About
The Nashville Symphony Chorus is dedicated to enriching the Middle Tennessee community through high-quality performances of works from a vast and ever-growing body of choral literature.
For more than half a century, the Nashville Symphony Chorus regularly has presented significant works from the classical choral repertoire, from Baroque to contemporary. Now numbering more than 150 members, the Chorus performs at least twice each season as part of the Nashville Symphony's Classical Series, in addition to Handel's Messiah each December. Every year the Chorus also takes the spotlight at Voices of Spring, a special concert of choral works.
Nashville Symphony & Chorus | Leonard Slatkin, conductor | Tucker Biddlecombe, chorus director | Érik Gratton, flute | Diana Newman, soprano | Theo Hoffman, baritone
Leonard Slatkin leads the orchestra and chorus in Johannes Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem, an unexpected expression of grace likely prompted by the death of the composer’s mother. The sheer beauty of this work has endeared it to audiences since its premiere. Brahms here offers something rare: music that sits with grief and transposes it into consolation, confidence, and even hope.
The program features Nashville Symphony principal flutist Érik Gratton stepping into the spotlight for Ibert's Flute Concerto*, one of the most demanding works ever written for the instrument—so ferociously difficult it became an exam piece at the Paris Conservatoire.
The evening opens in a French vein with Paul Dukas' 8-minute masterpiece The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a marvel of imagination and orchestration.
Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Ibert: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra
Brahms: A German Requiem
* A concerto is a piece that features a soloist stepping into the spotlight of a full orchestra, showcasing their virtuosity and prowess in a spellbinding musical conversation with all the other instruments around them. Our 2026/27 season highlights 10 concertos, many of them by American composers, to celebrate the extraordinary musicianship of your Nashville Symphony musicians and guest artists.
Nashville Symphony & Chorus | Tucker Biddlecombe, chorus director
Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685. After his death in 1750, his music fell into near obscurity until a 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn conducted a revival concert in 1829 that changed the course of music history.
Tonight we celebrate the composer the world almost lost. The evening spans the full range of Bach's genius: the Brandenburg Concertos No. 2 and No. 3, with their dazzling interplay of instruments; the achingly beautiful Prelude from the Cello Suite No. 1; the Toccata and Fugue in D minor — one of the most instantly recognizable pieces ever written, heard in everything from Fantasia to Halloween soundtracks; the stately grandeur of the Suite No. 3 with its famous Air; and the beloved "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."
The evening culminates in the Magnificat: Bach's most jubilant choral work, a blazing setting of Mary's song of praise for chorus, soloists, trumpets, and full orchestra. Nashville Symphony Chorus Director Tucker Biddlecombe conducts.
Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047
“Prelude” from Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
Suite No. 3 in D Major for Orchestra, BWV 1068
Magnificat, BWV 243
“Jesus bleibet meine Freude” from Cantata No. 147 ("Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben"), BWV 147
History
The Nashville Symphony Chorus was formed by Nashville Symphony conductor Willis Page in 1963 to sing Handel’s Messiah. Prior to this, the Symphony had relied on the Nashville Choral Society, the Peabody College Choir and the Vanderbilt Choir when performing works for orchestra and chorus. By 1965, the 90-member Nashville Symphony Chorus was averaging three performances with the Nashville Symphony each season. For several years, the Nashville Symphony Chorus also participated in an annual holiday celebration, which combined the voices of the Nashville Symphony Chorus, the Vanderbilt Choir and the Fisk Jubilee Singers. These holiday concerts, featuring members of the Nashville Symphony, were held at Benton Chapel at Vanderbilt University and at Fisk University.
In January 1974, the Nashville Symphony Board recognized the Nashville Symphony Chorus as the official “vocal arm of the Nashville Symphony.” The chorus has grown artistically and in number thanks to the leadership of the following Chorus Directors:
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