March 2, 2020 - Baltimore Choral Arts Society Board of Directors President Lauren Madsen announced that Baltimore Choral Arts has extended the contract for Music Director Anthony Blake Clark for five seasons. His new contract is from July 2020 to June 2025. Madsen stated, “We have been thrilled with Maestro Clark’s creativity and highly musical approach. He has continued and enhanced Choral Arts’ 54-year traditions of strong collaborative performances and impactful education programs.” Blake Clark was originally hired to succeed long-time Music Director Emeritus Tom Hall in July 2017 with a three-year contract that will end in June 2020. He is Baltimore Choral Arts’ third music director in 54 years.

Blake Clark said, “I’m honored to be asked to continue leading our dedicated and passionate singers and look forward to the next five years of innovation and top-flight performances with Baltimore Choral Arts. Our successes over the past three seasons have been a collective effort between all of the musicians, staff and dedicated board, for whom I am grateful. Making Baltimore and this incredible institution my home has been so rewarding.”

His accomplishments during his three-year tenure include leading a 10-day tour of England in January 2020, highlighted by a performance of Mahler Symphony No. 8, “Symphony of a Thousand” with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with 650 musicians. The tour also included sold-out concerts at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London and at Oxford’s Merton College Chapel. He has also created new education programs including CoroLAB with two area high schools and the Vocal Fellows Program.

Blake Clark’s innovating programming often features collaborations with other area arts organizations and unique visual and theatrical enhancements. In May 2019, Choral Arts gave the United States premiere of The Monster in the Maze, which featured collaborations with Overlea High School Chorus members, the Maryland State Boychoir and instrumentalists from the Peabody Conservatory, as well as a local actor portraying and designing the costume for the Minotaur. Baltimore Choral Arts and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) professors have just collaborated in their second multi-sensory concert on March 1, 2020 at Shriver Hall Auditorium.

He has prepared the chorus for recent performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Maryland Symphony Orchestra and Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, as well as the City of Birmingham Symphony for the England tour. Choral Arts has also premiered three of Clark’s compositions and arrangements during his three-year tenure.

In celebration of his new contract, Baltimore Choral Arts Society is planning further initiatives designed to reach and serve new communities. The first initiative is a collaborative group singing festival called The Baltimore Sings Project.