Close your eyes and picture 110 singers – including 30 chamber singers and 22 professional core singers – harmonizing along with 50 instrumentalists from either the Venice Symphony or the Sarasota Orchestra.
Imagine them telling stories through song, focusing on the power of the human voice, and how the sound of those voices impacts you emotionally. The wall of sound will be breathtakingly beautiful, creating emotions that stir within your soul.
That is how Joseph Caulkins, artistic director of the non-profit Key Chorale, described the area’s premier symphonic chorus’s upcoming 42nd season, with its theme of “Where Sound Becomes Story. Where Every Note Moves You … Where Every Story Resonates.”
“There’s something really transformative about hearing 100 voices singing together … the power and drama of that is really amazing,” he said.
Caulkins, who is celebrating his 20th year conducting the chorale, said the dozens of musicians spend months preparing before their debut each season. The theme is planned up to two years in advance, while the execution is pretty quick, in about 6 to 8 weeks. There are multiple performances during their season of September to May, so they rehearse more than one program at a time.
Their repertoire includes everything from classic music from Mozart and Beethoven to the film scores of John Williams to modern favorites like Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon.
Caulkins was a jazz musician in high school and college, and although he dreamed of being the next John Coltrane, he developed a real connection to connecting, and has been a professional classical conductor since 1990, leading musicians involved with ballets, orchestras and choirs.
He said leading the Key Chorale is a privilege because he can “see the growth that has happened artistically” over the past two decades from professionals who perform at the highest level. “They take on anything I come up with and are not limited by style,” he said. “What a journey.”
The journey this season begins in October, focusing on how music is in fact storytelling, and how music affects people. “How can we take the storytelling we always do and amplify that for our audiences?” Caulkins asked. His answer is: each concert is treated more as an event, with multimedia productions created for the programs.
For example, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci on April 24, 2027, will present the life, philosophy and artwork of da Vinci in a way music alone cannot, Caulkins explained.
American Roots: Folk Origins, featuring The Lubben Brothers, on February 13, 2027, will highlight the music of stars like Stephen Foster and Bob Dylan using videos and photography from the folk era. Caulkins described it as “Ken Burns style, but less long and less boring,” he laughed.
Another one of Caulkins’ favorites for the upcoming season is Opus 1700: Mozart & Salieri, a two-day extravaganza on March 12 and 13, 2027. As an opus is a catalogue of works, he said this collaboration will be a concert of genius and rivalry, comparison and contrast. He said the program takes letters that Mozart wrote to his wife and father, and the written documents from Salieri, to give a glimpse into their lives. After the Saturday night show, the movie Amadeus from 1984 about Mozart’s life will be shown, along with a mini food truck festival.
He also noted the annual collaboration with about 30 dancers from The Sarasota Ballet’s Studio Company over Thanksgiving weekend, which provides a real “sense of festivity and joy.”
More family-friendly concerts on the schedule include Cirque des Voix®, a collaboration with The Circus Arts Conservatory, featuring The Venice Symphony, from January 29 to 31, 2027; and Illuminate: An Electrifying Fusion of Youth Artists on May 10.
“It’s a wonderful way of spending an afternoon,” Caulkins said. “It shows many art forms together to create something really moving.”
Key Chorale singers also involve themselves in the community through four outreach groups. Off-Key Chorale is for those living with Parkinson’s, in partnership with Neuro Challenge Foundation for Parkinson’s; Where Are My Keys? Chorale, for those living with memory loss, is in partnership with Senior Friendship Center and Aravilla Sarasota: Memory Care. They also offer an outreach choir for senior enrichment with Town Square Sarasota.
Visit www.keychorale.org or call 941-552-8768 for show and ticket information.
Key Chorale’s Season 42 Lineup:
2026
• October 10 – A Mass for Peace: The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins
• November 2 – Perfect Pitch Annual Luncheon honoring Virginia Shearer
• November 14 – Radiance 2.0, Bradenton – A Candlelit Choral Experience
• November 29 – Nowell, Nowell, featuring The Sarasota Ballet’s Studio Company
2027
• January 29 – 31 – Cirque des Voix®, collaboration with The Circus Arts Conservatory, featuring The Venice Symphony
• February 13 – American Roots: Folk Origins, Featuring The Lubben Brothers
• March 8 – Tomorrow’s Voices Tonight, Student Scholar Soirée
• March 12 – Opus 1700: Mozart & Salieri, Day I
• March 13 – Opus 1700: Mozart & Salieri, Day II
• April 24 – The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
• May 10 – Illuminate: An Electrifying Fusion of Youth Artists
