South Metro Chorale

2025 UK Tour

2025 The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

2023 Spring

2023 Winter Rutter Gloria

2025 Cabaret

Join the South Metro Chorale for their winter fundraising event at T.J. Hooligans Prior Lake! Purchase a Music Bingo card & try your hand at winning one of our many fabulous prizes! All proceeds go directly to SMC. Enjoy the great food & drinks at T.J. Hooligans at 6pm before Music Bingo begins at 7pm. Bring a friend (or several!) to this night of fun and community while raising money for this wonderful organization. CHRISTMAS UGLY SWEATER CONTEST: Wear your most beautiful, tacky, or just plain festive holiday attire. There will be a prize for the outfit that impresses the judges the most!

Tuesday, December 16th, 6-9pm (Bingo begins at 7pm) 16731 State Hwy 13 Suite 113, Prior Lake, MN 55372 $25 for 10 rounds of Bingo. All ages welcome!

Who We Are

SMC is a community choir serving the south suburban communities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. The chorale provides a broad spectrum of experiences and repertoire, including accompanied and a cappella music of the great masters, as well as works from contemporary and local composers, American folk music and African American spirituals. Jazz, Broadway, and popular arrangements are also presented at our annual "Cabaret" fundraiser.

Mission

At South Metro Chorale, our mission is to achieve excellence in the performance of classical and contemporary choral music for our community. We accomplish this through outreach programs and concerts that provide entertaining and enriching experiences to both audiences and chorus members.

SMC 2025-2026 Concert Season

December 13 Season of Light: Songs from Around the World

Season of Light: Songs from Around the World

Mount Calvary Lutheran Church
3930 Rahn Rd, Eagan, MN 55122
Saturday, December 13, 2025, 3 p.m. Ticket price: $20 Adult/Senior, Students free

Dec 13 Tickets

Tickets will be available at the door.

Become a community partner with a contribution!

$600 and above	Benefactor	Full-page ad (4.9 x 7.6")
$300 - $599	Sponsor	Half-page ad (4.9 x 3.8")
$150 - $299	Patron	Quarter-page ad (4.9 x 1.9")
$60 - $149	Donor	Program Acknowledgement
$30 - $59	Friend of SMC	Program Acknowledgement

DONATE

The South Metro Chorale is a certified non-profit organization. All donations are greatly appreciated and are tax deductible.

You can donate online (using the donation link on the left) or by check. Checks may be made payable to South Metro Chorale and sent to: c/o SMC Treasurer, P.O. Box 405, Savage, MN 55378

If you are interested in this partnership, or if you love to sing and have any questions about the choir, please email us at smc@southmetrochorale.org.

Auditions

Dear Singers,

Thank you for your interest in South Metro Chorale. Auditions can be arranged by contacting director Christiana Howell at director@southmetrochorale.org.

Our rehearsals are held on Tuesdays from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. at Glendale United Methodist Church in Savage.

Our typical season consists of a series of holiday concerts in December and a themed concert the beginning of May. We also have two "Cabaret" concerts the first weekend in March.

Artistic Staff

Dr. Christiana Howell - Artistic Director

Dr. Christiana Howell (she/her) is a choral conductor and singer residing in Minneapolis. She is the Artistic Director of the South Metro Chorale and the most recent Director of Music at Vista Lutheran Church in St. Louis Park. Since moving to Minnesota in 2020, she has sung professionally with the Minnesota Renaissance Choir, Bach Roots, The Summer Singers, the University of Minnesota International Choral Academy, The Cathedral of Saint Paul and St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral. She holds degrees in Music Education, Vocal Performance, and Choral Conducting from Slippery Rock University (BM), Shenandoah University (MME), and the University of Cambridge (MMus), and completed her DMA in Choral Conducting at the University of Minnesota in May, 2025. She has conducted choirs across North America, Europe, and the UK, including St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Christiana has recently joined the music faculty at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University, where she directs the Women's Choir, All-College Choir, and teaches private voice lessons. In her spare time she loves playing outside, traveling to exotic places, and being a song leader for Beer Choir Twin Cities.

