Nearly three centuries ago in 1741, George Frideric Handel feverishly penned his glorious oratorio, “Messiah,” amid a tide of social unrest surging in Enlightenment-era society. Ninety years ago, the Handel Choir of Baltimore was born in a decade of geopolitical and economic devastation, from the Great Depression to events in Europe that led eventually to the Second World War. Fast-forward to our present moment, and Baltimore holds its collective breath as democracy continues, in spite of the deep divisions that cleave our government, institutions and even Thanksgiving dinner tables.
Yet the beauty of art and music prevails. Humanity’s long history of division continues, but so, too, does its beauty, creativity and thirst for meaning. Handel Choir of Baltimore has, in its long history, offered a reprieve from the headlines and a chance to examine what it means to be human. This season, Baltimoreans can benefit more than ever from the solace and tradition of Handel’s “Messiah.”
From our beginnings, we have been a choir rooted in this city, offering consolation and community for both our singers and our audiences through exceptional choral music. In this 90th anniversary season, and in a time of increased social and political anxiety, we honor our role as joyous music-makers for the greater Baltimore region.
The choir began informally and with great fanfare in May 1935 performing Handel’s “Messiah” at the Lyric Theater. By September of that year, this newspaper announced, “The Handel Choir enters the Baltimore scene” with the formation of a choir to be “limited to 400 mixed voices.” The orchestra was drawn mostly from the Baltimore Symphony, and rehearsals were held at the Peabody Institute.
How could choral singing help a nation struggling through the early years of FDR’s New Deal when, in Roosevelt’s own words, a “pall of family disaster” hung over millions of Americans? In his 1937 second inaugural address, the president called on everyone to aid the third of the nation’s citizens who were “ill-housed, ill-clad and ill-nourished.” While the beauty of music couldn’t put food on the table, it lifted spirits and pointed the way to a better tomorrow.
This spirit of attending to the needs of the community inspired those original 400 singers to come together around Handel’s great work. Katherine Lucke, the first female faculty member at Peabody and the principal founder of the Handel Choir, told The Sun in May 1936 that the new choir had been “like ‘babes in the woods’ … Where was the money to come from? We didn’t know. But we hired the Lyric and an orchestra, with hardly a dollar in ready cash.” Lucke trusted in music’s consoling power, and in the need at a time of national distress for a high-caliber quasi-professional community choir in Baltimore. The concert was a huge success, inspiring another “Messiah” for December 1935 — and every year since.
Today, the choir, composed of just over 60 members and recognized as the second oldest musical organization in Baltimore after the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, looks a bit different than the group did in 1935. And as times have changed, we’ve focused on both growing our musical repertoire and expanding our reach in the community. Our tagline, “Baroque and Beyond,” guides us as we carry on the important traditions that Katherine Lucke started in 1935: by commissioning new works and highlighting compositions by Baltimore-area composers while still drawing from the Baroque repertoire where it all began.
In straddling both the old and the new, the Baroque and beyond, the choir celebrates the qualities that bring Baltimoreans together: deep-rooted community, the forward-looking honoring of tradition, and the recognition that — like singers in a choir — we each act independently but as part of something greater. Now more than ever, institutions like the Handel Choir will provide shared spaces to appreciate what connects us rather than divides us: the beauty of art, music and community.
As both a member of the choir for over a decade and the current president of the organization, I’m personally thrilled to share an anniversary season that begins with our much-loved “Messiah” performances and ends with Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis,” a masterful choral piece with a full period orchestra at the Baltimore Basilica on May 17. We thank the City of Baltimore and its surrounding counties for nine decades of support and enthusiastic concert-going, and we invite you to join us this December 14 and 15 as we inaugurate our 90th season with Handel’s “Messiah.”
Jason Rudy is the president of the board for the Handel Choir of Baltimore (https://handelchoir.org).
