These are the ensembles represented in the audio and video recordings in this online dossiér.

Frost Chorale is the premiere choral ensemble at UM, conducted and rehearsed by the Director of Choral Studies, and occasionally by graduate teaching assistants.

The Central City Chorus is a volunteer community-based organization established so that amateur singers can sing and find fellowship together. Comprised of approximately sixty volunteers, the chorus was sometimes supplemented by paid professionals during the entire season, and almost always hired a few ringers for concerts. During my two-year tenure, I moved the chorus from its more traditional musical repertoire to more exotic fare, including its first all unaccompanied concert, as well as music of Cole Porter and Duke Ellington, which is exceedingly challenging for any group of singers (as you will hear).

Chamber Singers is the designated recital choir for graduate students. Comprised primarily of masters and doctoral students, it also includes upper level undergraduates. For a full, thirty minute recital, each doctoral student is given approximately fifteen rehearsals, three fifty minute sessions per week, plus a dress rehearsal. During the remainder of the term we sing under our classmates.

Mælstrom is the male chorus at UM and is comprised of undergraduate men whose skills (or occasionally schedule) preclude them from participating in more demanding ensembles. Gradually the students moved from dislike of the music to consternation to acceptance to admiration. The guys sang the Liszt and Schönberg with great feeling and remarkably good intonation. This recital marked the first performance in the history of the UM Choral Studies Program of the music of Arnold Schönberg.