Sing On! Anniversary Series: Nashoba Valley Chorale

Guided by high standards, hard work, and fun, Nashoba Valley Chorale sings on

The third installment of of the “Sing On!” series has GBCC catching up with Nashoba Valley Chorale, now celebrating its 50th anniversary. Founding music director Mike Manugian and current music director Anne Watson Born spoke about the chorale’s commitment to performing great music as a choir that is open to all.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. (Published: February 2026)

 

Alison LaRosa (General Manager, GBCC, she/her): How did each of you come to be connected with Nashoba Valley Chorale?

Mike Manugian (he/him): I was one of the two co-founders, along with a friend named Ruth Wise, who was very involved in arts activities in the area. She and I were both interested in starting a chorus, and she graciously let me take the role of music director. So, that’s how I came to be associated with the Nashoba Valley Chorale. Ruth and I started it.

Anne Watson Born (she/her): Ruth just passed away, what, a few months ago?

MM: Yes, in June of last year.

AWB: Ruth lived for many years on the Cape…

MM: Yeah. She started a number of adult and children’s arts organizations in the Groton area and then did that all over again after she moved to the Cape.

AWB: Her obituary is amazing. I really wish I had met her.

MM: I will say that there would not have been a chorale without Ruth. She was the original concert manager, president, administrative staff… She knew loads of people, especially singers in the area.

AWB: That made it possible for us to get started.

AL: The connector, if you will?

AWB: Yeah. Back then, it was harder to get the word out, you know? There were newspapers… it’s interesting that you say that, Mike, because I think that really is important, that there’s somebody out there who knows the community and can reach out to singers and say, “Here we are, come and join.”

MM: And that the community knows her.

AL: So what was the vision and mission, initially, of the chorus?

MM: There were a few things, initially. The first and foremost was to perform good music. And by “good,” primarily serious classical music. The second thing is that it would be a non-audition chorus. If people would put in the work, they would be allowed to sing. Now, it turns out that what happens with the non-audition choruses is that some people start and say, “I don’t think I can do this,” and drop out. Other people start, and they don’t drop out, and perhaps they should! So there are always a few who are not quite up to the task, but my feeling was, if people really wanted to do it, we should let them do it. It’s worth it to make it an inclusive experience.

AWB: My whole career has been working with non-audition groups. I feel really passionate about that. I think especially now, it’s crucial with the state of education in this country, and the lack of opportunities for people… people go home and they listen to music, they watch singers on TV. They don’t think they can do it, right? So I think the whole idea of being non-audition is just really crucial for our art form. But I gotta say, Mike, we’re in the minority. Most people, they want to work with an audition group. It’s not always an easy sell.

MM: It depends on what your objective is. If your objective is to allow people to sing good stuff…

AWB: …allow them to do it, and you’re gonna get there. We have 90-some people now that are there to do exactly that.

MM: And another part of this was that finances would not be a deterrent. If someone couldn’t pay the membership dues or whatever the expense was, we would accommodate that. And also, we would accommodate people who are unable to stand for an entire performance. That’s also important. They should be given the opportunity. And the last one is, we wanted to try to perform music of local composers as much as we could. Anne has carried on that tradition, too. So those were the five things, really. I’m very pleased to say those five things are still there.

AL: Anne, you mentioned that you’ve had this lifelong love of directing non-auditioned choruses. How did it come to be that you came to Nashoba?

AWB: The director right before me, Justin Smith, I know him. His wife worked with my husband at Harvard Med, and anyway, they were this young couple that we knew. So Justin had to miss a rehearsal for some reason. They were doing the Poulenc Gloria, which is one of my favorite pieces. I showed up, and I gotta say, it was a great rehearsal! It was just one of those nights where everything just went well. And then the job opened up later that spring because Justin and his wife had to move. I don’t remember if they did a real search or not, but I got hired, so I really think it was that one rehearsal that did it, you know?

AL: Fantastic. Mike, you’re a singer, you’re a founder. What are some of the other hats you’ve worn with the group?