Dan Wanamaker - Assistant Director/Accompanist

Dan Wanamaker is a Minneapolis-based pianist and singer. He is very excited to work with the South Metro Chorale! In 2022 he graduated from Minnesota State University-Mankato with a Master's in Piano Performance. He served as Graduate Assistant at MSU, where he accompanied for the Concert Choir and voice studios. Prior to 2020, Dan accompanied for the Menomonie Singers and the Apollo Male Chorus. He is a choir section leader at St Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis. He has sung with the choir of St Clement's Episcopal Church in St Paul and the Cathedral of St Paul. Other choral engagements include the Minnesota Renaissance Choir, Aliro Voices, the Summer Singers, and Apollo Master Chorale. Dan enjoys learning new languages, strong air conditioning, and composing fugues.

Former Artistic Directors:

Mark Bilyeu	Fall 2018 - Spring 2022
Richard Carrick	Fall 2015 - Spring 2018
Russell Adrian	Fall 2012 - Spring 2015
Tim Malone	Spring 2011 - Spring 2012

Loren Squires - Founding Director Emeritus

Loren retired from active directing in December 2010 after leading SMC for 13 years. Loren received his B.M.E. from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, and his M.M.E. at MacPhail College of Music. He taught public school music education for 39 years, the last 35 at Burnsville High School. He was formerly Assistant Director of the Bach Society Chorus and a member of the Minnesota Chorale. Loren has also directed choirs at five area churches and was a professor of music at North Central University.

Cabaret Impressions

Thank you to all who attended our 2025 Cabaret: British Invasion
2025 Cabaret - Photos from the Dress Rehearsal

South Metro Chorale Tours

June 2025: SMC in the UK

South Metro Chorale toured London, Windsor, Oxford, Cambridge, York and Edinburgh June 4-14, 2025. After rehearsing under the direction of Alissa Rowe (LSU) with other choral ensembles, we performed the UK premiere of The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci at Cadogan Hall in London. We had plenty of time to explore London during our stay. Then it was on the bus to tour the UK. Amazing experiences: singing Evensong at SMC director Christiana Howell's alma mater Selwyn College at Cambridge, under the direction of her former professor Sarah MacDonald, and singing a concert at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. SMC was joined on tour by singers from Oratorio Society of Minnesota and Kantorei.

Earth Song: Kylemore Abbey, Connemara, Ireland

2015 - SMC in Ireland

South Metro Chorale toured Ireland August 6-14. We flew to Dublin, immediately departing on the bus to visit the Rock of Cashel and the Jameson Distillery before settling in our hotel in Cork. In the next days we visited the Blarney Castle where we all kissed the famous Blarney Stone, Killarney and the Ring of Kerry, the cliffs of Moher, the Burren, Galway, Connemara, and back to Dublin. The Guiness Brewery tour in Dublin was great. We all enjoyed live Irish music in pubs in every town we visited and had some great food: Irish stew, seafood chowder, soups served with sweet brown bread, fish and seafood - wonderful! We performed in some lovely venues, including St. Multose in Kinsale, St. Mary's in Killarney, the Gothic Church on the grounds of Kylemore Abbey in the Connemara countryside, St. Columba in Ennis, and our final performance in St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.

August 2010: SMC in Dubrovnik, Croatia

South Metro Chorale toured Croatia and Austria October 8-18. We flew to Dubrovnik, touring the historic walled city on the sea, and performing at St. Blaise Church. After the concert we experienced our first of many instances of Croation hospitality, with a concert guest inviting our entire group out to a local restaurant. Our next stop was Split, where we explored Diocletian's Palace and sang at St. Catherine's Dominican Church. We traveled up the coast to our last stop in Croatia (Rijeka) where we toured Trsat Castle and sang at St. Vitus Cathedral. Our next stop was Graz, Austria, where we sang a joint concert with the "Grazer Schubertbund" and were hosted by choir families. We ended the tour in Eberschwang, Austria, where we stayed with families from the "Chorgemeinschaft Eberschwang" and performed at St. Michael's Church.

2005: Poland, The Czech Republic and Austria

South Metro Chorale toured Poland, The Czech Republic and Austria. The tour started with an appearance at Wadovice at the Cathedral where Pope John Paul II served as an altar boy and later was ordained a Priest. We sang at the Mass celebrating that ordination and a concert after. The choir sang at St Katarina Church in Krakow the following evening. The choir traveled to Prague where they sang a concert at St Nicholas Cathedral in St Wensaslas Square and the next day a joint concert with the Netherlands choir, "Sjanton" and the Prague choir "Hlahol". The choir then traveled to the beautiful town of Cesky Krumlov for an evening concert. The choir ended their tour with two days of home stays in Eberschwang, Austria where we had a very special concert, Mass on Sunday, lots food and a great end of tour party.