Founded by Sharon Hansen (front right) 15 years ago, Milwaukee Choral Artists is the only professional women’s vocal ensemble in the Midwest and one of only a handful in the country. The 20 MCA ensemble members are all professionally trained in music.

When Sharon Hansen came to UW-Milwaukee, she had no plans to become founder and music director of a professional women’s vocal ensemble, but she did see a gap in choral music in the city. Hansen, who is director of choral activities and chairman of graduate choral conducting at the university, had been living in Germany and singing in a professional choir under the direction of one of the top choral masters in the world, Helmuth Rilling.

Although she found an impressive number of choirs in Milwaukee, she says, and a great Midwest singing tradition, there was no professional group at the same level as the Dale Warland Singers in Minneapolis or the Kansas City Chorale. So she scheduled open auditions for a new group.

The men who turned up for the audition were enthusiastic, but they were singers in community choirs and business people by day. The women who auditioned were singers with the Florentine Opera and Skylight Music Theatre, with master’s degrees and doctorates in music. The expertise gap among the men and women would be too tough to bridge. Hansen took a deep breath and decided to form an all-women’s vocal ensemble, Milwaukee Choral Artists.

"My experience was with vocal chamber music with men and women, so I didn’t know what to do," Hansen says. "I had no idea about the repertoire. Isn’t it funny how life sometimes hands you a situation and you just make the best of it? It’s been nothing but a pleasure and a joy to stay one step ahead of these fabulous singers for the past 14 years."

Milwaukee Choral Artists has performed as a chamber ensemble across southeastern Wisconsin, singing music from 40 world cultures, in 26 different languages. Finding authentic pronunciations of foreign lyrics is a little easier than it used to be, Hansen says, thanks to performances from all over the world posted on YouTube.

Milwaukee Choral Artists will celebrate its 15th anniversary this year, and the organization has commissioned a work from Norwegian-born composer and pianist Ola Gjeilo (pronounced Yay-lo). The group commissioned 10 shorter works for its 10th anniversary, Hansen says, but Gjeilo’s piece promises to be an important world premiere.

"I’ve met him twice, he’s very kind and engaging," Hansen says. "I think this is a young composer in his early 30s that we are getting on the cusp of his becoming an international sensation. We are very, very thrilled to have him write for us."

Commissioning an original work is not an unusual practice for a musical group marking a major milestone, Hansen says.

"The pieces we commission are all published, so this takes the organization to a much greater recognition level," she says, because the music can then be performed globally. "The music groups may come and go, but the piece lives on in perpetuity."

Hansen says Gjeilo will be here for the performance, but that is all she is willing to reveal at the moment. Expect surprises.