Chicago Symphony Chorus

The history of the Chicago Symphony Chorus began on September 22, 1957, when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announced that Margaret Hillis would organize and train a symphony chorus. Music Director Fritz Reiner’s original intent was to utilize the Chorus for the two weeks of subscription concerts that season, performing — George Frideric Handel’s Messiah in December and Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem in April. When Bruno Walter informed the Orchestra’s management that his March 1958 appearances would be his last in Chicago the board president Eric Oldberg insisted that Walter conduct Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem utilizing the new Chorus. During that first season, it would have been logistically impossible for Hillis to audition and prepare a new Chorus for three major works within less than four months. As an interim fix the Apollo Chorus of Chicago was used for the Christmas Messiah concerts.

The Chicago Symphony Chorus gave its informal debut at a private concert for donors on November 30, 1957. Reiner conducted the first half of the concert and Hillis took the podium for the second half — becoming the first woman to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She led the Orchestra and Chorus in the final section of Henry Purcell’s Ode for Saint Cecilia’s Day, Randall Thompson’s Alleluia and William Billings’s Modern Music, and the Servants’ Chorus from Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.

Eighty-one-year-old Bruno Walter led the Chorus in its official debut concerts at Orchestra Hall on March 13 and 14, 1958, a performance of Mozart’s Requiem. A few weeks later on April 3, 4, and 8, 1958, Reiner himself led the Chorus for the first time in a performance of Verdi’s Requiem.

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