MM: Well, right now, I’m working very hard to be a singer only, and keep a low profile! I started the group, but the group that’s there now is the group that’s there now, with the membership that it has and the staff that it has. They are all very hardworking. They do a very good job. So it is really their group. It’s sort of like having a kid. I know it’s a hackneyed thing, but you let a kid go out in the world, and you hope that it will maintain its equilibrium. And I’m just happy that fifty years later, it’s thriving. And Anne is no small part of that.

AWB: Well, we did go through some hard times. When I took that job, I think we had an average number of 35 singers or something? It was just ridiculously low for that kind of group, and that’s where being a non-audition group really matters: if you don’t have a huge batch of people to carry each other along through the learning process, it’s really, really tough. And so we had a bunch of years of really low budget and low, low membership.

AL: So how did you respond to that? How’d you pull the membership numbers up?

AWB: We kept going with the basic idea that we’re going to do good music, and we’re going to do it as well as we possibly can, and the standards were pretty high even then. It was just hard without money and without a lot of people. And then we brought on some strong board members. We had a board president who was just a go-getter, Ed Howard. Just an amazing man, also sadly passed, or he’d be talking to you. He’d be talking your ear off right now! Ed really brought more of a business approach to things. He’s like, we need to get more organized, we need to be like this, the board needs to function this way, we need to raise money, I’m going to go talk to people, we’re going to raise money. And he did all that, and then we were able to do splashier pieces with more instruments, and people started to come because they wanted to be part of it. So much has to do with the boards: the amount of work they put in, and just trying to think through what we need to do to get bigger.

AL: And Mike, how would you respond to that same question in terms of a challenge that the chorale faced?

MM: Well, in the beginning, we didn’t have a financial challenge. We begged, borrowed, and stole everything! We just didn’t have any money to do anything. And after a while, we got a little money, but we borrowed music, we borrowed rehearsal space, we had volunteer conductors, volunteer music director, everybody was a volunteer. We had the problem that we tried to do things that would probably be a little beyond what we should have done, but, you know, I was 29 or 30, and I don’t regret it for an instant. But to maintain the group that’s there now, where it’s somewhere between 80 and 100 people, takes a lot of effort from a lot of people, and there are a lot of really good people involved in the group now.

AWB: The board structure started to get clarified and set in a really important way during those years. It probably took seven or eight years. Even though they’re all volunteers, everybody knows what they’re doing, and they know when to do it, and they get it done. Following along with what GBCC was doing was also helpful for me, because I could bring some of the Nashoba board members to the meetings to see how other people were doing things. And Chorus America, you know, all those resources that are out there now are really helpful for volunteer organizations.

MM: And I have to add one more thing, which is that we have a conductor who’s very good at relating to the singers, and the singers like her a lot. And we have an accompanist, Shawn McCann, and a conductor who work extremely well together. Any group would be lucky to have either Anne or Shawn. And this group is lucky enough to have them both. That makes a big difference.

AL: Absolutely, that energy just feeds into everything you do. That’s wonderful. Now that we’re on that subject, tell me about some of your favorite performing experiences with the group.

MM: It’s very hard to pick one. I like pushing the group, so I enjoyed doing Ives’ 67th Psalm. I did it with the group way too early! But that was one I enjoyed. The other is, I had a friend named Arthur Koykka who composed a number of pieces, and the chorale performed at least three of his. He wrote a Te Deum for brass quintet and chorus, which we premiered. He also wrote An Ode to the President. The name is taken from a Mike Mansfield speech after the death of John F. Kennedy. Arthur’s music is good, approachable stuff. It’s not modern, I would say it’s romantic-ish. But it’s really hard to pick a favorite performance. You really enjoy all of them. I did, anyway.

