The Chorale was formed in 1978 as the Moorpark Masterworks Chorale by founder/director James Stemen, and is celebrating its 30th season of presenting great works of choral art. One of the leading musical ensembles of Ventura County, the Master Chorale has worked with an impressive array of renowned guest conductors, including Roger Wagner, Lloyd Pfautsch, Vance George, Sir David Willcocks, Paul Salamunovich and Miroslav Kosler. It also performs annually with the New West Symphony under the direction of Boris Brott, and will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, “Choral” and Bruckner’s Te Deum with the orchestra in May 2008.

The ensemble has given West Coast premieres of works by John Tavener and Franz Biebl, as well as by local composers, including Jane Chapman, Steve Eisele, Melanie McCoy, Bruce Vandervalk, Pauline Delmonte, and its own accompanist, Wilbur Skeels. It has traveled abroad on six international concert tours, performing in such notable venues as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris - (watch YouTube video), London’s St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Basilica San Marco in Venice, the Duomo di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, the Salzburg Cathedral (Dom), the Gewandhaus and St. Nikolai Church in Leipzig, Dvorak Hall in Prague, and the Temppeliaukio (Rock) Church in Helsinki.