Radcliffe Choral Society

The Radcliffe Choral Society, founded in 1899, is one of the most preeminent collegiate women's choirs in the nation. Performing distinctive literature from the Renaissance to the present, this 65-voice choir tours each year across the country. In the summer of 2004, the Choral Society embarked on a 3 week concert tour of South Africa, and in 2006, the Society traveled to London for our spring concert tour. This coming year's season highlights include performing in the American Choral Directors Association Eastern Division Conference in February, combining with the other Holden choirs to perform Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms for the Glee Club's 150th anniversary celebration in April, our traditional holiday concert with the Glee Club in December, hosting a festival of women's music featuring the Wellesley College Choir and the New England Conservatory Girls' Choir in February, and our summer grand tour to the gorgeous Costa Rica!

RCS rehearses Mondays from 7pm to 9:30pm and Wednesdays from 4:15pm to 6:30pm.

The Holden Choruses provide a unique and excellent choral musical experience at Harvard. We are composed of the all-female Radcliffe Choral Society, the all-male Harvard Glee Club, the mixed Harvard Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, the mixed Harvard Radcliffe Chorus, and the Choir-in-Progress (a class on singing for those with less musical experience). We welcome any and all interested students (undergraduates and graduates alike) to audition for us!

RCS, as part of the Holden Choruses, has two waves of auditions. The first wave is open to anyone interested in auditioning for any of the Holden Choruses. These preliminary auditions will be held:

Wednesday, Sept 10, from 12-3pm
Thursday, Sept 11, from 12-3pm
Friday, Sept 12, from 1-4pm
Sunday, Sept 14, from 1-4pm
Monday, Sept 15, from 1-5pm and 7-10pm

Additionally, the Holden Choruses would love to share our music with you in a free concert on Thursday, Sept 11, from 5:15-6:15pm in Sanders Theatre. Pizza will be provided after the concert in the transept of Sanders, and members of RCS, HGC, and HRCM will be there to answer any and all questions you may have about singing with us. We would love to see you there!

The second wave of auditions will be held the following weekend and is comprised of singing a short piece (that we teach you) on your part with three returning members of the choir. This is a painless and often fun process. If you have any questions about the audition process, or about RCS in general, please send us an email. We look forward to meeting you soon!

Costa Rica Panorama

RCS just completed our 2008 summer international tour to Costa Rica! You can visit our blog for a day to day update. Please click here for more information about our tour and our other upcoming tours.

On Friday, April 11, the Radcliffe Choral Society combined with the Harvard Glee Club and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum to celebrate the Glee Club's 150th Anniversary by singing Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms. The concert was completed by the Glee Club in the second half. Alumni arrived from all over the United States to celebrate this occasion with us. We were so excited to participate in such an important anniversary!

Alumnae, check the alumnae page to see our December 2007 and March 2008 newsletters! We are proud to be mailing two color newsletters to you during the year, sharing the RCS news, events and achievements of each semester: if you aren't currently receiving RCS newsletters in the mail (free of charge!) and would like to be added to the list, please contact our historian. We now are also pleased to be sending e-newsletters to all the alumnae on our email list twice a semester, with brief updates on RCS events past and approaching, and pictures of our concerts and activities. If you'd like to be added to this email list and receive digital news of our plans and achievements, please contact our historian.

The Radcliffe Choral Society is proud to announce its acceptance as one of 12 choirs chosen out of 65 in our region to perform at the Eastern Division Conference of the American Choral Directors Association! It's a great honor that we were chosen to perform, and we were very proud to showcase our repertoire in front of the major choral directors of the country. Thank you for all your support and encouragement while we were preparing for this significant event!