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Choral Arts New England Names Jane Ring Frank as 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
Sunday, October 26th Afternoon Ceremony hosted by First Congregational (Winchester).
Free to All. Reception After.
First Congregational Church is pleased to present the Choral Arts New England 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony and its latest recipient, our Minister of Worship and the Arts Jane Ring Frank. This free event will honor Ms. Frank’s 35-year contribution to choral music in New England. The ceremony will feature a brief performance by Concord Women’s Chorus with Ms. Frank conducting, as well as an opportunity for the audience to sing Bach’s “Dona Nobis Pacem,” from the Mass in B minor.
- When: Sunday October 26, 2025, at 3pm
- Where: The church’s main sanctuary at 21 Church Street, Winchester, MA, 01890.
- Tickets: Event, ample parking and reception are free and open to all. Register here
About this Award
This Lifetime Achievement Award, presented annually since 1994, honors individuals who have made exceptional contributions to choral singing and its culture in New England. Past recipients include John Finney (2020), David Hoose (2008), and Alice Parker (2004).
Earning acclaim for artistic excellence and dedication to innovative programming, Ms. Frank is a conductor and leader whose work has influenced and strengthened New England’s choral community.
Ms. Frank has commissioned many choral works from composers including Boston’s own Ruth Lomon, Beth Denisch, and Scott Wheeler, as well as Libby Larsen, Melissa Dunphy, Byron Adams, and more. Several, including Dunphy’s Grown Wild for Concord Women’s Chorus, found their place in popular choral repertoire, receiving multiple performances by other choral groups.
About Jane Ring FrankJane Ring Frank is one of Greater Boston’s most acclaimed choral conductors. She brings to audiences an unerring ear for intonation and sound color, a command of choral and orchestral conducting, uncompromising scholarship, and a love of connecting with listeners.
Since moving to Boston in 1991, Ms. Frank has conducted at Harvard University, served as Director of Chapel Music at the Episcopal Divinity School and served on the faculty of Emerson College. She conducted Philovox, E. C. Schirmer’s resident professional recording chorus, the North Shore’s Cantemus Chamber Chorus, and founded professional vocal ensemble Boston Secession, with whom she produced more than 20 innovative programs and two significant recordings. To date, one (Afterlife on Brave Records) remains the only recording of Hugo Distler’s Totentanz (1934) by a US professional ensemble.
Having toured in the United States, Southeast Asia, and Europe, Ms. Frank is currently Artistic Director of Concord Women’s Chorus (32 years) as well as the Minister of Worship and the Arts at the First Congregational Church in Winchester (23 years). For 22 years, Ms. Frank was a Resident Scholar with the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University.
About Choral Arts New England
Choral Arts New England was formed in 1980 as a memorial to Alfred Nash “Bud” Patterson, the founder of Boston’s Chorus pro Musica and an inspiring cultural leader, mentor and model for singers, conductors and composers. Their mission: to elevate choral music and creativity. The organization provides resources to encourage choral excellence in New England, primarily through Alfred Nash Patterson Grants. Additional activities include this Lifetime Achievement Award, online choral calendar, directory of New England choruses, online news and biannual print newsletter.
Quick Links:
https://www.choralarts-newengland.org/
https://concordwomenschorus.org/wp/
