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The Choral Arts Society of Southeastern Wisconsin, in its 21st season, is one of Southeastern Wisconsin’s finest choral organizations. Since its inception by founder and Artistic Director, James Schatzman, it has been Racine’s finest chorus, striving for excellence and higher artistic standards with each performance. Weeks after its founding as the Racine Symphonic Chorus, the chorus sang the Racine premiere of Ralph Vaughan Williams Hodie with the Racine Symphony Orchestra, under Maestro Stephen Colburn. The chorus was immediately invited back to sing a spring performance of works by American composer Aaron Copland. That first season was brought to a glorious conclusion in a performance with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in celebration of Irving Berlin’s centennial, under renowned conductor and arranger Norman Leyden.
 In the Spring of 2000 the board of directors voted to change the name Racine Symphonic Chorus to the Choral Arts Society of Southeastern Wisconsin. The chorus was originally formed to sing symphonic works with local orchestras, but each season the direction of the chorus changed to include works of all musical styles and the membership base now encompasses all of southeastern Wisconsin. The board of directors felt the new name better describes who we are and what we do.
Versatility, one of Maestro Schatzman’s most respected qualities, has been the hallmark of the CAS’s programming from the beginning. Equally at home in the concert hall or the theater, Mr. Schatzman has led and prepared the chorus to perform masterworks of the classical repertoire and musical theater. The chorus repertoire includes Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’ A German Requiem, Haydn’s St. Nicolai and Lord Nelson Masses, Mozart’s Requiem, Coronation Mass, and the Great C Minor Mass, Faure’s Requiem, Orff's Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, and his Mass in C Major, Bach's monumental B Minor Mass and Wisconsin premieres of John Knowles Paine’s Mass in D, and Amy Beach’s Mass in Eb, as well as works by Mendelssohn, Vivaldi and Vaughan Williams. From the theater the chorus has presented Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado and Trial By Jury, Bernstein’s West Side Story, Schoenberg’s Les Miserables and Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Phantom of the Opera and programs featuring the music of Lerner and Lowe, Rogers and Hammerstein.
Bringing premieres and lesser known works to our audience is also a passion of Maestro Schatzman. In addition to the premieres of works by Paine and Beach, the Choral Arts Society has presented Midwest premieres of the orchestrated version of Glenn Burleigh’s Alpha Mass and emotionally charged performances of Burleigh’s Lamentation and Celebration, written in memory of the victims and survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing. Both of these works, which featured the composer on piano, were given encore performances due to their enthusiastic receptions. Maestro Schatzman and the CAS are committed to bringing you new works by living American composers. Schatzman and the chorus have commissioned and presented two world premieres by Minneapolis composer Carol Barnett, Welcome All Wonders and Concord Hymn. In addition, the 2000-2001 season featured the World Premiere She Is One Of Us by Native American composer Brent Michael Davids. The text for this work, also commissioned by the CAS, was written for this project by Native American poet Joy Harjo.
Maestro Schatzman and the CAS are deeply committed to educational outreach and support of youth in our community. Two outreach programs have been part of the ongoing life of the CAS and the community. The first, presented to children, features themes revolving around composition and how music is created and performed. The second, the CAS’s Young Artists Vocal Competition, offered scholarship awards to singers between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five who were pursuing careers in the performing arts. The prizes also included a recital and performance with the CAS, both funded by the chorus.
Maestro Schatzman further extended his commitment to area youth by founding and conducting the Kiwanis Chamber Singers. The Chamber Singers is a high school-aged choir sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Greater Racine. The Kiwanis Chamber Singers, in their eighth season, and the Kiwanis Youth Choir, led by CAS member Ms. Betty Peterson have been frequent guest performers with the CAS, and can be heard on our compact disc Carols for Christmas III.
The chorus is also comitted to being a vital presence in downtown Racine. As the downtown has been revitalized so is the chorus. The CAS are members of Racine's Downtown Redevelopment Corporation. We rehearse at historic St. Luke's Church, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and perform in and around the downtown area throughout the year. In the last four years the Choral Arts Society have also begun an intentional program of bring the chorus to others in the Southeastern Wisconsin area as well. We have performed on Kenosha (Carthage College and St. Matthew's Episcopal Church) and in Burlington at one of their most beautiful landmarks, St. Mary's Catholic Church. The chorus will continue to reach out to those communities in which our singers reside.
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