Houston Choral Society
Professionalism - Versatility - Passion
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
It is our mission to expose all types of audiences to beautiful choral music and to provide a forum for non-professional singers to join together to sing beautiful music. This community chorus has a 33 year history of performance and has continued to challenge its singers with ever new and outstanding concerts. Due to the fact that the chorus desires to bring choral music to all levels of audiences, the ticket prices are kept reasonably low, allowing many to experience the concerts who otherwise would not be able to afford the ticket prices of other music organizations in the Houston area. Our outreach includes audiences of all ages. We have exciting and varied concert themes that touches all types of choral music, thus making choral music accessible to a wide audience.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Choral Performance
The Houston Choral Society (HCS) is a professional-quality chorus dedicated to bringing audiences great choral music to enrich the soul and advance the choral arts. Founded in 1987, this auditioned, community-wide choir is composed of passionate, experienced singers. Seriously committed members exhibit a hunger for excellence, readily dedicating time and energy to developing the musical and vocal skills required for continual progress to ever-higher levels of performance. The group’s repertoire embraces a wide range of styles as it performs an impressive variety of music from the great masters, contemporary composers, American heritage, musical theater, and opera.
Seeking collaborative experiences, HCS has invited many Houston-area groups to join its voices, in recent seasons performing with choirs from Prairie View A&M University, the Rosehill Christian School, and several high schools from the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District. Since 2001 HCS has performed in Europe on five occasions, touring through Italy, England, Scotland, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Ireland, and Germany. The choir’s latest international cooperative performances featured the Galway Gospel Choir in 2011 and the Trinitatis-Kantorei Berlin in 2015.
HCS schedules four concerts per season, typically held at The Foundry, a church in northwest Houston providing a venue where audiences enjoy superior acoustical quality. In December, however, the choir takes its music out into the community, providing Christmas caroling for hospital patients at MD Anderson Cancer and partnering with nonprofit Cy-Hope to bring holiday cheer to disadvantaged children in the area.
The HCS spirit of volunteerism is strong, both in the choir’s outreach efforts and in its organizational ranks. The roster of singers who also contribute their leadership and managerial talents is a long list, and the proportion of members who participate financially as patrons is consistently near 100%.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Chorus America 2018
External reviews
Our Sustainable Development Goals
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Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Houston Choral Society strives to provide professional quality choral music in a variety of themed concerts that excites our audiences.
The Houston Choral Society strives to bring the best singers together in a choral group that looks and sounds professional.
The Houston Choral Society strives to support the development of choral education in local schools.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
1. Through music selection and appropriate rehearsals and workshops, the singers are challenged to perform at the highest level possible.
2. Through auditions twice a year, the Houston Choral Society will ensure that the most talented and commited singers achieve membership..
3. The Houston Choral Society partners with local high school and college choral groups to encourage and support the choral arts.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The Artistic Director, Dr. Kevin Klotz, has an outstanding background in choral conducting. He begins his third season with the Houston Choral Society and has enhanced the quality and range of concert performances through themed concerts that are innovative and challenging for the singers. The Society has a dedicated Board of Directors composed of singers and non-singers who volunteer their time to actually perform all the administrative functions of a much larger organization. Each board members brings specific skills that ensure that the organization continues to be successful and that audiences continue to come back, concert after concert. The organization has been able to recruit new volunteers each year who can bring special expertise where it is needed in the organization. Community support is evident in the affiliation with The Foundry United Methodist Church, Tallowood Baptist Church that provides rehearsal, meeting, and concert space. Affiliations with other arts organizations in the Houston area has resulted in collaborations that bring great music to a wide audience. Businesses in the area are supportive.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We have been able to add several new board members from different sectors of the community. Prior to 2020, we had also established a Chamber Choir of 30 members that were performing two concerts a year. Since the onset of the pandemic we have been able to continue to sing both in person and in digital formats. The organization has been able to have continued support from several patrons who share significant treasure with the organization. Membership in the chorus has remained at a high level with talented new singers added each year. The chorus performed at Carnegie Hall on June 17, 2018. They performed "The Lord Nelson Mass" by Haydn with additional members from the St. Laurence Catholic Church Choir. The program was excellent and well received by the New York audience. We were able to fund two new compositions by contemporary composer Ola Oeijlo. These were performed on April 29, 2022 with the Mozart "Requiem".
The organization has committed to a renewed emphasis on marketing by redesigning the website, changing vendors for community notifications of upcoming events, and collaborating with new venues for concerts. A new electronic ticketing system has been installed.
The Houston Choral Society collaborated with the Prairie View A&M Chorus in February 2020 to celebrate Black History Month with a joint Gospel Concert. This was our last live in-person concert until September 2021. Attendance at the concerts during 2021-2022 live concerts grew as the season progressed. Members of the chorus traveled to Italy in June 2022 on a scheduled concert tour that had been cancelled since 2020.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Houston Choral Society
Board of directorsas of 02/07/2024
Dr. Chad Searcy
Chad Searcy
Larry Pain
April Davis
Veronica Frankeny
Audra Klotz
David Waldrop
Lane Coco
Amy Ghanem
Penny Nelson
Steve Pondell
Leslieanne Seifert
Lucinda Orr
Joan Machelli
Nikki Fudge
Dale Samuelsen
Klotz Kevin
Linda Martin-Rust
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Not applicable -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 06/09/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.