News Release
Chorus America Honors Cleveland Orchestra
Chorus Director Robert Porco with Korn Founders Award
Release date: May 12, 2011
Robert Porco
Photo by Roger Mastroianni
WASHINGTON, DC/CLEVELAND – Chorus America has announced the recipients of its 2011 awards program, recognizing a broad range of achievements in choral music, including artistic excellence, adventurous programming, innovative education programs, generous philanthropy, and lifetime service to the choral art.
“The exemplary leadership demonstrated by these deserving individuals and organizations serves as a model for all choruses as they strive for success in their communities,” said Ann Meier Baker, president and CEO of Chorus America.
Independent panels selected individuals and choruses to receive awards at Chorus America’s 34th Annual Conference in San Francisco, California, June 8-11, 2011.
Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art
Chorus America established this honorary citation in 1978 to honor an individual with a lifetime of significant contributions to the professional choral art.
The 2011 award is given to Robert Porco, director of choruses for the Cincinnati May Festival and director of choruses for The Cleveland Orchestra. He is also an adjunct professor and senior advisor of doctoral-level choral conducting at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where he was the chair of the choral department from 1980 to 1998. During the course of his nearly 40-year career to date, he has also traveled the United States and the world to conduct leading orchestras and choruses.
“In his nearly four decades on the podium, Robert Porco has shaped the sound and reputation of major American choruses like the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, the May Festival Chorus, and The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. With the Korn Founders Award, Chorus America salutes his lifetime contributions to the advancement and excellence of the choral field,” said Gayle M. Ober, Chairman of the Board. Ann Meier Baker said, “In addition to his significant conducting career, the Korn Founders Award honors Robert Porco’s commitment to training the next generation of conductors at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Named after the founder of The Philadelphia Singers and Chorus America’s first President, previous recipients of the Michael Korn Founders Award include Jester Hairston, Margaret Hillis, Robert Shaw, and Robert Porco’s Cincinnati colleague, Earl Rivers.”
Chorus America is the advocacy, research, and leadership development organization that advances the choral field, providing tools, training, peer networking, and access to help choruses contribute to their communities.
Robert Porco
Director of Choruses
Frances P. and Chester C. Bolton Endowed Chair
The Cleveland Orchestra
Robert Porco became director of choruses for The Cleveland Orchestra in 1998, following in a line of distinguished Cleveland choral leaders that has included Boris Goldovsky, Robert Shaw, Margaret Hillis, Robert Page, and Gareth Morrell. In addition to overseeing choral activities and preparing the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and the Blossom Festival Chorus for a variety of concert programs each season, Mr. Porco conducts the Orchestra’s annual series of Christmas concerts at Severance Hall and regularly conducts subscription concert programs both at Severance Hall and at the Blossom Festival.
During the 2010-11 Severance Hall season, Mr. Porco prepared the choruses for performances of Bach’s Mass in F major, BWV 233, Vaughan Williams’s Toward the Unknown Region, Holst’s The Planets, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Dvořák’s Te Deum, and is currently in preparation for Rossini’s Stabat Mater, to be performed May 26 and 28 at Severance Hall.
Throughout his career, Mr. Porco has been active as a conductor of opera and of choral-and-orchestral works. He is a regular guest conductor and the director of choruses for the Cincinnati May Festival, and has guest-conducted the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and other orchestras in the United States and Europe. Mr. Porco has prepared choruses for such prominent conductors as Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Andrew Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Paavo Järvi, Erich Kunzel, Raymond Leppard, James Levine, Jesús López-Cobos, Zubin Mehta, André Previn, Kurt Sanderling, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, and Franz Welser-Möst.
Highlights of Mr. Porco’s Cleveland tenure in recent seasons have included preparing the Chorus for a February 2009 Carnegie Hall performance of Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass and Debussy’s Nocturnes and for its May 2009 debut in the Cincinnati May Festival, performing Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (“Symphony of a Thousand”). He prepared the Chorus for April 2008 performances of Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony, which he conducted, and January 2007 performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 that were conducted by Franz Welser-Möst and recorded live and released on compact disc by Deutsche Grammophon. During the 2005 season, Mr. Porco prepared the Chorus for appearances with the Orchestra in the Lucerne and the Proms Festivals.
Ohio native Robert Porco served as chairman of the choral department at Indiana University School of Music from 1980 to 1998, and currently teaches doctoral-level conducting at the school. He has directed the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus since 1989 and was artistic director and conductor of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir from 1989 to 1998.
Press Contact
Ana Papakhian, Office: 216-231-7476; Cell phone: 216-370-2595; Email: anap@clevelandorchestra.com
