Richard Riley moved to East Montpelier in 2012 and was almost immediately hired as the Burlington Choral Society’s artistic director. Now, 13 years later, the 72-year-old is stepping down and has crafted his final program with the group. Its spring concert, “All Is Breath: The Music of Bach and Schachter,” at Elley-Long Music Center in Colchester on Saturday, April 18, is both a farewell and a celebration: BCS turned 50 this year.
As a title, “All Is Breath” conjures the act of singing itself — and perhaps the sum of the chorus’ output under Riley’s direction. That’s one long breath: By Riley’s count, the Burlington Choral Society has performed more than 160 works, including at least 25 of his own arrangements and three premieres of pieces he commissioned from composers Lembit Beecher, Don Jamison and Michael Schachter.
But the actual source of the concert title comes from Riley’s fourth and final commission, for which he again tapped Schachter, a nationally significant composer who lives in Burlington. “All is but breath” is a phrase from the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible — aka Qohelet in Hebrew — that suggests that all earthly pursuits are ephemeral. Schachter tapped those verses for Qohelet, his seven-part cantata for chorus, string orchestra, two oboes and an English horn.
Soprano Mary Bonhag, of Calais, and Boston baritone Sumner Thompson will sing the solo parts in the choral society’s premiere of the piece.
It’s no accident that Johann Sebastian Bach used the same orchestration, structure and solo parts for his famous cantata, Wachet auf (Sleepers, Awake in English), a centerpiece of the program. Riley and Schachter both revere the late-baroque German composer’s 140th cantata, from 1731; Riley requested that Schachter create a companion piece that could “bookend” his Bach-focused program.
The full concert consists of four Bach pieces and two by Schachter. The other three works by Bach are an excerpt from his 21st cantata, one movement of an orchestral suite and a chorale prelude for organ. Riley arranged the last two for chorus and orchestra and mined other texts for their words. He set the second movement of Orchestra Suite No. 3 in D Major to lines from Wachet auf and the Chorale Prelude for Organ “Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich” (“Before Thy Throne I Now Appear”) to a poem by 19th-century Englishman Thomas Toke Lynch. The chorale prelude for organ is the last work Bach wrote.
Schachter’s other work is “Oseh Shalom Bimromav,” a 2009 composition for chorus and strings. He wrote the piece as a college student at Harvard for the university chorus in which he first met his wife, Allie — now a member of the BCS.
Schachter, who wrote “At Times I Wonder” for the choral society’s spring 2023 concert, said of the new commission, “I felt honored that [Riley] wanted my music to be part of his legacy.” When the commission came in, Schachter was already at work on several other compositions, including a piano concerto that New York City chamber orchestra the Knights and jazz pianist Aaron Diehl recently premiered at Carnegie Hall. The Black Clown, a musical he cocreated with bass-baritone Davóne Tines, will begin a multistate tour at Opera Philadelphia in May.
Riley spoke humbly of his BCS legacy. “I feel so grateful to the chorus to have given me this gig right when I moved into town. It opened the door to meeting everyone in the musical world,” he said. Noting the “constellation of choruses” in the Burlington area, which include Aurora Chamber Singers, Vermont Choral Union, Solaris Vocal Ensemble and Social Band, he credits the Burlington Choral Society with helping him understand “where my star could be among them.”
He has proven again and again such solid leadership of that organization and those singers.
Mary Bonhag
Bonhag, who also soloed in Riley’s first concert with the chorus, said of the conductor, “He has proven again and again such solid leadership of that organization and those singers. Every time I’ve sung with them, they’ve been well prepared and really enjoyed the music. He [knows] what he’s after, and he’s very clear putting that across.”
Riley’s creative programming over the years included music from all three Baltic states as well as a bird-focused concert. His one wish for the choral society is that it continue to have “a repertoire focus that distinguishes it from all the other choruses.”
He will keep directing the Onion River Chorus in Montpelier, three miles from home, as he has since 2023. The BCS board will announce a new artistic director in May. ➆
The original print version of this article was headlined “Take a Breath | Artistic director Richard Riley retires from the Burlington Choral Society after 13 years”
This article appears in April 15 • 2026.
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