About Us
|
The Michael Teolis Singers is a 30-voice ensemble comprised of singers from the Chicago area and Northern Indiana. Since its inception in 2007, MTS has been entertaining audiences with its own special brand of unique and enterprising programming. The group performs a variety of literature, particularly music that was frequently heard, but now less often; music of contemporary composers and arrangers; and the rarely heard choral music of mainstream composers, past and present. In addition, the group performs some undiscovered gems and looks at the lighter side of the art. The MT Singers prides itself on the number of local and world premieres in its existence.
|
Past premiere performances have included Te Deum, by John Philip Sousa; The Mass in Honor of St. Anthony, by Harry Warren, Earl Robinson’s The Lonesome Train; Alex North’s Negro Mother; Crazy Cantatas #1 and #2 by Robert Russell Bennett; Mass of the Bells, by Meredith Willson; Margaret Bonds’ The Ballad of the Brown King; You Bring me Happiness by Sir David Willcocks; God is Our Refuge by Kay Swift, Psalm 100 by Charles Strouse, and many others.
The ensemble was invited to perform at the Chicago History Museum as part of the closing of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial celebration. Three times MTS was invited to perform at Pilgrim Baptist Church’s annual Thomas A. Dorsey Commemoration. |
Recordings of some of MTS’s performances are in the archives of the Margaret Herrick Library, the main repository of print, graphic, and research materials of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the Sacred Music Research Collection of Concordia; and the Library of Congress. Jon Burlingame featured a portion of their performance of Alex North’s Negro Mother on his radio program as part of an Alex North Retrospective over KUSC in Los Angeles.
