— By Laurie H. Ongley
In 1985, Marguerite L. Brooks and the Institute of Sacred Music invited New Haven community members to join Yale affiliates in a fledgling chorus, the Yale Camerata. The walls separating campus from city, thus breached by music, remain open to this day. After nearly forty years the Camerata is performing under its second permanent conductor, Felicia Barber, and it is flourishing.
The Camerata is an auditioned chorus populated by musicians from widely divergent backgrounds. Graduate students from all disciplines sing alongside teachers, lawyers, architects, Yale faculty and staff, occasional undergraduates, and one or two exceptionally accomplished high school students. Some community members who sang for decades are proud to have helped educate the choral conducting students who pass through in two-year cycles. A substantial number of singers are Glee Club alumni who enjoyed singing as undergraduates and relish the opportunity to continue performing choral music at Yale.