New Wave Singers of Baltimore

The New Wave Singers of Baltimore (New Wave) is a community of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and straight people (GLBTS) making music that matters. Since 1985, New Wave has performed an eclectic repertoire of choral music from madrigal to pop, classical to jazz, and in many different languages. New Wave’s repertoire also features music that promotes justice and peace and celebrates life in all its diversity, and the choir has commissioned a number of new arrangements of songs in this spirit. Over 40 voices strong and under the direction of Artistic Director, Ray Killian, New Wave is Maryland’s only GLBTS mixed chorus.

New Wave presents two major concerts each year as well as a cabaret featuring local guest artists. The choir also performs at numerous benefits, religious services, receptions, and annual meetings for community-based organizations, such as the Health Education Resource Organization (HERO), Lutherans Concerned, and the Washington Home Community Hospice of Maryland. New Wave sings each year at various Baltimore GLBT Pride events, including the Pride Festival and Inter-Faith Service, and has performed at fundraisers for the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore (GLCCB) and services to mark World AIDS Day. All of New Wave’s major concerts are artistically interpreted for the hearing impaired

New Wave is a member of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, and the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA Choruses). The choir has proudly represented Baltimore at the last 4 GALA Choruses festivals, performing before international audiences in Tampa, Florida in 1996, San Jose, California in 2000, and Cincinnati, Ohio in 2002 and Montreal, Canada in 2004.

Ray Killian Artistic Director

Ray Killian received his education from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ (B.Mus. Ed.), and from the University of Illinois (M.M in Choral Conducting, and completed coursework for the Ed.D in Music Ed [ABD]). At Illinois, he also taught choral conducting to undergraduate students. Ray has studied at the Hochschule Musik in Köln, the Mozarteum and the Carl Orff Institute in Salzburg, Austria. As a soloist, he has sung with Joseph Flummerfelt and the Westminster Choir, Sir David Willcocks, Robert Shaw and Sergio Busjle (with the pan American Symphony in DC). Ray has sung under the batons of many conductors including Ricardo Muti, Carl Maria Giulini, Zubin Mehta, Christian Badea, Robert Shaw, Tom Hall and Donald Nally. he has conducted choirs throughout the Midwest, East Coast and Western Europe.

In addition, Ray has performed in various concert halls as a solo recitalist both here and throughout Western Europe. His voice coaches include Martin Katz, Dalton Baldwin, Marvin Keenze, and Glenn Parker. As a teacher and conductor (here and in Europe) Ray has received numerous awards of excellence. He has served as a clinician at various GALA Choruses workshops, as well as those sponsored by MENC here and overseas. He was an ensemble recipient of a Grammy award for Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, recorded live at the 1983 Spoleto Festival in Italy (New World records), where he sang for Barber's former partner and festival founder Gian Carlo Menotti. No stranger to the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA Choruses, Inc.) movement, Ray was the Lesbian and Gay Chorus of Washington, DC's Music Director for 6 years. Locally, he has conducted members of the Arlington Symphony Orchestra (VA) in programs featuring Brahms' Schicksalslied, Beethoven's Mass in C and Elegischer Gesang, Hummel's Trumpet Concerto in C, Hayden's Te Deum, as well as preparing choirs for recent performance of other divers choral works ranging from Gustav Mahler's expansive 2nd Symphony to Ernesto Lecuona's zarzuela Maria la O.