Country Representing: USA
Town/Place Representing: Portland, Oregan USA
Competitions:
A1. Mixed Choirs (Saturday 6 July)
A5. Open Category (Saturday 6 July)
Biography: Hailed as an “accomplished, powerful, slick and tonally precise choir” by international juries, the internationally award-winning Portland Phoenix Chamber Choir was founded in the fall of 2014 as the Marylhurst Chamber Choir, the premiere choral ensemble at Marylhurst University in Portland, Oregon. Upon the closure of Marylhurst, the choir elected to stay together, being “reborn” as the Portland Phoenix. The group is rapidly gaining a reputation for excellence throughout the Northwestern United States and the world.
The Chamber Choir has performed by invitation at the Oregon Music Educators Association’s All State Conference twice. They also performed in Boston, MA, and by invitation at Carnegie Hall, New York City, where they sang Randall Thompson’s Testament of Freedom under Dr. Smith’s direction.
In 2016, they travelled to Cork, Ireland to participate as the only invited American choir in the Cork International Choral Festival, one of Europe’s most prestigious choral competitions. At Cork, they were the only choir to take home two trophies, winning both Third Prize in the Fleischmann International Trophy Competition and the Peace Award for the choir that best embodied the spirit of the festival. The international jury cited the Chamber Choir for its “fantastic energy and quality of sound,” writing that their performance was a “real highlight” of the festival.
Chamber Choir travelled next to Latvia to the 3rd European Choir Games, where they were awarded two gold medals, then to Italy to compete at the Leonardo Da Vinci International Choral Festival, taking third place and receiving the award for Best Performance of a Contemporary Work.
Chamber Choir has collaborated with the Portland Chamber Orchestra, the composers Morten Lauridsen and Gwyneth Walker, as well as the renowned vocal ensembles Cappella Romana, Cantus and Roomful of Teeth.
Funny is that so far, three couples have met and married because of singing in the chamber choir together!
Members: 24
