The Claye Vocale Choir was founded in 1984 in Claye Souilly, a small town east of Paris (France). Since 1986 the choir director is Marie-Hélène Caspar. Composed of about 60 mixed amateur voices, the choir has participated in international choral gatherings in France and abroad. It has had the opportunity to sing with prestigious Directors: Jean-Walter Audoli (Mozart's Coronation Mass), Patrick Marie Aubert (Fauré Requiem), Terence Waterhouse (Vivaldi's Magnificat) and in 1997 and 1998, Jean-Claude Vincent for the Festival du Pays Briard.

The choir has a varied musical repertoire, from the Renaissance to the 20th century, with a preference for orthodox liturgy and sacred music from the 19th century.

Since 1991 the choir has hosted in Claye Souilly a number of french and foreign choral groups, including the Springfield Chorale from Washington DC in June 2002. It has given concerts in Cologn (Germany), Soave (Italy), Bornem and Bruges (Belgium), Targoviste (Romania), Prague and Litomisl (Czech Republic), Springfield (USA) as well as in Luxemburg and in Castricum (The Netherlands). See our dedicated Links page.

The Claye Vocal Choir has released a cassette of secular and sacred music in 1991 and four CD's: Gabriel Fauré's Requiem and Cantique de Jean Racine in 1996; Orthodox Liturgy, Vivaldi, Gounod and G. Fauré in 1999; Traditional and sacred Christmas songs, Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo (J. Haydn) in 2002; Spendiarov, Baghdassarian and Messa di Gloria (G. Puccini) in 2004. Samples of these recordings are available for download.

News...
Two new Blogs to discover:
The Chœur Claye Vocale blog - http://clayevocale.over-blog.com
The Claye-Souilly Music Festival blog - http://festivalclaye.over-blog.com