AWB: And I really enjoy rehearsing. With performing I get a little anxious, I get more worried. It’s not unalloyed joy. And then some performances take you by surprise, right? I’m not a big fan of Carmina Burana. I dislike rehearsing that piece, it’s not interesting to me, but that performance was great! The pianists and percussionists were great. So that was really fun. It’s like Mike says, all the performances have a place in your heart. But for me, the best moments are actually in rehearsals. That’s the fun stuff.

AL: That actually leads beautifully into my next question, which is, when you think of a particularly important moment – and maybe that was in a rehearsal, or maybe it was a performance, or maybe it was something completely separate – what was a moment that was important in the history of Nashoba Valley Chorale?

MM: I can think of two. The first one was when the chorale hired Jody Hill Simpson as director. Because that knocked the quality of the chorale up by a big amount. The other one was when the chorale hired Anne Watson Born and Shawn McCann, that duo, together.

AWB: Thank you.

MM: That’s why people come, you know? They come to sing. They spend a lot more time in rehearsals than in performances or anything else. Your rehearsals are good, Anne, and when they’re getting something out of it, then the group’s in good shape.

AWB: I’ll tell you, an important moment to me was when I was in my second year with the chorale, when it was still small, and I’m trying to have them sing some Josquin motet or something. We were doing hard rep. There was this moment where I made a gesture, and they did exactly what the gesture was indicating, and it was the first time they had responded to a gesture that I made that told them how they were supposed to sing that phrase. And I remember that moment like it was yesterday. So it was great, because a lot of the work is in training the chorus to be with you without talking them to death.

AL: So tell me more about the chorale’s involvement with the community, and I leave that very open-ended in terms of how you define community.

MM: We’ve done some collaborations with the Worcester Youth Orchestras. That is a great organization. I think anything we can do to help them out… but you can say more about that, Anne.

AWB: The Worcester Youth Orchestras, they have two or three orchestras, a wind ensemble, and a jazz program. It’s through high-school age, so they start young. And I think they offer lessons in addition to the ensembles. Their director, Jonathan Colby, has built up a really amazing organization, and so we’ve sung with them every year for, I don’t know, ten, fifteen years at Christmas, when they do their big holiday concert. And that’s fun, because they perform at Mechanics Hall. So that’s really nice. And then this year, as part of our 50th, we’re going to sing with the main orchestra at Mechanics Hall at the end of March. And I’ll conduct some of that, which is also fun.

AL: How does rehearsing with them change the energy in your choir? 

AWB: It’s amazing, because it’s just so impressive to see these young people, and they play really, really well. It’s really inspiring for the singers, and they want to sing well when they’re working with those kids. We’ve done some other collaborations in the area.

MM: We do the Christmas tree lighting in Littleton.

AWB: That’s true. We used to be more based in Littleton, so we were always trying to do things there, and the Littleton Rotary is a big supporter of the Chorale. Now we sing throughout the area. We work a lot with the choirs at UMass Lowell. We usually sing once a year or every other year with them.

MM: The decision to name the group the Nashoba Valley Chorale and not the Groton Community Chorus was a conscious one. Ruth and I just happened to live in Groton, but we really wanted it to be a community chorus, and I think the name helps.

AWB: Yeah, it does help, because we draw from all over.

AL: I suspect there are going to be some readers who don’t really know what you mean by “Nashoba Valley”. Do you have a requirement in terms of people coming from a certain area, or…

MM: It’s an amorphous term about this general area. There may be a specific thing called the Nashoba Valley, but I don’t know if there is. 

AWB: it’s sort of past Concord, until Worcester. And then north and south a little bit, but we have people who come down from New Hampshire, from Nashua. We also have a member who comes from Waltham.

AL: You mentioned that you’ve performed at Mechanics Hall. Where are your other main venues?

AWB: We’ve performed a lot in Groton because there’s not a lot of spaces in the area that are big enough for us. For our 50th anniversary concert in January, we crammed ourselves and a 30-piece orchestra into the Groton Dunstable Performing Arts Center, which is in a middle school in Groton. It’s a nice hall! And in May, the sopranos and altos will get to sing at the Groton Music Center with the Vista Philharmonic. They’re doing Mahler’s Third Symphony. That space is gorgeous. It’s just amazing. We sang there a couple years ago; that was really thrilling. But yeah, it’s hard to find spaces. If we were in Boston, it would be easier, because there’s a lot of larger churches we could fit in.

