Choral Arts Northwest

Mission

Now in its 31st season and third season with Artistic Director Timothy Westerhaus, Choral Arts Northwest is a choir of music educators and passionate avocational musicians who promote community and cross-cultural connections through the transformational power of choral music. We seek to foster a world that is just and empathetic and that values creativity and diversity. We dedicate ourselves to ongoing learning and listening and invite others to join us on that journey through programming, engagement, and partnerships with a diverse array of social, cultural, and community organizations.

Description

Made up of volunteer singers drawn almost exclusively from the Puget Sound region, CANW combines a deep sense of community with a passion for artistic excellence. While performing diverse repertoire from Renaissance polyphony through 21st-century masterworks, CANW retains an abiding commitment to new music and has commissioned and premiered new choral compositions annually since 2007. Our Composer-In-Residence programs have produced important commissions and residencies with composers such as Shawn Kirchner, John Muehleisen, Hyo-won Woo, Eric Barnum, Jake Runestad, Melinda Bargreen, Dale Trumbore, Jessica French, Reena Esmail, and John David Earnest. Our cultural collaborations are wide and diverse and include partnerships with the Ukrainian community and Rescue.org, Morningstar Korean Cultural Center, Birds Connect Seattle, and the Sea Mar Museum of Chicano/a/Latino/a Culture.

In 2024-25, our 31st Anniversary season, we continued our multi-year partnership with the Morning Star Korean Cultural Center (appearing with them at the National Day of Korea Celebration at Benaroya Hall), and developed new partnerships with Youth Speaks Seattle (an organization that supports and presents public recitations by local youth poets), ECOSS.org (Ecological Coalition of South Seattle), the St. Mark's Greenbelt Association, regional Music Educators (Music Educators Sing In, March 2025), and the Filipino Community of Seattle (www.filcommsea.org).  Our performing partners include mezzo-soprano Myah Rose Paden, baritone Richard L. Hodges, violone Ross Gilliland, pianist Serena Chin, actor Sunam Ellis, violinist Evan Hjort, cellist Haeyoon Shin Krentz, and the Northwest Boychoir Apprentices. Our season's programming includes performances of Margaret Bond's Credo, Benedict Sheehan's A Christmas Carol, Sacred Place by Alex Berko, J.S. Bach's motet Singet dem herrn (BWV 225), Claudio Monteverdi's Ecco mormorar l’onde, Joel Thompson’s America Will Be!, Ily Matthew Maniano’s Amihan as well as works by Indigenous composers Sherryl Sewepagaham and Alex Vollant and music from South East Asian and Taiwan. On April 26, we appear as one of the headliner choirs of the Katherine L. White Choral Festival on Vashon Island, reprising our October 2024 program Hold Fast to Dreams - Music from the Civil Rights era, all composed by some of the most storied African American choral composers.

We invite you to partner with Choral Arts NW as we forge ahead with exciting new ventures, cross-cultural artistic partnerships, and community-building enterprises supporting diversity, equity, and justice throughout our region and across the world. 

Timothy Westerhaus, Artistic Director

Andrew Jacobson, President, Board of Directors

Nicholas Gorne, Vice-President, Board of Directors

Marilyn McAdoo, Treasurer, Board of Directors

Stacia Cammarano, Board Member

Courtney Rowley, Board Member

Nicholas Fritschler, Board Member

Sara Litchfield, Board Member

Annie Stanger, Board Member

Tiffany Walker, Board Member

Miriam Anderson, Choir Manager & Board member

Philip Tschopp, Managing Director