Christopher Bell lives for double-takes.
The Grant Park Music Festival attracts vocal soloists who have sung on the world’s most prestigious stages. Dress rehearsals are usually their first introduction to the Grant Park Chorus, which Bell — Belfast-born and Edinburgh-trained — has directed for 25 years.
“Virtually every time, the soloists turn ‘round, as if to say, ‘Where on earth did this come from?’” he says.
The nuts and bolts answer? The Grant Park Chorus is a summer supergroup, drawing its ranks from the Lyric Opera and Chicago Symphony choruses, as well as superb local a cappella and chamber choirs. Choristers have even been called upon to step in for soloists in emergencies, as they did in 2015 and again in 2022.
That on-a-dime excellence owes much to Bell. The conductor, 65, oversaw the choir’s transition from a semi-professional to a professional ensemble. He also led the ensemble while it settled into the festival’s present home venue, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion.
“My job, when I got here, was to make sure the choir stayed at the level it was. I’m proud to say it got better, and more versatile,” he told the Tribune in an interview earlier this week. “I have basked in the reflected glory of the power and talent of the Grant Park Chorus.”
He’ll bask in that sound for at least three more summers. On July 2 — the same day Bell was to lead the chorus’s all-American a cappella concert at the South Shore Cultural Center — the Grant Park Music Festival announced an extension of Bell’s contract through 2029. That also means he’ll lead at least three more Independence Day concerts: Bell has conducted that tradition nearly as long as he’s been with the festival, in his signature star-spangled outfits.
After two very American programs, in a very American festival season, Bell will share mementos from across the pond with the Grant Park Chorus and Orchestra for his anniversary concerts on July 17 and 18. The program leads with Scottish and British works from opposite ends of the 20th century, then concludes with Gabriel Fauré’s tranquil Requiem.
The following conversation excerpts have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Your first season with the festival was 2002. Tell me about the Christopher Bell of 25 years ago. What were you up to?
A: I had just finished being chorus director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Glasgow. In fact, that’s how I made the connection to Grant Park, because the then-principal guest conductor, James Paul, came to Glasgow to make a recording in 1998. He enjoyed working with me in the chorus, came back to Grant Park, and said to the then-artistic and general director James Palermo, “You should try this guy out.” I had also started the National Youth Choir of Scotland, with collegiate-age singers, and it was growing quite exponentially.
Q: The festival was still at the Petrillo Bandshell, but moved a couple seasons later to the Pritzker Pavilion. What are your memories of the move?
A: In 2001, I got a hard hat tour of the (Pavilion). People would point to a slightly vague space and say, “This is where the choir gallery will be.” But at that stage, it still looked like a lot of steel frames and concrete blocks. It was a little hard to imagine.
It was amazing to think that we managed the festival (at Petrillo) for so many years. The stage was much smaller; the chorus was largely invisible, because they were at the back of the stage. And there was a serious insect problem — with a sharp enough breath, there was a chance you’d swallow a bug!
That rarely happens up here at Pritzker. Whether the bugs don’t bother to come this far, or they’re exhausted by the time they get to us, I don’t know.
Q: What, to your ear, makes the Grant Park Chorus stand out from other choirs?
A: The singers in the Grant Park Chorus sing elsewhere. But when you’re singing at Grant Park, we need to be the ultimate versatile choir. In two weeks’ time, we’re going to be doing a Broadway show. The singers will need to sing “Hamilton,” “Oklahoma,” a couple of numbers from “Rent,” and they’ll need to sing “Grease” with a New Jersey accent.
Just before that, they’ll have to sing my program, with the “Cantos Sagrados” of James MacMillan and (Ralph) Vaughan Williams’ “Toward the Unknown Region.” And this week, we’re going to be doing a second a cappella program down at South Shore Cultural Center, where they’re going to sound much more like a very healthy church choir.
Q: Let’s talk about that anniversary program. I heard you and James MacMillan sang in a barbershop quartet together back in the day.
A: Yes, Jimmy and I were at university together. He was one year ahead, and I knew him and his wife very well. Then, in 1990, he had this huge breakthrough when his piece, “The Confession of Isobel Gowdie,” was performed at the London Proms. Almost overnight, he’d moved to a different plane.
In 1990, I heard this piece, “Cantos Sagrados,” in its original form for choir and organ. Two years later, I was asked to conduct it at the Edinburgh International Festival. I enjoyed it so much, I asked Jimmy to orchestrate it. I gave that premiere in March 1998, in Glasgow Cathedral with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus. So, if you listen to a recording that’s with an orchestra, that’s my choir.
It’s a really very striking piece of music. It sets the texts of the mothers of the disappeared (in Argentina, during the regime of Jorge Rafael Videla) alongside the text of the Stabat Mater. The last movement of “Cantos Sagrados” is about a prisoner that’s about to be executed by someone he knows. Right at the end of the piece, the executioner leans in to his friend just before he shoots him and says, “Forgive me, compañero.”
After that, the Fauré Requiem seemed like the most loving, gentle and thoughtful match. It’s not a requiem with fire and brimstone. It’s a balm.
Bell leads “American Choral Classics with the Grant Park Chorus” (6:30 p.m. July 2 at the South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. South Shore Dr.); “Independence Day Salute” (7:30 p.m. July 4 at Jay Pritzker Pavilion, 201 E. Randolph St.); and “Fauré Requiem” (6:30 p.m. July 17 and 7:30 p.m. July 18 at Jay Pritzker Pavilion). Free admission for all; more details at grantparkmusicfestival.com
Hannah Edgar is a freelance writer.