AL: To last fifty years as a performing arts organization of any sort is not easy. I’m curious to hear more of why it is that you think that the chorale is still here now, fifty years later?

AWB: Because of the standards that Mike set as part of his original vision. I think that was crucial. We did a pops concert last year, and that was, like, maybe the second one we’ve done in my twenty years. But even with that, we did some hard music that was really fun to work on. You’ve got to just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to have the best possible result you can have. You have to keep the standards high in rehearsal.  Because otherwise, there’s no point in going out on a Monday night if you’re just going to bash through God Bless America twice and not sing it well. It’s about standards. I think that’s what keeps us going. And then it doesn’t hurt that we’ve gotten better at raising money, and we can hire a good orchestra once or twice a year, and that’s just exciting, right? 

MM: And there aren’t a lot of groups out in the hinterlands that sing serious music. There really aren’t. There aren’t a lot of opportunities for people to do it.

AL: You mentioned earlier, Anne, the role that the Greater Boston Choral Consortium has played in helping you think through some strategic organizational issues. I’d like to hear more about what the chorale’s connection with the choral consortium means.

AWB: I think it’s important. I think even though we’re so geographically far from Boston, I still think it’s helpful to have our name as part of it. And for me, personally, it’s just great to go to that website and see what’s going on. You see what rep other people are doing, and what’s happening, and I try to go to some concerts. Back in the day, when the consortium used to meet in person once a month, people would come and present about something. I loved that connection! I thought that was great because a lot of us are busy, and maybe we don’t all have close friends who are choral conductors, so it’s nice to talk with people. And I think the consortium still serves that purpose really, really well.

MM: We also think it’s better to have programs that are a little above the group. The group should always be working hard.

AWB: That’s exactly right, pushing. Maybe we’ll look at that Ives again!

AL: Mike, what has been the most surprising thing to you, seeing the trajectory of the chorus over the past fifty years?

MM: When you start a group, you don’t think about fifty years later. I mean, just the fact that it’s still here, and I get to sing in it, and I get to sing in a really good chorus, that’s great for me. It’s also nice that it’s a different group than when I started it, obviously. There were fewer singers, and not the same level of accomplishment that there is now. I wouldn’t say it’s surprising, but it’s gratifying to see that it’s still here. And it still has the same objectives. It’s not like the board and director say, we need to do this this time, or we need to do that this time. Those principles are built into the way the chorus operates. I’d like to think that is something that has helped the chorus keep going. I’m thrilled that the chorus is here, and I’m thrilled that I’m going to get a chance to conduct the group again in May.

AL: Oh, what are you conducting? 

MM: The Barber Reincarnations.

AWB: You make it sound like it’s nothing. Those pieces are hard!

MM: I didn’t think you were going to let me conduct that, Anne, but you said, “Oh, sure!”

AWB: The best part about that conversation was when you said something like, “I did them a long time ago, and it didn’t go that great,” and I said, “I did them a long time ago, and it didn’t go that great!” So this time, the Nashoba Valley Chorale is going to just ace them!

AL: And you can slip in the Ives while you’re there.

AWB: Yeah, exactly! I would say another surprising thing is that we still have a lot of members who’ve been there since before I was. And I’ve been there twenty years! But we also are now starting to get younger members, which is great, because for a while, that wasn’t true. And again, I think it’s just because the group is here, and it’s doing good stuff, and somehow the word gets out. I’m really encouraged by that, because I think that’s important. 

MM: People come back to rehearsal because they’re getting something important out of it. And they come back, and they come back, and they come back. It’s work, but they’re getting something out of it. The music, and the way the music is taught – it means something to them.

