Cantata Academy Chorale
HISTORY
Now in its 47th year, the Cantata Academy Chorale is truly Detroit's World Class Chorale. The Cantata Academy Chorale is dedicated to high-calibre choral performance and outreach to communities throughout the Detroit metropolitan area and the world. This adult chorale each year produces its own subscription concert series and hires itself out to orchestras, churches and other concert series.
Cantata Academy Chorale has performed with every major orchestra in the Detroit metropolitan area including the world renown Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In addition the group presents its own subscription concert series and appears on other concert series and special events throughout the Detroit area.
Since 1973, the chorale has made biennial tours to Europe. With this 2005 European Tour, Cantata Academy celebrated 32 years of its tradition of European concert tours. Over the past 32 years, the chorale has performed in at least 20 different countries. The experiences on tour remind the choir of the power of music to transcend barriers of geography and language.
During its history, Cantata Academy Chorale has had three talented individuals who have served in the post of Music Director and Conductor. Founding Music Director Arthur Stephan led the group from 1961 until 1971. Maestro Frederick Bellinger led Cantata Academy Chorale from 1971 until 1999. Since 1999, the chorale has been under the direction of Dr. Michael A. Mitchell.
DR. MICHAEL MITCHELL, Conductor
Michael A. Mitchell is Associate Professor of Music at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. At Oakland, Dr. Mitchell serves as Director of Choral Activities while conducting the Oakland Chorale. the University Chorus, and the Symphony Chorus. In addition, Mitchell supervises the graduate program in choral conducting and teaches choral literature and undergraduate conducting.
He is also Artistic Director/Conductor of the Detroit based Cantata Academy Chorale, a choir that has produced a full independent concert series every year since 1963 and which he recently led on its sixteenth European concert tour.
In the Fall of 2005, Dr. Mitchell served as Resident Guest Conductor of the professional ensemble Choir Ivan Goran Kovacic in Zagreb, Croatia and also became the first American to lecture at the Slovak University of Music and Art in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Dr. Mitchell studied conducting, music education, and voice at the University of Texas and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, where he received his doctorate while serving as assistant to the eminent conductor Eph Ehly for three years. As a doctoral student he was the winner of the UMKC Chancellor’s Award for Academic Merit and was a finalist in the American Choral Directors Association national conducting competition.
His dynamic, energetic approach to music has made Dr. Mitchell a frequently invited guest conductor throughout the country. He also has extensive experience as a church and studio conductor, and has received several commissions as a composer of choral music. He is a member of The American Choral Directors Association, The American Music Center, The College Music Society, The Michigan School Vocal Music Association, The Music Educators National Conference, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.
Cantata Academy Chorale performing at Noel Night in the Detroit Institute of Arts, December 2005 under the direction of Guest Conductor and CAC Member, Kent Wattleworth.
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