

Taylor Festival Choir
This release—the Taylor Festival Choir’s second album for Delos—features original Christmas works by two distinguished American composers: Brian Galante and Stephen Paulus. The two multi-movement works presented in this album — Galante’s So Hallow’d the Time and Paulus’s Christmas Dances — are heard here in world premiere recordings.
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Recorded by MSR Classics, this CD features the semi-professional chamber choir Taylor Festival Choir and legendary guest artists Liz Carroll, John Doyle and Kim Robertson. Audio Society of Atlanta called it "a choral feast that will linger long in your memory after you've heard it." It plays frequently on Sirius XM radio.
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…for those who enjoy modern American choral music, this is an outstanding new contribution to the list of first-rate recordings available. Strongly recommended.
— William Kempster
This is a lovely disc that is billed as a collection of Christmas music, but one that I think will provide pleasure and inspiration year round. Recommended.
— Ken Meltzer
Robert Taylor and his Taylor Festival Choir produces about as beautiful a blended choral sound as could be possibly imagined. Their tuning is spot on, and his direction of the group leads them into the most beautiful phrasing any composer (or listener) could ask for in choral music.
— David DeBoor Canfield

About the Taylor Festival Choir
Dr. Robert Taylor
Founder & Director
Taylor Music Group, Taylor Festival Choir
Dr. Robert Taylor is the Founding Artistic Director and President of the Taylor Festival Choir (TFC) and Taylor Music Group (TMG), Professor Emeritus in Choral Music at the College of Charleston, and the recently retired director of Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Singers.
Composers in Residence
Who we Are
The Taylor Festival Choir (TFC) is a professional chamber choir based in beautiful Charleston, SC. Founded and conducted by Rob Taylor, the choir is inspired by the lives and careers of his parents Bob and Cornelia Taylor, venerated music educators in their home state of Arkansas. Founded in 2001 and fully professional since 2015, the Taylor Festival Choir has toured and been heard in prestigious venues and festivals throughout the United States, Ireland, and the UK, and has garnered a reputation of excellence among critics and choral specialists alike. TFC has been featured in multiple American Choral Directors Association Conferences, including the 50th-anniversary celebration and National Conference in 2009, and this year’s 2025 conference in Dallas.
TFC is part of the Taylor Music Group, a 501c3 non- profit arts organization that supports both classical and folk music. It presents a full concert season in the Charleston area, and served as the flagship ensemble for the Piccolo Spoleto Celtic and Classical Arts Series for over 15 years. TFC has recorded with PARMA/Navona Recordings, Delos Recordings, MSR Classics, and Centaur Records –– and has received rave reviews from periodicals such as American Record Guide, Fanfare Magazine, Crescendo Magazine, MusicWeb International. Personnel in the ensemble are conductors, performers, and professionals from throughout the United States. The Taylor Festival Choir performs the finest choral literature from all eras, medieval to modern, with particular emphasis on new music. It has collaborated with and commissioned esteemed composers such as Stephen Paulus, Trevor Weston, Michael McGlynn, David Maves, Edward Hart, Karen Marolli, and TFC’s two Composers in Residence Brian Galante and Chelsea Loew.
TFC also performs folk music from the Celtic nations, frequently collaborating with Mary Taylor’s Celtic ensemble Na Fidléirí, as well as Irish and Scottish traditional legends such as John Doyle, Liz Carroll, Kim Robertson, and others. The TFC is dedicated to bringing the beauty and spiritual enrichment of choral music to as wide an audience as possible, and is currently involved in theTaylor Music Group’s “Pathways to Healing Initiatives,” an initiative dedicated to using the medium of music in the healing of body, mind and spirit. Our next album will bear the title “Pathways to Healing,” and is scheduled for a spring/summer release on PARMA/Navona Recordings.
““Simply one of the best choirs in the country””
““An outstanding choir, which sings with arresting tonal beauty, balance and blend. “”
“NO WONDER the Taylor Festival Choir has such a stellar reputation. Their concentration, their precision, their passion, and, above all, their unity of sound are unsurpassed.”