Yale Schola Cantorum is a chamber choir that performs sacred music from the sixteenth century to the present day in concert settings and choral services around the world. It is sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and is under the direction of Stefan Parkman. Masaaki Suzuki is the ensemble’s principal guest conductor. Open by audition to students from all departments and professional schools across Yale University, the choir has a special interest in historically informed performance practice, often in collaboration with instrumentalists from Juilliard415.

Schola was founded in 2003 by Simon Carrington. In recent years, the choir has also sung under the direction of internationally renowned conductors Matthew Halls, Simon Halsey, Paul Hillier, Stephen Layton, Sir Neville Marriner, Nicholas McGegan, James O’Donnell, Krzysztof Penderecki, Helmuth Rilling, Dale Warland, Craig Hella Johnson and David Hill.

In addition to performing regularly in New Haven and New York, the ensemble records and tours nationally and internationally. Schola’s 2018 recording on the Hyperion label featuring Palestrina’s Missa Confitebor tibi Domine has garnered enthusiastic reviews. A live recording of Heinrich Biber’s 1693 Vesperae longiores ac breviores with Robert Mealy and Yale Collegium Musicum received international acclaim from the early music press, as have subsequent recordings of J S Bach’s rarely heard 1725 version of the St John Passion and Antonio Bertali’s Missa Resurrectionis. Naxos released a recording of Mendelssohn and Bach Magnificats, and two collections of Renaissance, Baroque and modern selections were issued by Delos Records. Schola Cantorum’s most recent releases on Hyperion include New England Choirworks, Schütz’s The Christmas story, and a chamber version of Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem.

On tour Schola Cantorum has given performances in the United Kingdom, Hungary, France, China, South Korea, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Japan, Singapore, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, India, Spain, Scandinavia and Germany.

The Yale Institute of Sacred Music is an interdisciplinary graduate centre dedicated to the study and practice of sacred music, worship and the arts. Institute students receive rigorous training for careers in performance, church music, pastoral ministry, the academy and much more.

The Institute sponsors several choruses, including the Yale Camerata and Yale Schola Cantorum, and as a major arts presenter in New Haven it offers a full schedule of concerts, art exhibitions, literary readings, lectures, conferences and multimedia events during the year.