USUO Choruses
The Utah Symphony and Utah Opera Choruses are mainstays of USUO. Singers in both our choruses find musical enrichment for their own lives and provide meaningful experiences for our audiences. These auditioned ensembles are the backbone of our community engagement and are open for all local singers to participate in.
About the Utah Symphony Chorus
The Utah Symphony Chorus is composed of volunteer and professional singers from the Salt Lake City area who come from all walks of life. The Chorus typically performs three concerts each season with the Utah Symphony in Abravanel Hall, which may include choral masterworks, pops concerts, and our annual audience-participation Messiah Sing-In.
All singers in the Utah Symphony Chorus must have a solid command of their voice and be able to read and quickly learn music. The vast majority of singers are volunteers, although there are a limited number of paid section leader positions. The chorus rehearses on Tuesday evenings 7:00–9:30 for several weeks before each concert and most evenings the week of a performance.
The chorus has sung under the baton of Utah Symphony Music Directors Maurice Abravanel, Varujan Kojian, Joseph Silverstein, Keith Lockhart, and Thierry Fischer, as well as numerous guest conductors including Robert Shaw, Margaret Hillis, Roger Wagner, Peter Eros, Bernard Labadie, Andrew Litton, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, and many others.
About the Utah Opera Chorus
The Utah Opera Chorus is an ensemble of local professional singers who provide the energetic choral voice of Utah Opera’s productions. The ensemble fluctuates in size depending on the needs of each show but typically consists of 16–40 singers for approximately three operas annually. Core singers participate in all productions involving chorus, and additional singers may participate in as few as one production per year.
The dedicated members of the Utah Opera Chorus represent a broad array of professions, including attorneys, teachers, homemakers, business people, and college music students. The singers are highly trained, with many holding advanced degrees in music, and they bring a wealth of stage experience to their performances.
All singers in the Utah Opera Chorus must possess exceptional vocal technique and musicianship skills and the ability to perform moderate physical tasks onstage. All music is memorized, and all singers are paid. The chorus rehearses several nights a week for one to two months leading up to each production’s opening night.
About the Chorus Director
Austin McWilliams is a conductor and countertenor who specializes in contemporary vocal music. He strives to present compelling, intriguing art that is directly relevant to the communities in which it is performed. He began his tenure as Chorus Director & Opera Assistant Conductor at Utah Symphony | Utah Opera with the 2024/25 season.
Previously Austin was Associate Conductor and Chorus Master at Opera Grand Rapids, Head of Music at West Michigan Opera Project, and Co-Artistic Director at Ad Astra Music Festival. In Grand Rapids he was the choir director at his beloved Fountain Street Church, a non-denominational, non-creedal institution that serves as a venue for heterodox speakers and ideologies. Content in both the rehearsal hall and classroom, Austin has served as the Director of Choral Activities at Aquinas College and as adjunct faculty and opera conductor at Western Michigan University, where he studied with Kimberly Dunn Adams. He is also a faculty member at Missouri Scholars Academy, a governor’s school for gifted high school juniors in his native state.
Austin has conducted site-specific operas on a shooting range, in a factory, under a park pavilion, and beneath a statue — but rarely on a stage. His work can be seen on PBS affiliates nationwide. Favorite projects include MASS (Bernstein/Schwartz), Stinney: An American Execution (Pollock/Price, world premiere), Our Trudy (Pidgorna/Reva, world premiere), Proving Up (Mazzoli/Vavrek), Considering Matthew Shepard (Johnson), The Last American Hammer (Hilliard/Boresi), and Of Rage and Remembrance (Corigliano). Austin holds degrees in choral conducting and computer engineering.
Chorus Auditions
The next round of Symphony Chorus auditions will be Saturday, January 11, 2025, 1:00–4:00 pm.
If you would like to receive audition announcements for USUO Choruses but do not wish to audition at this time, sign up for our email list. Current USUO choristers and those who sign up to audition above will receive all audition announcements and do not need to sign up for this list.
Opera Chorus auditions for the 2024/25 season are currently closed. Opera Chorus auditions for the 2025/26 season will be held May 14 & 17, 2025.
Please direct all questions to Chorus Director Austin McWilliams at [email protected].
2024/25 Chorus Repertoire
Symphony Chorus
- Handel: Messiah
- Holst: The Planets
- Mozart: Requiem
Opera Chorus
- Sondheim: Sweeney Todd
- Leoncavallo: Pagliacci
- Puccini: Madame Butterfly