Our Mission
The Concert Singers' mission is to preserve and promote the awareness and appreciation of choral music as an art form that transcends cultural, generational and ethnic barriers.
The Concert Singers is a community choir based in the Westchester area of Los Angeles that performs a wide variety of choral repertoire, including sacred and secular seasonal music, traditional choral master works, madrigals, pops, and vocal jazz. We typically perform three public concerts a year, plus occasional private performances for local civic groups and corporations.
History
The Concert singers, the oldest independent choral group in Los Angeles, was established in 1948 as the Westchester Civic Chorus by Betty Miller, a well-known music teacher in Westchester. For many years the group was subsidized by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural affairs as one of eight regional choruses. In 1981 however, after the passage of Proposition 13, the City withdrew its financial support. The chorus members met and voted to initiate dues and to continue as an independent organization. In 1982 we incorporated as a California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation for educational purposes under Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Over the years the group has performed at many venues throughout Southern California, including the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Hollywood Bowl, as well as appearances on radio and television. Special programs have included classical concerts of madrigals and motets representing 400 years of choral music; major choral/orchestral works; Elizabethan madrigal feasts with authentic vocal and instrumental music, food, costumes, decorations, and entertainment; and summer Sunday afternoon ice cream socials with Broadway show tunes and vocal jazz with instrumental combos.
Membership
Our Musical Leadership
Colleen Cronin
Music Director
Colleen Cronin is a Southern California native and lives with her husband and two children in Westchester, California. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Music “with distinction” from Stanford University, concentrating in piano. She continued in graduate school at Stanford, earning a Master’s Degree in Music Education and her K-12 teaching credential in music. She taught elementary and secondary school choral music, private piano and voice, and began her career as a church choral director in Northern California.
Colleen earned her second Master’s Degree in Choral Conducting from San Jose State University where she was the Assistant Director of the San Jose State University Chorus. She studied Choral Conducting with Dr. Charlene Archibeque. She also sang with the SJSU Choraliers, touring Europe and performing at the National American Choral Director’s Association (ACDA) Convention in Nashville. She was recognized as the Outstanding Artist Researcher of the Year by San Jose State University.
Colleen moved back to Southern California and attended the USC DMA program for three years, studying choral music and conducting with Rodney Eichenberger, choral and church music with Dr. James Vail, and voice with Dr. Tom Cleveland. She worked with Dr. David Wilson as a graduate teaching assistant for the USC Men’s and Women’s Chorales. She sang with the USC Chamber Singers, who toured New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, and also performed at an ACDA National Convention.
For 16 years, Colleen was the Artistic Director of The Concert Singers adult community chorus in West Los Angeles, presenting a full concert season of public performances each year. She led the group in a performance tour of Austria and the Czech Republic. Colleen taught Advanced Voice to gifted youth at the LAUSD Conservatory of Performing Arts for 18 years. She served many years as a judge identifying children in voice for Gifted and Talented Education for the state of California.
Colleen recently taught elementary vocal music full-time with the LAUSD Traveling Music Teachers team for 15 years. She also served as a vocal music teacher’s Peer Coach and beginning teacher’s BTSA provider for the LAUSD. In 2008, she was selected to be the conductor of the LAUSD district-wide Elementary Honors Chorus, featured in the documentary film “Accent on Performance.”
Colleen has conducted several children’s festival choirs, presented choral reading sessions to conductors and educators, and has taught conducting workshops in the Los Angeles area for the Chorister’s Guild, the South Bay Children’s Choir, the National Association of Church Musicians, and LAUSD. For 34 years she served as the Director of Music at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Westchester.
Colleen presently teaches Choral Music full-time at Paul Revere Charter Middle School in the Pacific Palisades. She is fortunate to have 6 full periods of choir classes, teaching approximately 230 singers from grades six through eight.