Our Story

COME SING WITH US!

If you love choral singing, a week at the Berkshire Choral Festival is an experience you’ll cherish forever.

The Berkshire Choral Festival was founded in 1982 with a unique purpose: to provide choral singers with the opportunity to rehearse and perform masterpieces of the choral repertoire under the direction of world-class conductors and with the help of a professional musical staff.

You arrive on a Sunday afternoon, rehearse twice a day all week, and perform with a full symphony orchestra and soloists the following Saturday. You also take classes in such subjects as musical history, theory, how to audition, and how to care for your voice. Private voice, theory, ear training and conducting lessons are available on a fee basis.

Our locations enhance your musical experience.

The 2008 schedule includes four weeks at Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massachusetts, where you are surrounded by the natural beauty and cultural attractions of the Berkshires and close to Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony. There is a week in Canterbury, England, where you live in the cathedral close and perform in the cathedral itself. We offer a week in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, where you live at the University of British Columbia and perform in their magnificent Chan Centre for the Arts. And lastly, you can spend a week in Salzburg, Austria, home of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Unlike choral tours abroad, you immerse yourself in the music.

Each concert's repertoire is carefully chosen to capture the full range and glory of choral music. From day one, our goal is to create an intense learning experience for singers who want to reach more deeply into the choral music experience.

Instead of the exhaustion of travel and the distraction of sightseeing, you stay in one place and devote yourself to the piece you will be performing. Yet, there is time in the afternoons to relax and enjoy the many activities and attractions each venue offers.

Non-singing spouses and partners are welcome and may attend classes and listen in on rehearsals.

Is BCF for you?

A BCF singing week is musically and physically demanding. While we do not require auditions, we do ask that you be an experienced choral singer who sings regularly in a chorus or choir. There are twenty-eight hours of rehearsal plus the performance, with extensive periods of time spent standing. All our campuses are sprawling, with considerable walking distance between rehearsal spaces, classrooms, dorms, and dining facilities.

If you have questions about your musical or physical ability to handle BCF, please contact the BCF office.

BCF is addictive!

Once they’ve discovered BCF, most choristers come back. Many return every year. As one regular puts it, “It’s the best week of my year.”

We hope that you’ll come sing with us… in 2008 and for many more years to come.