Now celebrating its 30th anniversary season of concerts, tours, radio broadcasts, and critically acclaimed recordings, the Dale Warland Singers is recognized as one of the world’s foremost a cappella choral ensembles. The 40-voice professional choir is based in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

The Dale Warland Singers has earned a reputation for its commitment to commissioning and performing new choral music. The ensemble has kept the choral genre fresh and alive by commissioning works from Dominick Argento, Stephen Paulus, Libby Larsen, Carol Barnett, George Shearing, Peter Schickele, Bernard Rands, Emma Lou Diemer, Alice Parker, Janika Vandervelde, Augusta Read Thomas, Aaron J. Kernis, and Frank Ferko among others. The Dale Warland Singers’ Choral Ventures™ Program solicits works from emerging composers, and through this program, over $150,000 in commissions has been awarded to forty-eight talented musicians.

In 1992, the Dale Warland Singers became the first-ever recipient of the Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence. The organization shares this honor only with Chanticleer and the Vancouver Chamber Choir among professional choirs. The group’s extraordinary efforts on behalf of composers and new music resulted in ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming in 1992, 1993, 1996, and 1999.

In addition to a subscription season in the Twin Cities, the Dale Warland Singers tours throughout the United States and abroad. In 1990, the ensemble traveled to Stockholm and Helsinki to represent North America at the Second World Symposium on Choral Music. During the 1999-2000 concert season, the group toured the Southeastern United States. It has appeared on Garrison Keillor’s original A Prairie Home Companion and has been featured on Public Radio International’s Saint Paul Sunday. The annual Echoes of Christmas and Cathedral Classics broadcasts reach listeners nationwide. This season the Dale Warland Singers made their Ravinia Festival (Chicago) debut in July performing Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil (Vespers) and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. The Singers also performed at the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music held in the Twin Cities (August 2002).

The Dale Warland Singers also performs in collaboration with other Twin Cities arts organizations such as the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies and the James Sewell Ballet.

The Dale Warland Singers record on the Gothic label, and the choir released a new recording, Christmas with the Dale Warland Singers, on this label during the 2002-2003 season. A response to hundreds of requests which have come in over the years for a new Christmas recording, its highlights include original compositions and familiar tunes in new arrangements. This new CD joins some 20 other Dale Warland Singers recordings including Bernstein and Britten and Blue Wheat, a collection of American folk music. Also among the Singers’ lauded releases are December Stillness and Cathedral Classics. Earlier recordings by the Singers include, Fancie, A Rose in Winter, Christmas Echoes, Vols. 1 and II, Carols for Christmas, Choral Currents, as well as 12 others. An All-Argento recording featuring the works of Minnesota composer Dominick Argento will be released in the spring of 2003.