History of the USC Choral Department

University records show that Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs were first offered for credit in the 1925-26 school year. Maurice Matteson was the first director of these groups. Evidence shows that these groups existed before as non-credit ensembles because in 1923 they traveled to Atlanta and sang on the Atlanta Journal’s radio station for three days giving concert enroute. The entire trip lasted a week or ten days. As the 30’s dawned they performed in Washington and had a picture made with President Hoover at the White House. In December of 1930 the choir now called the Glee Club and Folk Singers  sang in Chicago performing enroute. The following year they traveled up the East coast culminating the tour in New York at Steinway Hall. Subsequent tours took them back to Chicago and to Miami. When one considers the economic realities of the 1930’s, especially the way University appropriations were slashed, one must respect the effort and management necessary to enable the Glee Club to make these trips. (Dunbar, A History of the USC School of Music, 1920-1993, Ph.D. Dissertation 1993)

From 1939-1945 Hugh Williamson directed the Glee Clubs. The 1939 appropriation was $375 for the Men and $250 for the women. Choral music was not Dr. Williamson’s major area of expertise and when Robert Van Doren joined the faculty in 1946 he took over the leadership of the choral organizations and combined them into a University Chorus. David Phillips assumed the duties of Choral Director in 1955-56 and one of his major achievements was the South Carolina premiere of “King David” by Honegger in 1960.

In the mid 60’s the choral ensembles were directed by Willard DeLara and Arthur Frazier. In 1966, Dr. Arpad Darazs assumed leadership of the choral department and immediately expanded the offerings to Concert Choir, Women’s Chorus, Men’s Glee Club and Oratorio Choir. With the development of the Concert Choir, USC once again had a touring ensemble and during the summer of 1969, the Concert Choir became the first USC music ensemble to tour internationally. Its itinerary included concerts in Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, Reims, Trier, Cologne, Leeuwarden, Amsterdam and London.

In 1976 the choir participated in the Bela Bartok Choral Competition in Hungary and won two first prizes and in 1980 again won top honors in the International Bela Bartok choral competition, which featured choirs from 26 countries. In 1982 the choir traveled to Korea to perform as part of the Celebration of the Centennial of U.S.-Korean Diplomatic Relations. Dr. Darazs died of leukemia in December, 1986.

Dr. Larry Wyatt was named director of choral studies for the start of the 1987-88 school year. Dr. Wyatt had previously served as Choral Director and Coordinator of the Vocal Department at Loyola University from 1973-87. While in New Orleans he had founded the New Orleans Symphony Chorus.

International travel continued under Dr. Wyatt as the Concert Choir received a prestigious invitation to perform in three concerts with the Jerusalem Symphony under Sergiu Comissiona, Lawrence Foster and Christof Penderecki. They performed Penderecki’s “St. Luke Passion under the composer’s direction. The Bach “Magnificat” under Comissiona and the Verdi “Four Sacred Pieces under Foster.  All learned in one semester.  In 1991-92 they were one of 17 American university choirs invited to perform in Lincoln Center’s series Mozart Masses in Concert. That same year they were the headline concert at the ACDA Southern Division Convention in Savanna, Georgia where they performed J.S. Bach’s “St. John Passion.”

In 1998 the Concert Choir performed again on the Southern Division Convention of ACDA and during the summer they toured Germany and the Czech Republic.  The highlight of that tour was a performance in the Thomaskirche at Leipzig, the church served by J.S. Bach during the latter part of his life.  In March of 2000 selected members of the choir, along with the Left Bank Jazz Band, traveled to London and Paris to perform selections from the Sacred Concerts by Duke Ellington.  On tour in December and January 2001-2002, the Concert Choir performed in Vienna, Salzburg and Munich. In 2004 they toured Italy and Bulgaria presenting J.A.C. Redford's oratorio The Martyrdom of Polycarp.  The choir traveled to Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai in the summer of 2008 and performed with several other choirs in a prelude to the Summer Olympics.  In the spring of 2009, the Concert Choir performed the world premiere of The War Prayer by Tayloe Harding, composer and dean of the School of Music.

Over the past 22 years the choral ensembles have joined together to present major works with orchestra.