Your choir’s next premiere can start long before the first rehearsal.
When several choirs commission a piece together, they share the cost of bringing it into the world, and each ensemble can make it part of its own season. That is the idea behind a commissioning consortium.
For a conductor considering one, the useful questions are concrete: What will your singers perform? When will the score arrive? What does the fee cover? And what stays with your choir after the premiere?
Here is how those questions apply to the new work I’m creating with GRAMMY-nominated poet Todd Boss.
Start with the text, voicing and instrumental forces. Consider how they fit your singers and the experience you want to offer your audience.
Todd and I will create a work of approximately 20 minutes in four movements for SATB choir, piano and cello. Its subject is the paths that lead us to love: the search, the encounter, the experience of traveling together and the decision to commit.
The four movements give directors room to shape their programs. You can perform one movement, a selection, or the complete work.
A clear delivery date helps you plan rehearsal time, accompanists and your concert calendar.
For this project, the complete score and performance materials will arrive in July 2027. The founding ensembles will have an exclusive performance season from August 2027 through June 2028, with each choir giving its premiere locally on a date that fits its own 2027/28 season.
A consortium brings several ensembles into the same commission. Each contributes an agreed participation fee toward the creation of the work.
Our consortium has twelve founding spots, at USD 1,250 per spot. Two choirs can share one consortium spot and split the participation cost by planning a shared local premiere.
Two payments can also be arranged: one now and one when you receive the work in July 2027.
For directors exploring a shared premiere, a useful first step is to speak with a nearby ensemble about a concert date, rehearsal plans and the piano and cello players you would bring together.
Ask what your participation includes, how your ensemble will be credited and how you can use the music in future seasons.
In this project, every founding choir and conductor will be named permanently in every edition of the score, whichever publisher eventually releases it. The performance materials remain yours to use: your choir can continue performing and recording the work in future seasons without repurchasing copies.
That gives the commission a life beyond its first concert, both in your repertoire and in the work’s history.
A commission gives a choir a chance to meet a piece while it is still being imagined.
Our founding directors will receive regular updates during the writing process and join a private group with the other participating directors to exchange ideas. The final materials will also include audio guide tracks to support your singers’ preparation.
Following that process can give your singers a story to carry into rehearsal: how the text became music, how the movements connect and what their ensemble helped bring into the world.
Todd and I both spent years living as nomads, and we became engaged within days of each other. That coincidence became the starting point for this work.
We want to explore the journey toward the person we choose, through uncertainty, adventure, encounter and commitment. The choir, piano and cello will carry that story across four movements.
The founding ensembles will share the beginning of that journey with us, then bring it to life in their own communities.
Registration is now open for the twelve founding spots. You can explore the work, the calendar and the participation details here:
Explore the consortium with Todd Boss and Santiago Veros
How do you see a project like this fitting into your choir’s 2027/28 season?
Santiago Veros
