Statements
Mission
Invoking the beauty of the human voice, Portara Ensemble uses choral music as the gateway to elevate and inspire audiences through the transformative power of artistic collaboration. Portara Ensemble, as its main goal, aims to educate and enrich the Middle Tennessee area in the choral arts, with a focus on bringing new choral works to Nashville alongside collaborations with partners from other cultural and artistic disciplines. Not only does Portara aim to educate our audiences about choral music and its connection to the larger world, but we also offer a broad education in choral singing to the members of the ensemble. The singers in the ensemble are made up of a combination of students, amateur adults, and professionals, and their participation in the group allows them to refine their musical skills while sharing their talents with the Middle Tennessee community.
Background
Portara Ensemble was founded in 2011 by a group of Middle Tennessee choral musicians looking to create a deeper and more satisfying choral music experience by reaching beyond the typical choral concert event. In Portara's inaugural concert series, Portara formed an educational partnership with the art department of Hillsboro High School. Students from the art program were each given a text from the music to be performed, and created a painting based on their interpretation of the poetry. These paintings were displayed at the concerts. We also featured a live painting by Nashville-based artist Bill Niell at the opening spring concert. In September 2011 Portara presented the Tennessee premiere of David Lang's Pulitzer Prize winning Little Match Girl Passion, at the fall Indeterminances concert presented by Nashville's Zeitgeist Art Gallery. Portara Ensemble was invited to perform on the November 2011 concert of ALIAS Chamber Ensemble. The women of Portara performed music of British composer John Tavener with members of ALIAS. The performance received critical acclaim, and was also featured on a Nashville Public Television Arts Break.Portara's Spring 2012 Concert Series was entitled Musica Sacra Mundi, (Music of a Sacred World). This concert was conceived as a cross-cultural musical experience, and speakers from many faiths were invited to participate, including Imam Mohamed Ahmed from the Islamic Center of Nashville, Rabbi Kliel Rose of West End Synagogue, and The Reverend Marilyn Thornton of Fisk University. This concert was a true celebration of diversity, bringing faiths and cultures together and focusing on what unites us.Portara's Fall 2012 Concert was entitled Luminosity: From Darkness to Light. We partnered with Grace Dance Company of Smyrna, Tennessee. As a part of its 2013 season, Portara was invited by the Tennessee Chapter of the ACDA to perform as the featured choir at their annual state conference. In 2014, Portara partnered with ALIAS Chamber Ensemble and the Nashville Ballet to commission and perform works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec. Portara and ALIAS joined together in May 2014 to premiere the commission, Amorisms, in a concert setting, and then later that month joined the Nashville Ballet on their Emergence series as guests and co-collaborators, where the music of Moravec was brought to life through dance. The music featured in this collaboration was released on a CD in January.
Impact
This past year marked a large increase in our audience size and reach. Portara also had the pleasure of performing on Live in Studio C twice during 2018, and was again able to accept an invitation to perform on the CMA Awards in November, as well as on the CMA Christmas Special. The goals for the current year are:- To increase funding for Portara's concerts, programs and operations through individual donations, foundation support, and board development.- To broaden our reach and engagement with the community through partnerships with schools and nonprofits and concert performances.- Continues to develop an annual, multi-discipline winter concert event in collaboration with several established Middle Tennessee non profits and arts organizations.
Needs
Our most pressing needs for the upcoming year are: returning to a full concert season, strategically expand our Board of Directors, increase foundational support for both current programs and new concert series concepts, increase individual contributions, broaden our base of volunteers, and establish a wider network of community-centered venues and concert spaces.
CEO Statement
Portara Ensemble is distinctive because of its versatility. Choral groups are not generally known for being flexible - they tend to cultivate a particular, signature sound, and make repertoire/performance choices based on that defining quality. Portara, like so many other Nashville artists, recognizes the need for a broad palette, and is known for its ability to reinvent the character of the ensemble not only from concert to concert, but from moment to moment during a performance. This depth of vocal skill and musicianship are what makes Portara the ideal partner for creative collaboration with other artists, and as our reputation spreads we are using the singular power of the human voice to open doors to all kinds of cultural and artistic possibilities.. We are vocal chameleons - able to become whatever the moment calls for, in service to the spirit of creativity. This is what makes Portara unique on the local choral scene.
Board Chair Statement
Portara Ensemble is a relatively young organization, and as such we work with a very small operating budget. This means that our staff and performers are all volunteers. A consistent challenge for Portara personnel is finding ways to balance their busy professional and personal lives while committing the time to Portara in order to plan, rehearse, and execute a strong performance and community outreach. In the past year, the board has become more focused on our mission and our passion, and this has translated into more engagement with the needs and input of the performers in the group. The bond of the singers has become stronger, which has led to even better performances. Over the past season we have seen a markedly stronger commitment from the singers and board alike. We've recently refined our mission statement and built a new operating budget and marketing plan to bring Portara to the next level in the cultural scene of Middle Tennessee. Enthusiasm for Portara's mission and direction is greater than ever, from the singers to the staff to the board. The growth trajectory for Portara Ensemble is strong, and we are so excited to create new friendships within the Nashville arts community and to have the opportunity to give back to other non-profit organizations in our community.We created deep partnerships with other Middle Tennessee arts organizations in our previous seasons, which has led to some of our biggest successes. Portara Ensemble has released 2 critically acclaimed CD projects - the first was a collection of hymns in partnership with Naxos of America, the largest classical music distributor in the US, and the second CD was in partnership with Alias Chamber Ensemble. The CD project with Alias developed from an artistic alliance between Alias, Portara and the Nashville Ballet. The 3 organizations joined together to commission a work by renowned composer Paul Moravec. This project took strong communication, fundraising, rehearsal, and performance. The CD was released in January of 2016, and was supported by a Portara guest performance on the Alias Winter Concert. Through these joint projects Portara has been exposed to a wider audience, growing our own performance attendance. These successes have led us to create new partnerships in the arts community in Nashville, which will lead to even more opportunities to give back to our community.
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Arts, Culture & Humanities - Music |
| Secondary Category: | Arts, Culture & Humanities - Singing & Choral Groups |
| Tertiary Category: | - |
Areas Served
Portara Ensemble has been privileged to sing in Davidson county primarily, with performances in Williamson and Rutherford counties as well. We hope to reach all of Middle Tennessee.
| TN - Davidson |
