Audition
Become A Member
The Masterworks Chorus is comprised of 60+ singers from Palm Beach and Martin Counties. Members have varied musical and professional backgrounds, but they all have in common their love of singing classic choral pieces.
Rehearsals are held on Tuesday nights from 7:00 p.m. until 9 p.m. starting September 26 through March 5 at the United Methodist Church of the Palm Beaches, located at 900 Brandywine Road, West Palm Beach, FL. 33409. Get off I-95 at Palm Beach Lakes Blvd and go west ¼ mile until the first traffic light (Robbins Drive N). Turn right (north) and go about 300 yards until the road dead ends at Brandywine Road. Make a left and the church will be on your left.
Auditions to become a member of the Chorus, please fill in an application (see below) and submit. You will receive a response from our audition team.
What it means to me to be a Masterworks Chorus member
by Jane Niebch, member since 2007
I joined the Masterworks Chorus to continue my journey seeking great choral music. I knew that Jack Jones had an outstanding reputation as a choral conductor. When I joined, Mr. Jones had just retired. I had the opportunity to sing songs from the King and I at Mar-a-Lago under the new conductor. It was fun to have a bird’s eye view of the mansion on Palm Beach. One year later, Ken Taylor took over the chorus, and the great music returned. It was very thrilling to sing Carmina Burana by Carl Orff under his direction. There were several very memorable works that we learned. One of my favorites was Mozart’s Requiem. I had never learned this work before, but I had heard the music in the movie Amadeus. How exciting to be making the very same sounds that had me enraptured when I watched the movie. Every time we sang Handel’s Messiah we had an amazing evening, hearing the strings and the harpsichord usher us back into the 18th century.
Two performances stand out in my mind of the many enjoyed over my last twelve years as a member. One was the singing of Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall where our conductor, Ken Taylor, became one of us and sang under the baton of Patrick Dupré Quigley. The other was when the chorus joined voices with two other choruses making a vocal phenomenon of over one hundred voices singing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under the baton of Maestro Gerard Schwarz. The energy produced there onstage could have generated enough electricity to keep the house lights on at the Kravis. It was euphoric; I am not exaggerating.
There is no end to the myriad of feelings experienced when singing in a chorus. A great conductor can make you feel you are on the Broadway stage, in a great epic movie, in an ancient cathedral, celebrating a coronation, or standing at the gates of hell with Mozart’s Dies Irae. Choral music has the power to lift one out of themselves as you blend voices and elevate the words on melodic themes. The messages about life, love, celebration, and tragedy sailing over melodies place the words right in your heart. Making choral music is an indescribable experience, both in its mental challenge and in the stamina demanded of each chorister. Singing choral music delivers a thrill for a lifetime.
Set Up Your Audition
Our Current Members
Soprano I
Susan Bowen
Kathy Combs
Anna Current
Laura DeFelice
Jacqueline Frey-Rapke
Donna Gale
Anna Hines
Gabrielle Incao
Kay Purin
Lydia Schweizer
Loretta Smith
Patti Thompson
Judy Valentine*
Soprano II
Janet Cunningham
Anne Dichele
Andrea Goldberg
Ann Lloyd
Michele Steinberg
Helen Vandersluis*
Debbie White
Cocco Wilder
Tenor
Thomas Boland
Erik Borgen-Larssen, Jr*
Bob Bowen
Joe Carroll
Paul Cunningham
Ann Irvine
David Petrou
Rick Robb
John Shilling
Jeff Steinberg
Jay Stravers
Michael Taylor
Mary Thalacker
Alto
Connie Abston
Terry Browning
Marcia Caron
Tina Clemons
Susan Connor
Lori Crain
Phoebe Dowdy
Suzy Farrell*
Hope Garling
Jenna Hoefert
Jane Illsley
Judith Logsdon
Jane Niebch
Johanna Sharp
Diane Stauffer
Andrea Taylor
Challis Thompson
Debby Wilson
Bass
Jim Boericke
Gregory Cope
John Critchett
Brad Daley
Fred DeBerardinis
Chris Grim
Ron Illsley
Alan Lin
Jim McGall
Doug Nelson
Greg Ridenour
Paul Schweizer
Karl Syben*
James Stark
Darryl Worth
* Section Lead