The UMS Choral Union invites you to take part in its 23rd season of Summer Sings. Just come as you are to these no-audition, no-performance evenings of memorable music-making.

As many as 250 singers from southeast Michigan, northern Ohio, and Canada have joined each session in singing through great choral repertoire with some of the nation’s most respected choral conductors and outstanding soloists. We rehearse portions of the score during the first half, break for refreshments, and then re-convene to sing through the entire work.

Admission to each session costs only $5­—less than a ticket to the movies!—­and we’ll provide the musical scores (if you need to borrow) and refreshments. Auditors are welcome to attend at no charge.

Free film screening

A free film screening of Robert Shaw – Man of Many Voices will precede this Summer Sings session.

For those who want to see the film and participate in the evening’s Summer Sings event, registration for Summer Sings will take place both before the film screening at 5 pm, and after the film screening, at 6:45 pm. The film itself will begin promptly at 5:30.

Robert Shaw – Man of Many Voices traces the journey of a small town California boy who planned to be a minister like his father, but instead became the greatest conductor of choral music the world has ever known. At the heart of the film is the mystery of Shaw’s genius. With no formal musical training, he achieved a stunning early success in popular music and later became legendary for his interpretations of classical music’s great choral masterpieces.

An early champion of civil rights, Shaw had a mystical belief in the power of community and could communicate his passion for music with spellbinding intensity. As Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the latter half of the twentieth century, Robert Shaw changed the course of musical history through the many voices he set on fire with an enduring love of music.