Notes from Our Past: Forty Years of Milestones, Memories, and Melodies – Chapter 3
A Quarter Century of Collaborations, Premieres, and Milestones
A few years into Dr. French’s tenure with Rep Singers, he began expanding our choral repertoire to include larger-scale works and collaborations. In 1996, members of Rep Singers joined the cast of Rogue Music Theatre’s production of Sweeney Todd, with two singers in lead roles and 18 in the chorus. Soon after, we shifted musical “gears” with our first collaboration with the Jefferson Baroque Orchestra, performing Handel’s Messiah on period instruments, observing historically informed tempi and dynamics. We repeated Messiah in 2001,again under Paul’s direction.
Alongside our regular three-or four-concert choral season, we launched Songs of Shakespeare in the summer of 2003. Performed on the Elizabethan Stage at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, these concerts featured texts by the Bard set to music by composers across centuries and continents. OSF actors introduced the scenes and texts before we sang them—an especially delightful pairing of drama and music.
Our first major choral-orchestral collaboration came in spring 2002, when Dr. French conducted Brahms’ German Requiem with the Rogue Valley Symphony. In 2006, celebrating our 20thanniversary, Rep Singers presented the West Coast premiere of Robert Levin’s completion of Mozart’s Grand Mass in C minor, left unfinished at the composer’s death. Performances of Fauré’s Requiem with the Rogue Valley Symphony and numerous repertoire concerts followed, leading to our 25th Anniversary season in 2010–11.
For this lifelong chorister, the crowning achievement of our first 25 years was a period-instrument performance of J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor in May 2011—regarded by many musicologists as one of the finest works in the choral canon. The concerts featured internationally acclaimed soprano Julianne Baird, joined by Tracy Watson, mezzo-soprano; Christopher Cock, tenor; and Douglas Williams, bass. The period-instrument orchestra drew players from across the country as well as from Southern Oregon.
That’s a glimpse that brings us to our 25th Anniversary season finale. Stay tuned for the last installment of Rep Singers’ history, highlighting our most recent 15 years that lead us to our40th Anniversary concerts on May 9 & 10, 2026.