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In Memoriam...
On behalf of the Board and members of Charis Chamber Voices, it is with profound sadness that I share the news of the passing of our beloved Artistic Director Emeritus, Art Sjögren. We have all been uplifted by the experience and wonderment of working with him over the past twelve years, culminating in his final concert in December 2019. His influence extends far beyond our Charis family to the many communities he served as teacher, music director and choral conductor. We look forward to carrying forward his spirit of choral nirvana and his legacy of learning and love…for the music and for each other. Raymond Infarinato, Board President |
Maestro Arthur Sjögren
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Maestro Sjögren, Artistic Director Emeritus
Internationally renowned choral conductor Arthur Sjögren was best known for excellence in choral performances of innovative and captivating programs drawing from sixteenth century to contemporary and commissioned works. He was also internationally recognized as a music editor and as a teacher of voice and choral conducting.
Sjögren started his professional career as a singer in New York City in 1964. For three seasons he was a Vocal Arts Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center of the Boston Symphony Orchestra where he studied with Phyllis Curtin and was soloist with Eric Linsdorf in the American premiere of Schoenberg’s opera “Die Glückliche Hand.“ At the Clevelend Orchestra’s Blossom Festival he studied with Richard Miller and sang under choral conductor Robert Shaw who selected Sjögren to be soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.
Sjögren received a B.M.E. from North Park College, a M.M. from Westminster Choir College, and was a doctoral candidate at the Peabody Conservatory, Indiana University and at the Vienna Academy, Austria, where he studied conducting with Eric Erickson of the Royal College of Music, Stockholm, and the Swedish Radio Choir. He also studied conducting with Julius Herford, Robert Shaw, Fiora Contino, Volker Hemfpling, Marcel Courand and Michael Schech.
In 1973 in New Canaan, Connecticut, Arthur Sjögren founded the acclaimed Pro Arte Singers, with professional singers from the New York metropolitan area and was its Artistic Director until 2017. As Director of Vocal Music at New Canaan High School, he formed the New Canaan Madrigal Singers and led the ensemble on 23 tours to Europe, India, Africa, the Far East and South America. In 2010, Maestro Sjögren was appointed Artistic Director of Charis Chamber Voices in Westchester, New York. He is a frequent guest conductor, recently for Cerddorian Vocal Ensemble and Florilegium Chamber Choir in New York City and from 2006-9 at the Festivokal, Frankfort Cermany, for Euorpa Cantat (European Choral Association), and Festival of Flanders, Belgium.
Sjögren had served on the faculties of Westminster Choir College, Barrington College, Harvard University and Fairfield University and taught private lessons, group and master classes in vocal technique and choral conducting—notably, at American Guild of Organists workshops and at Musik Hochschule in Hanover Germany (2016), at the National Music Conservatory in Amman Jordan (2010), Music Academy, Gdansk, Poland (2007), with the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir School in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and at University of Pretoria, South Africa (2004 – 2010).
C.F. Peters, G. Schirmer, Third World Publications, and Walton Music are publishers of editions by Arthur Sjögren. Among composers whose works he commissioned for Pro Arte Singers are: Steven Sametz, Dominick Argento, Robert Convery, Jaakko Mantyjarvi and Michael Waldenby. In 2016 Charis Chamber Voices and Camerata Vocal of Hanover, Germany performed a new work by Fredik Sixten which was commissioned by the two choirs and performances were presented in joint concerts in the U.S. and Germany.
Sjögren started his professional career as a singer in New York City in 1964. For three seasons he was a Vocal Arts Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center of the Boston Symphony Orchestra where he studied with Phyllis Curtin and was soloist with Eric Linsdorf in the American premiere of Schoenberg’s opera “Die Glückliche Hand.“ At the Clevelend Orchestra’s Blossom Festival he studied with Richard Miller and sang under choral conductor Robert Shaw who selected Sjögren to be soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.
Sjögren received a B.M.E. from North Park College, a M.M. from Westminster Choir College, and was a doctoral candidate at the Peabody Conservatory, Indiana University and at the Vienna Academy, Austria, where he studied conducting with Eric Erickson of the Royal College of Music, Stockholm, and the Swedish Radio Choir. He also studied conducting with Julius Herford, Robert Shaw, Fiora Contino, Volker Hemfpling, Marcel Courand and Michael Schech.
In 1973 in New Canaan, Connecticut, Arthur Sjögren founded the acclaimed Pro Arte Singers, with professional singers from the New York metropolitan area and was its Artistic Director until 2017. As Director of Vocal Music at New Canaan High School, he formed the New Canaan Madrigal Singers and led the ensemble on 23 tours to Europe, India, Africa, the Far East and South America. In 2010, Maestro Sjögren was appointed Artistic Director of Charis Chamber Voices in Westchester, New York. He is a frequent guest conductor, recently for Cerddorian Vocal Ensemble and Florilegium Chamber Choir in New York City and from 2006-9 at the Festivokal, Frankfort Cermany, for Euorpa Cantat (European Choral Association), and Festival of Flanders, Belgium.
Sjögren had served on the faculties of Westminster Choir College, Barrington College, Harvard University and Fairfield University and taught private lessons, group and master classes in vocal technique and choral conducting—notably, at American Guild of Organists workshops and at Musik Hochschule in Hanover Germany (2016), at the National Music Conservatory in Amman Jordan (2010), Music Academy, Gdansk, Poland (2007), with the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir School in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and at University of Pretoria, South Africa (2004 – 2010).
C.F. Peters, G. Schirmer, Third World Publications, and Walton Music are publishers of editions by Arthur Sjögren. Among composers whose works he commissioned for Pro Arte Singers are: Steven Sametz, Dominick Argento, Robert Convery, Jaakko Mantyjarvi and Michael Waldenby. In 2016 Charis Chamber Voices and Camerata Vocal of Hanover, Germany performed a new work by Fredik Sixten which was commissioned by the two choirs and performances were presented in joint concerts in the U.S. and Germany.