VISION, MISSION & VALUES

VISION

To elevate the human experience through choral excellence

MISSION

Kantorei is an inclusive community of volunteer singers that invites audiences to experience the richness and diversity of the choral art form, joyously executed at the highest standard of musical excellence. We are innovators: we responsibly leverage our resources to commission work by living composers, perform music by underrepresented and emerging artists, encourage future talent through educational engagement, and nurture the choral community.

VALUES

  • We maintain the highest possible standards. We hold ourselves and each other accountable for putting in the necessary effort. We take on artistic challenges that many choirs cannot. We provide our audiences with unique musical experiences performed with professionalism, accuracy, passion, and finesse. We are a volunteer choir with world-class aspirations and achievements.

  • We strive to create a singer community where individuals from all backgrounds and experiences can be their best. We celebrate and perform composers that have been underrepresented in the choral tradition alongside those who have historically enjoyed the spotlight. We amplify voices that should be heard, and seek to bring our voices to new places. We connect diverse audiences through the power of music.

  • We make music because it brings us joy and we are passionate about sharing that joy with others. Audiences feel our connection to each other and the music; through our work they experience intellectual and emotional expansion. Sharing this joy with each other and our audiences is a privilege.

  • We provide an opportunity for singers, artists, students, and audiences from many different backgrounds and identities to share in musical experiences that allow us to transcend the world we live in. Our singers show up for each other, both musically and personally. We are in community with the composers who partner with us. We create nurturing relationships with other choirs so we can collectively thrive. We show young and emerging artists what their musical future can look like.

  • As an organization, we are never stagnant. We feel a responsibility to use our funding to educate, delight, and amaze, which is evident through every aspect of our work: programming, recordings, concerts, and community impact. We move the art form forward by celebrating the full diversity of modern choral composition, and juxtaposing it with treasured work of the traditional canon. Our audiences can feel the musical past resonating with wisdom in the present, and the present reaching back to seek guidance from the past.

DEIBA Statement of Commitment

Our vision to elevate the human experience through choral excellence refers to ALL humans. Kantorei is committed to creating equitable access to the choral art form and believes that everyone should be able to experience the powerful connection that music creates, regardless of their background, socioeconomic status, or identity. 

We acknowledge that sacred music written by white men has historically enjoyed commercial success in the choral art form, and our value of inclusion drives our desire to celebrate and perform composers that have been underrepresented in the choral tradition, amplify voices that should be heard, and seek to bring our voices to new places. 

Additionally, our value of community motivates us to provide opportunities for singers, artists, students, and audiences from many different backgrounds and identities to share in musical experiences that allow us to transcend the world we live in. 

Our DEIBA initiatives focus on providing access to new and diverse choral music as well as accessibility to music education. We acknowledge that our staff and singers have benefited from the robust music education opportunities, and that our status as a volunteer choir enables us to dedicate resources toward the advancement of emerging composers, choral organizations, and individual singers.

We have created relationships and programs that allow us to make a positive contribution to diverse groups of musicians in the following ways:

  • We create nurturing relationships with other choirs both locally and abroad by leveraging our experience to provide organizational guidance, direct musical education, or other non-monetary support. Our goal is to create a strong, diverse community of choral organizations who share our values and vision.

  • We show young and emerging artists what their musical future can look like by providing direct support for their musical education. Our privately funded Elevate Classroom Grant provides much needed monetary support to choral programs serving diverse populations around Colorado, while our Allison N Roman Memorial Scholarship provides young singers from all backgrounds financial resources to continue their journey into the choral art form.

  • We commission work from living composers, particularly emerging composers who represent underrepresented identities and backgrounds, or draw from musical traditions outside of mainstream Western Music. Our goal is to positively impact the world of choral music by contributing to a more diverse canon of repertoire available for all choirs to perform, while we present audiences with different perspectives, sounds, and textures.

Through these commitments, we strive to create a choral community where every voice is heard, every story is honored, and the transformative power of music uplifts and unites us all.