seven poems by Kentucky farmer-writer Wendell Berry. Then much of the world shut down.

Now there finally is a day for Jamison’s premiere: On Saturday, November 20, the choral society will perform the work, in a concert by the same name, along with a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach and two pieces by Minneapolis composer Jake Runestad. The concert is the group’s first live performance since the pandemic started.”