DOREEN RAO
Visiting Artistic Director for The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay
Doreen Rao
is celebrated
i n t e r n a t i o n a l l y
for her moving
concerts and
i n s p i r a t i o n a l
teaching. Linking
the standards of
performance and the
goals of education
with the values of
diversity and social
responsibility, Rao’s
seminal work inspired a generation of conductors
and teachers to lead young choirs in schools and
communities around the world.
Rao is committed to global-style programming,
intergenerational performance projects, and
innovative collaborations. She founded the Rao
Center for Choral and Contemplative Arts to
mentor emerging conductors, singers and music
educators in the practice of mindfulness-based
conducting and choral teaching.
THE MASTER CHORALE OF TAMPA BAY
THE FLORIDA OR 62 CHESTRA | 2017-2018
Rao holds the University of Toronto Elmer Iseler
Chair in Conducting Emeritus. During her tenure as
director of choral programs, she founded Toronto’s
International Bach Festival with conductorscholar
Helmuth Rilling. She previously served as
artistic director of the Buffalo Master Chorale in
association with Buffalo Niagara Choirs, Inc., an
urban community of adult and youth choruses.
During Rao’s association with the Chicago
Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, she prepared
the Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus for concerts and
four Grammy Award-winning recordings. She also
served as assistant conductor to Margaret Hillis,
preparing the Symphony Chorus for Sir Georg Solti,
Claudio Abbado, James Levine, and the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra. Rao is the Founder-Director
of CME Institute for Choral Teacher Education
and editor and choral advisor to music publisher
Boosey & Hawkes. She received her degrees from
the University of Illinois, where her teachers were
Harold Decker and Colleen Kirk, and Northwestern
University, where she was mentored by Margaret
Hillis and Robert Shaw.
Recognized as the premier choral ensemble in
Tampa Bay and praised by music critics from both
the Tampa Bay Times and The Tampa Tribune as
“one of the country’s finest choirs,” “an amazing
instrument,” and a “cultural treasure,” The Master
Chorale of Tampa Bay has consistently delivered
some of the most profoundly moving music
performances in the area.
The Master Chorale is an auditioned, highly select
150-voice volunteer chorus embracing a broad
representation of singers from the entire Tampa
Bay area. The Master Chorale serves Tampa Bay
and west central Florida with a mission to advance
the art of choral music by performing great works
of the past, commissioning and performing new
literature, and sharing the joy and power of
choral music with new and existing audiences and
singers. With internationally distributed recordings
and important commissions from renowned
composers, the Master Chorale is consistently
advancing the choral art form. Since its founding by
Dr. Robert Summer in 1979, the Master Chorale has
produced at least one major choral-orchestral work
each year. These performances include J.S. Bach’s
Passion According to St. Matthew, Beethoven’s
Missa Solemnis, Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and
Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, which was performed
with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
and others under the direction of Robert Shaw. The
Master Chorale has regularly commissioned some
of the most important contemporary composers
including Eric Whitacre (Lux Aurumque), Paul Basler
(Missa Kenya), Alice Parker (The Rock and the River),
René Clausen (Jubilate Deo), and Jake Runestad
(We Can Mend the Sky), to name a few.
In addition to traditional concerts, the Master
Chorale performs a variety of outreach activities
throughout the Tampa Bay community. The Master
Chorale of Tampa Bay is designated as the principal
chorus of The Florida Orchestra and artist-inresidence
at the University of South Florida College
of the Arts School of Music.