About the Choir
The City Choir of Washington (TCCW) is a member-driven choral community that is as committed to the music it performs as to the city it serves. It presents moving and thoughtfully curated musical events throughout the Washington, DC metro area to uplift and inspire audiences and singers alike.
City Choir is a diverse group of over 140 volunteer singers from throughout the Washington metro region. Singers range in age from 21 to 81; some were born in DC, while others hail from Africa, Europe, and Asia—all are bound together by a passion for choral music. The group performs for audiences from Northwest to Southeast DC, and from Virginia to Maryland. The City Choir of Washington seeks to provide space where singers and patrons alike can focus on the shared experience of music over external divisions, and where joy can be found in collaborative artistic expression, small accomplishments, and large triumphs.
In summer 2022, the City Choir of Washington concluded fifteen seasons under the artistic leadership of GRAMMY-winning conductor Robert Shafer and welcomed Artistic Director Erin Freeman.
The City Choir of Washington’s engagement ensemble, the City Singers, under the direction of Assistant Conductor Kathleen Jagielski, brings programs of holiday music, spirituals, pop tunes, and American classics to audiences at assisted living facilities, military retirement communities, medical facilities, and homeless shelters. Other community engagement programs include the continuation of City Choir’s work with the National Symphony Orchestra’s Sound Health Initiative, Artistic Director Erin Freeman’s clinics with DC-area music educators, and singing the national anthem at a Washington Nationals baseball game.
Notable past performances include the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II with a concert of British choral music at Washington National Cathedral that featured the world premiere of Sir John Tavener’s Three Hymns of George Herbert—commissioned by TCCW—with the composer in attendance; presentations of The Defiant Requiem (2010, 2013, 2014) at The Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall, and Strathmore Center for the Performing Arts; performances at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, where the choir sang the Lord of the Rings soundtrack (2008-2013) and Carmina Burana (2023) with the Richmond Ballet and Richmond Symphony Orchestra & Chorus; a July 2018 tour of England; Maestro Shafer’s valedictory Brahms Requiem at Washington National Cathedral in June 2022, dedicated to the people of Ukraine and introduced by Her Excellency Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian Ambassador; and the concerts of Erin Freeman’s first season (2022-2023), which included a celebration of the Lunar New Year and performances—including three world premieres—of works by living composers including Armando Bayolo, Chen Yi, John Corigliano, Sharon Farber, Ola Gjeilo, Elaine Hagenberg, Huang Ruo, Jessica Krash, Gilda Lyons, Robert Shafer, and Eric Whitacre.