The Chorale was formed in 1991 by a group of Dalton alumni who treasured their memories of singing with Dalton’s choral director Harold Aks and wished to work with him again. For nearly a decade, Mr. Aks brought to his work with the Alumni Chorale the same combination of passion and rigor that he had brought, for nearly fifty years, to his work with students--at Dalton as well as the Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, and Sarah Lawrence College. Following the death of Mr. Aks, the baton passed to succeeding conductors who continued the tradition established by his dynamic leadership. The distinguished conductor, David Shuler (see "People") was named the Music Director of the Chorale in 2003.
Since its inception, the Chorale has expanded its membership to include alumni, parents, and faculty of Dalton, along with friends and colleagues in the wider musical community—many with no connection to the school--who share a mutual pleasure in the music performed by the Chorale.
Committed to the performance of classical choral/orchestral masterpieces, the Chorale has performed Bach’s Magnificat and several Cantatas; Beethoven’s Mass in C Major; Duruflé’s Requiem; Fauré’s Requiem; Handel’s Coronation Anthems 2 and 3; Haydn’s Missa Solemnis in B flat Major; Johann Michael Haydn's Missa in honorem Sanctae Usulae; Morten Lauridsen’s Les Chansons des Roses and Lux Aeternae; Mozart’s Requiem, Missa Brevis in C Major, Vesperae Solennes de Confessore and Vesperae solennes de Dominica; Palestrina’s Secut Cervus; Schubert’s Mass in C and Mass in G; Randall Thompson’s Alleluia; Vivaldi’s Magnificat, Credo and Gloria--among other works.
Harold Aks
Harold Aks was the Dalton School’s beloved chorus conductor for almost fifty years. In addition, he lectured and directed the chorus and orchestra at Sarah Lawrence College for forty-three years, and conducted and taught at the Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, Mills College, and the Walden School. Mr. Aks was a guest conductor at Massachusetts Insitute of Technology, Princeton University, and Yale University. He gave concerts all over the world, including Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Holland, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia. For sixteen years, he was the Musical Director and Chief Lecturer of the St. Moritz International Choir Festival. Mr. Aks’s concerts in the United States included appearances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Town Hall. He studied conducting with Robert Shaw and Pierre Monteux.