Measure for Measure Photo - 2012
Join Us in Celebrating our 25th Anniversary

25th Anniversary
Season

2012 - 2013

Season Finale, May 18

Measure for Measure fans all look forward to our annual Spring Concert. For the end of our 25th Anniversary season, we will be performing at Hill Auditorium at 7:30 pm on Saturday, May 18. Please join the group as Director Steve Lorenz leads us in the world premiere of "War Music" by Michigan composer Jeffrey Cobb (winner of our 25th Anniversary composition contest), as well as Handel's "Hallelujah, Amen", Moses Hogan's "Ride On, King Jesus," "There is a Balm in Gilead" (arranged for Measure for Measure by Stacey V. Gibbs), and other audience favorites.

For tickets, contact your favorite Measure for Measure member, call (734) 649-SONG, or buy them online.

For directions to this concert visit our Performance Schedule.

MFM on CD


Plenty Good Room - album cover

Our 25th Anniversary Composition Contest Winner

Last year, we sponsored a composition contest to honor our 25th anniversary, and we are pleased to announce the winner:

Jeffrey Cobb, with his setting of "War Music", a composition for TTBB choir, piano, and trumpet, based on the text of Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933).

We will perform this work at our 25th annual spring concert on May 18th.

Click here to read the lyrics of "War Music"

Break off! Dance no more!
Danger is at the door.
Music is in arms.
To signal war's alarms.

Hark, a sudden trumpet calling
Over the hill!
Why are you calling, trumpet, calling?
What is your will?

Men, men, men !
Men who are ready to fight
For their country's life, and the right
Of a liberty-loving land to be
Free, free, free!
Free from a tyrant's chain,
Free from dishonor's stain,
Free to guard and maintain
All that her fathers fought for,
All that her sons have wrought for,
Resolute, brave, and free!

Call again, trumpet, call again,
Call up the men!
Do you hear the storm of cheers
Mingled with the women's tears
And the tramp, tramp, tramp of marching feet?
Do you hear the throbbing drum
As the hosts of battle come
Keeping time, time, time to its beat?
O Music give a song
To make their spirit strong
For the fury of the tempest they must meet.

The hoarse roar
Of the monster guns;
And the sharp bark
Of the lesser guns;
The whine of the shells,
The rifles' clatter
Where the bullets patter,
The rattle, rattle, rattle
Of the mitrailleuse in battle,
And the yells
Of the men who charge through hells
Where the poison gas descends,
And the bursting shrapnel rends
Limb from limb
In the dim
Chaos and clamor of the strife
Where no man thinks of his life
But only of fighting through,
Blindly fighting through, through!
'Tis done
At last!

O Music mourn the dead
Whose loyal blood was shed,
And sound the taps for every hero slain;
Then lead into the song
That made their spirit strong,
And tell the world they did not die in vain.

Inspiring Male Singers of All Ages

From the sonorous tones of the deepest bass to the airy lilt of the highest tenor, the classical and contemporary repertoire for male voices delivers a compelling sound unique in its range and in its ability to engage the listener. This is the sound of Measure for Measure, a chorus committed to exposing audiences to the breadth of musical possibilities inherent in men's choral music. A chorus equally committed to growing the ranks of men's choruses by engaging high-school and college choristers in concerts that demonstrate the joy of a rich musical life beyond school years. 

As you will hear, that musical life doesn't end with school, but extends from young men just out of college to "seniors" in their most mature years, all coming together to share in their common love of music. Over the course of a quarter century, the men of Measure for Measure have grown from a small cadre of University of Michigan Glee Club alumni, to a well-honed men's chorus that has ably represented southeastern Michigan locally, nationally, and internationally.

Accolades

On our recent performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra...

"... the chorus, combining singers from the Carillon Women's Chorale, the Livinigston County Chorale, the Livingston County Women's Chorus, and Measure for Measure -- were mighty and moving."

- Susan Isaacs Nisbett, for annarbor.com

26th Season Fall Auditions
September, 2013

Measure for Measure holds auditions twice yearly: at the start of the school year in September, and again at the beginning of January.  Watch this space for dates and times for our fall auditions.

Please click here for full audition details.