About ChoralNet

ChoralNet History

In late 1992, Walter Collins, one of the founders of the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM); Mark Gresham, Editor of Chorus! magazine; Robert D. Reynolds, professor of music history at Arizona State University and listowner of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia e-mail list; and James D. Feiszli, Director of Music at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; began an e-mail dialogue regarding the possibility of connecting the International Center for Choral Music in Namur, Belgium and MUSICA, the international choral music databank, to U.S. choral musicians via the Internet.

At the 1993 national convention of the American Choral Directors Association, Collins and Feiszli, assisted by ACDA president-elect Lynn Whitten, organized a meeting with persons interested in communicating via Internet technology. Shortly thereafter, using the University of Colorado listprocessor capabilities, Choralist, the first e-mail list dedicated to choral music, was created with Feiszli as the listowner/manager. Choralist soon became a focal point for choral musicians on the Internet. David Topping, one of the original subscribers to the list, volunteered to manage the list while Feiszli was out of the country during September of 1993 and remained on as co-manager.

As Choralist grew, other services were added. The Choralist Resource Site (now called Resources and Links) was created late in 1993 using the SDSM&T gopher server. A Choralist Advisory Group was formed using the SDSM&T listserver to facilitate their communications. After incredible growth of the list in the 1994-1995 season, much debate, and no little effort, Choralist was transformed into ChoralNet, which included Choralist, the CRS, CHOREF (an on-line choral music database which has since been merged into the international choral music databank MUSICA, ChoralAcademe, ChoralTalk rec.music.makers.choral (a Usenet newsgroup gatewayed to ChoralTalk, and this ChoralNet Web Site.

In early 1996 the International Federation for Choral Music, having decided to expand their presence on the Internet, approached the ChoralNet listowners about a merger of efforts. It was decided that ChoralNet would be designated an official project of the IFCM. Then, in 1997, the American Choral Directors Association asked ChoralNet to become their official website and established funding for the ChoralNet Manager position. Since that time ChoralNet has also worked with other choral organizations, including Chorus America and the European Federation of Young Choirs to develop other Internet services, among them being EuroChoralTalk, modeled after the original ChoralTalk and Foro de Musica Coral Latinoamericana, a spanish-language Web message board for the Latin American choral community.

In 1997 and 1998 ChoralNet lost two of its most important supporters. Walter Collins was stricken by a brain aneurysm in May and passed away during emergency surgery. Then, early the next year Claude Tagger, President of IFCM, passed away of similar causes. Both were great losses.

In November 1998, John Vucurevich, a businessman from Rapid City, South Dakota issued a challenge grant to ChoralNet of $5000.00. The first result of this grant was the re-structuring of the ChoralNet Advisory Group into a working Board of Directors with an auxiliary group of Advisors. It also provided impetus for a fund drive which netted ChoralNet another $7000.00 from ChoralNet users. By July 1999, ChoralNet had 1) set up its own dedicated web server and 2) filed and received approval as a non-profit corporation in the state of South Dakota. The ChoralNet Board of Directors held an historic online meeting, extending over a period of ten days, in August during which they

• ratified a constitution and bylaws
• approved an organizational structure
• elected a slate of officers
• and assigned members to specific tasks

ChoralNet continues to follow its intended purpose of facilitating online communication and making online resources available to the choral profession.

Official documents

ChoralNet's partners:

IFCM

ACDA

Chorus America

Rehearsal Arts

Small World MUSICFOLDER.com

J. W. Pepper

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