South Bend Chamber Singers  Nancy Menk, Director

The South Bend Chamber Singers, an ensemble-in-residence at Saint Mary’s College, is celebrating its 36th season this year. Over the past 35 years the Singers have presented major choral-orchestral works such as Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Magnificat, B Minor Mass, and St. John Passion, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. Yet the ensemble concentrates primarily on works by living composers and regularly commissions new works and unusual and complex arrangements. The Singers have commissioned new choral works from composers Stephen Paulus, William Hawley, Steven Sametz, Libby Larsen, Gregg Smith, Frank Ferko, Dan Locklair, Carol Barnett, Bob Chilcott, Paul Mealor, John Muehleisen, Ivo Antognini, Daniel Knaggs, William Averitt, and many others, most of which have been published and continue to be performed by choirs throughout the world.The choir has joined with numerous other chamber and instrumental ensembles including the South Bend Symphony, the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, and Germany’s Chamber Orchestra of the Rhine; the Chester, Cavani, Avalon and Euclid String Quartets; the Northern Illinois University Steel Band, Quintessence Brass, and Kennedy’s Kitchen.

The Chamber Singers were selected to perform for the Central Division Convention of the American Choral Directors Association in 1996 (Cincinnati) and 2002 (Chicago). In 2000, the Singers were one of five finalists for the prestigious Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, given annually by Chorus America, and they won the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming in 2004. Since 1992 their efforts were rewarded by annual grants from the Indiana Arts Commission.  In March 2012 they performed for the American Choral Directors Association Central Division Conference in Fort Wayne.  They were semi-finalists for The American Prize in Choral Performance in 2012 and 2013, and they won 3rd place for both the Choral Performance Award and the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music in 2024.