Reflect Area’s Vibrant Choral Music Scene

 FALLS CHURCH, VA – The Choralis Foundation has announced the winners of its Ninth Annual Greater Washington DC Area Choral Excellence “Ovation” Awards,  presented at its “Black and White” dinner and awards ceremony on Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at The Clarendon Ballroom.  Lisa Koehler, founder and operator of web resource Singer Source, LLC, received the J. Reilly Lewis Award for Outstanding Contributions to Choral Music, the Ovations’ highest honor.  Past winners of this award are Joan Gregoryk, Tom Hall, Pamela Lassell, the late J. Reilly Lewis, Mark Ohnmacht, the late Norman Scribner, Robert Shafer, and Stanley J. Thurston.

The winners of three additional Ovation awards also were announced.  The Most Creative Programming award went to The Thirteen, Matthew Robertson, Founder and Artistic Director.  The Best A Cappella Ensemble award went to The Alexandria Harmonizers, Joe Cerutti, Music Director.  For Best New Recording the winner was Choralis, Gretchen Kuhrmann, Artistic Director for In Winters Arms: Seasonal Music by Bob Chilcott (Signum Classic label).  This was the first time Choralis had accepted a nomination for an Ovation award.