Formed in 1995 by American choral conductor Robert Simpson, the Houston Chamber Choir (Coeur de chambre de Houston, Texas) is a mixed choir made up of twenty-five professional singers trained at the best schools in the region or at the Juillihard School in New York. Designed to embrace a wide repertoire, the choir has distinguished itself in contemporary music, both on world tours and on record. It has premiered a dozen contemporary works by composers such as Dominick DiOrio, Christopher Theofandis, Jocelyn Hagen and Christian McBride. Renowned in both the classical and jazz worlds, the choir has collaborated with Dave Brubeck, Paul Hillier, Peter Phillips, Simon Carrington, Bob Chilcott, Maria Guinand, Ken Cowan and Cynthia Clawson, among others. In 2015, it won the American Prize in the choral performance category, then the Margaret Hills Award three years later. The choir's first recording, The Blue Estuaries: American Choral Music (2001), is followed by three albums for the MSR Classics label: the recital Ravishingly Russian: Secular Choral Music 1874-1994 (2009), Psalmi & Vesperas (2012) and Soft Blink of Amber Light (2015). The same year sees the release on ECM of Rothko Chapel: Morton Feldman, Erik Satie, John Cage, a collaborative recording with Kim Kashkashian, Sarah Rothenberg and Steven Schick that ranks in the classical album sales charts in the US and UK. The live recording of Christmas carols Behold the Stars! Christmas at the Villa, released in 2018, is followed by a complete set of choral compositions by French composer Maurice Duruflé, for the Signum Classics label.
