Oratorio Society of Virginia Information

Dedicated to musical excellence, The Oratorio Society of Virginia enriches, inspires, and educates the community through regular performance of choral masterworks that express the best of the human spirit. In the fall of 1966, a small group of musicians in Charlottesville came together with the shared desire to perform major classical choral works from the oratorio repertoire for audiences in the community. After a year of organizing, auditioning, and rehearsing, The Oratorio Society debuted with a performance of Handel’s Messiah on March 8, 1968 in the Albemarle High School auditorium. More than 1,500 singers from the community have sung as members of the Oratorio Society, delighting audiences of all ages at venues throughout the area. Since its founding, the Oratorio Society chorus has performed many of the greatest choral works, including Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah – along with more recent and deeply moving compositions such as Ralph Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony and Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. The Oratorio Society performs three concerts for the community each year – an annual Christmas concert at Charlottesville’s Paramount Theater and two concerts in the late winter/spring. Each concert is performed with a small-to-medium-sized orchestra, piano, or organ (instrumentation is prescribed by budget, and soloists are hired as needed (although we try to feature singers from within the chorus when possible).