The Great Land Choral Society
The Great Land Choral Society was founded in 1995. At that time, a group of Chinese Americans who loved singing came together to form a hundred-member chorus. For the first time in the southern United States, they performed selected movements from The Yellow River Cantata, composed by Xian Xinghai.
In September 1996, the hundred-member chorus gathered again and performed My Chinese Heart, a large-scale choral medley arranged by Mr. Sun Chenghua. The performance expressed the heartfelt emotions of Chinese immigrants living far from their homeland and once again drew the attention of the Dallas Chinese community. By the end of that same year, The Great Land Choral Society was formally established. During the 1997 Chinese New Year celebration hosted by the Chinese community in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, the chorus made its first public appearance under the name “The Great Land Choral Society.”
Since then, the Society has performed many beloved choral works at celebrations for Hong Kong’s return to China, annual Chinese New Year events, Mid-Autumn Festival gatherings, and National Day celebrations, earning warm praise from audiences. In the spring of 2000, the Society officially became a year-round community arts organization.
Beginning in 2001, The Great Land Choral Society started presenting annual concerts. Its first concert coincided with Mother’s Day in May. The heartfelt songs received enthusiastic applause from the Chinese community, and the carnations presented to mothers left a lasting impression on the audience. In the following years, the Society performed major choral suites and themed concerts, including The Butterfly Lovers, Songs of the Yangtze River, Four Seasons of Sanxiang, Concert Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Victory of the War of Resistance, and My Motherland and Me. Each year, the Society introduced new repertoire and continued to generate enthusiastic responses within the local Chinese community.
Over time, its repertoire expanded from popular Chinese songs to Western classics and Eastern folk music, broadening its audience and raising the artistic vision and performance standard of the choir. In the summer of 2007, to promote cultural exchange among China, the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, and to build friendships through music, the Society jointly presented the third “Voices of Chinese” concert with the Great Earth Chorus of Arlington. The concert received attention and coverage from mainstream media in Dallas.
In November 2008, The Great Land Choral Society traveled to China to present the “Chinese Heart, Chinese Sentiment” Chinese-American choral concert. In Shanghai, it performed with the Shanghai Teachers’ Choir and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Choir. In Beijing, it performed with the Friends of Broadcasting Choir, accompanied by the orchestra of the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater. The concert was broadcast by China Central Television, CCTV, both nationally and internationally.
In November 2010, the Society participated in the fourth “Across the Taiwan Strait and the Three Regions” performance in Taipei, achieving great success. In February 2012, it traveled to Europe to participate in a large-scale choral concert organized by the China Choral Association. Its successful performance at the Golden Hall in Vienna became front-page news in China Choral News. In 2013, the Society was invited to Fuzhou to participate in Fuzhou University’s “Meeting Friends Through Song — Voices of Chinese” choral concert, held in celebration of the university’s 55th anniversary.
In the fall of 2014, the Society was invited to Denver to participate in the “Cultures of China, Festival of Spring” performance. Since 2014, many members have also participated in several performances of the large-scale choral suite The Fountain of Time in the United States and Europe. In 2015, the Society took part in a large-scale crowd-sourced production of The Yellow River Cantata organized by China Network Television. In August 2018, it participated in the “China Time” event in Hamburg, Germany, and successfully presented a concert there.
Today, The Great Land Choral Society has grown into a nonprofit 501(c)(3) choral organization with more than one hundred members, supported by a well-established constitution and organizational structure. Since its founding, the Society has benefited from the guidance of distinguished conductors: its founding conductor Ding Aiyue, who taught with tireless dedication; her successor, Guo Ailian, who pursued artistic excellence with meticulous care; and its current conductor, Ms. Ellie Lin, whose outstanding talent continues to inspire the choir. Through their devotion, musical depth, and tireless pursuit of artistic excellence, they have accompanied the Society through many extraordinary years and have become the soul of its continued growth.
The Society’s development has also been enriched by the artistic guidance of its longtime accompanists, including the late Professor Zhu Xinen, Ms. Chen Zuling, Mr. Yu Qing, and Ms. Sewon Kim, as well as by the dedicated collaboration of its committee and board members. Above all, the Society’s achievements would not have been possible without the selfless dedication and strong support of all its members.
The members of The Great Land Choral Society come from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. They represent many professions and backgrounds, but share one common passion: singing. Some members were formerly professional artists, while many others are devoted lovers of choral music. Through years of practice and dedication, many have continued to seek guidance from accomplished teachers in order to improve their artistry.
For thirty years, the members of the Society have supported one another, worked together with unity and dedication, and formed a warm family filled with brotherhood and sisterhood. The Society also actively participates in community service, including fundraising for disaster relief and charitable performances.
