TEXAS CHORAL CONSORT

Texas Choral Consort is unique among choruses in the United States in that it is open to all singers, without audition, who are then guided to deliver professional-level concerts. In fact, TCC received the Best Choral Performance award from the Austin Critics’ Table for the April, 2014 performance of Mozart Requiem Undead. That concert earned TCC a cover story in The Voice, the magazine of Chorus America. In September, 2014, Artistic Director and Conductor Brent Baldwin made The Austin Chronicle’s “Best of Austin” list; he was named “Best Choral Wrangler” for his talent as a “master of choral coordination.” More Austin Critics’ Table nominations for TCC announced in May 2015 listed the Haydn’s Creation and March 2015 Indie Orchestra Night concerts.

Past TCC performances have presented a wide range of composers and genres—from timeless classics like the Brahms Requiem and Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem to adventurous repertoire such as John Cage’s Four2 and Cornelius Cardew’s seven-hour epic The Great Learning. In August of 2014, TCC teamed up with vocal artists Convergence for a rousing rendition of alt-rock star Beck’s Song Reader at the Blanton Museum of Art. In addition to performing modern and edgy compositions, TCC regularly commissions new works. Among those are pieces by Austin composers Donald Grantham, Patricia Long, Russell Reed, Graham Reynolds, Peter Stopschinski, and Dan Welcher. Nationally known composers have also collaborated with TCC; Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw, Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, and Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg are among the many.

TCC has established a reputation in other countries. In 2002 TCC made its first international tour, to Ireland. Since then, TCC has performed in Germany, Austria, Wales, Argentina, and Uruguay. TCC singers will tour Rome and other Italian cities in the summer of 2016. During the 2016–2017 season TCC will celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Brent Baldwin, Artistic Director & Conductor
Named “Best Choral Wrangler” of 2014 by The Austin Chronicle, Brent Baldwin’s special gift is developing the talents of community singers to achieve great performances. In addition to TCC’s regular classical choral offerings, Baldwin has conducted more than 40 world premieres, including Mozart Requiem Undead, which opened 2014’s Fusebox Festival and won the 2014 Austin Critics Table award for “Best Choral Performance.” Baldwin is also a classical guitarist, vocalist, session musician, arranger, and composer who has been active in Austin’s music scene since 1995. His musical career includes a long list of collaborations with artists including Convergence, Austin New Music Coop, Big Star Third, Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Trail of Dead, Shearwater, Dana Falconberry, The Invincible Czars, Golden Hornet Project, the Riverboat Gamblers, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, and Trouble Puppet Theater Company. In late 2014 Brent joined the Noise Revival Orchestra on their concert tour of Asia, performing for an audience of 60,000 music fans at the Taichung Jazz Festival in Taiwan. Baldwin holds a master’s degree in conducting from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied with Craig Hella Johnson and sang under Johnson’s baton in university ensembles and Conspirare.

www.txconsort.org