The Lafayette Master Chorale is a community organization in Lafayette/West Lafayette, Indiana, founded more than five decades ago as the Bach Chorale Singers by a small group of singers who met on Sunday evenings in their homes to sing the great four-part chorales of J.S. Bach. Within a few years, one member became the first music director, and the group’s repertoire quickly expanded. The organization performed its first public concert in 1967 and has continued to grow in size and musical sophistication under a succession of talented artistic directors. Today the Chorale numbers around 55 singers.

The Lafayette Master Chorale is dedicated to providing outreach to singers and audiences in the north-central region of Indiana. The organization’s goal is to provide life-long musical training and performance experiences for singers of all ages throughout Tippecanoe and surrounding counties. To help achieve this goal, an educational component was officially added to the organization in June 1996 when the Tippecanoe Youth Chorus merged with BCS, Inc. to form the Bach Chorale Youth Chorus, a traveling performance choir. In June 1999, the Greater Lafayette Children’s Choir, serving singers ages 8 to 11, formally merged with Bach Chorale Singers as the Bach Chorale Children’s Choir. This choir renamed itself the Lafayette Children's Choir in 2016

The Lafayette Master Chorale offers an annual subscription series of eight to 10 concerts. During each concert season, our singers are frequently joined in performances by instrumentalists and guest artists.

Artistic Directors

Gene Goodson 1966-73

Graeme Cowen 1973-76

Paul Krasnovsky 1976-88

Jon (Jerry) Yonkman 1988-94

William Jon Gray 1994-2010

Michelle Louer 2010-16

Michael Bennett 2017-present

Highlights

• Chorale performance with the Paul Winter Consort

• Joint concerts with the Lafayette Symphony, the University of Indianapolis Chorus, and Purdue University’s Symphony and Symphonic Band

• Performances in other Indiana cities, including Bloomington, Crawfordsville, Frankfort, Indianapolis and Monticello

• 1986 European concert tour

• 1988 Marquis de Lafayette Award

• 1992 performance of Bach’s St. John Passion featuring acclaimed tenor David Gordon

• Summer concert collaboration with musicians from St. Joseph University

• Season-opening sellouts in 1997 (Verdi’s Requiem) and 1998 (Mendelssohn’s Elijah)

• Special collaborations with the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, including semi-staged performances of Bernstein’s Candide and Mozart’s Magic Flute

• Concert collaborations with local high schools and church choirs

• Youth Chorus concert trips to Chicago, New York City, St. Louis, and Washington, DC

• YC/CC performance of the national anthem at a Purdue basketball game

• Annual summer choral workshops for children and youth

• Sold-out pops performances featuring the music of George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers

• Performance of Handel’s Solomon at the Bloomington Early Music Festival in May 2004

• CD recordings, including a Pro Organo disk of the choral and organ music of Zoltan Kodaly and a recent Christmas recording, Family Carols

• June 2005 “Festival of Praise” choral workshop, organized and sponsored by BCS, Inc. for Chorale members and community singers, directed by Craig Jessop, music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

• December 2019, sold-out performance of Handel’s full Messiah at St. Boniface Church, Lafayette.

  Vital Documents