AWB: I think the collaboration with UMass Lowell is helpful, because that’s a bunch of young people, and their conductor, Jonathan Richter, is phenomenal. And we also have an emerging artist program. It’s a singer or a group of singers that are under age 25. We program something for them to sing, and we give them a little honorarium. We’ve done that now since 2017 or 2018.

MM: That’s important for the community, because it gives these young singers an opportunity to perform on stage in front of people, doing serious, good stuff.

AWB: Yeah, with an orchestra. We’ve had soloists, sometimes we’ve had a quartet like for the Schubert Mass in G…

MM: For the pops program last year, Shawn brought in a jazz trio. But we also had a young soloist…

AWB: Oh, Sofia Santoro! She was amazing. She grew up in Groton but now goes to school, I think, in Ithaca. She’s majoring in jazz vocal performance. You’d think she’d been singing in nightclubs for decades!

AL: Fantastic. It’s nice to know that young people are bringing that art form forward. So when you think about the next fifty years for the chorale, what do you imagine? What do you hope for? 

AWB: We’ve got people that know how to do the work to keep it going. And we’ve got singers who want to be singing – they love it! They show up every Monday night, and I think that will continue. But especially after hearing Mike talk about it, I think it’s true: you’ve got to hold on to your mission. 

MM: I think the repertoire is key. I mean, if you start with really, really good music, even if it isn’t performed superbly well, it’s still really, really good music! It’s just fun to learn. Simple music, or uninteresting music… people are going to get tired of rehearsing it, and it only gets to be so rewarding, you know? Serious music is never finished. You never get to the point where you say, “We’ve gotten everything we could possibly get out of this piece.” That’s the beauty of it. But you have those moments, whether you’re singing, whether you’re directing, you have those moments, sometimes in rehearsal, sometimes in performances…

AL: Hmm. I think that speaks to this next question, which is, when you think of your association with the chorale, what makes you the most proud?

AWB: That we’ve done really good work for many, many years, and we’ve had a lot of fun. It’s a really nice group of people. They’re there to work hard. That makes me proud, yeah. Everybody’s on board with the mission.

AL: How about you, Mike?

MM: Well, when you’re standing in front of 30-some-odd singers, an accompanist and a soloist, in rehearsal or in a performance, all of those people are giving you their attention, and they’re giving you their time for that period. And I would like to think that I don’t waste people’s time. I think that’s a sign of respect to the people one is working with. Having those people in front of me, looking at me, that is a gift. And I want to make the best of our time together. That’s what I’m proud of.

AL: What advice would you give to someone who’s looking to start a new chorus these days, especially when you mentioned that in your area, there’s not a plethora of choruses the way there are in Boston? If someone in the next generation says, “I want to start a chorus in the Nashoba Valley region,” what would you say to them?

MM: Well, what I would say is, first figure out what it is you want it to be. Don’t try to be everything to everybody, you know? Pick a genre, pick an area, pick something. And then decide at what level you want it to be. Do you want it to be an amateur group? Do you want it to be a paid professional group? But be specific – think through what you want to do. And tell people about it, in clear terms, so that they know what they’re getting into. Then, prepare to work your butt off, and have others working with you who are prepared to do that, because it’s a ton of work!

AWB: Yeah.

MM: When you have your first failure – your first canceled concert, or a snowed-out concert, or whatever it happens to be – keep going! There will be problems. But keep going.

AWB: I’d say, know your group. You’ve been clear with them about the music you’re going to do, and the expectations for rehearsals. So don’t bring in techniques that you’d use with a different group. You can’t do all the warm-ups that work with 12-year-olds and expect them to work with 50-year-olds, right? You’ve got to read the room. You’ve got to know the singers that you’re working with. And as Mike has been saying, have high standards, work hard, and have fun.

Hear how Nashoba Valley Chorale’s hard work has paid off as their 50th anniversary season continues on March 29, 2026, in a collaboration with the Worcester Youth Symphony Orchestra at Mechanics Hall in Worcester. Click here for more information.