Schola Cantorum de Venezuela (SCV; formerly known as Schola Cantorum de Caracas) is one of the most important choral societies belonging to the growing choral movement in Venezuela. The SCV began in 1967. Its founding members included composer Alberto Grau, a Venezuelan composer and conductor born in 1937 in Barcelona, Spain; and Venezuelan composer Ana Rugeles[1] among others. Currently, the choir is conducted by María Guinand (chief conductor) and Ana María Raga (associate conductor), with the assistance of young conductors Pablo Morales Daal and Victor Leonardo Gonzalez. Schola Cantorum de Venezuela works under the sponsorship of the Fundación Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, a Non-Profit Organization that oversees several other choirs such as: Cantoría Alberto Grau, Pequeños Cantores de la Schola and Schola Juvenil. Together they provide a complete system to promote and develop choral music in Venezuela.
To date, SCV has a repertoire of more than 50 major symphonic-choral works and has performed under the batons of highly acclaimed conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado, Gustavo Dudamel, Krzysztof Penderecki, Helmuth Rilling, Robert Spano, John Adams and Edmon Colomer among others. In 1996, SCV performed the world premiere of Oceana by Osvaldo Golijov under the direction of María Guinand in the Oregon Bach Festival.[2] In 2000, at the Europäisches Musikfest Stuttgart, SCV premiered "La Pasión según San Marcos" by Osvaldo Golijov under the direction of María Guinand.[3] The recording of this concert received two Grammy nominations in 2002.[4] In 2006, SCV was invited to the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna to premiere the opera A Flowering Tree, composed and conducted by acclaimed American John Adams.[5] Produced by Peter Sellars, a second edition of the work was performed at the Barbican Centre in London in 2007. New recordings for La pasión según San Marcos and A Flowering Tree have been recorded and were released in 2008 by Deutsche Grammophon and Nonesuch labels, respectively.