Coro Allegro is Boston’s LGBTQ+ and allied classical chorus.

In 1990, David Cutler founded a Gay and Lesbian choir with a dual purpose – to build bridges between disparate communities while striving for the highest of artistic standards. And out of this, Coro Allegro was born.

Under the baton of David Hodgkins, who celebrates his 25th anniversary as Artistic Director this season, Coro Allegro has blossomed into a nationally recognized LGBTQ+ and allied classical chorus. Known for award-winning programming, eclectic commissions and critically acclaimed performances and recordings of works by diverse classical and contemporary composers, Coro Allegro also is proud to offer a welcoming, affirming and supportive environment for performers and audiences alike.

Each year Coro Allegro offers a subscription series that includes three concerts at venues such as the Church of the Covenant and Sanders Theater at Harvard University. Coro Allegro also reaches national and international audiences through broadcasts on WGBH “Classical Performances,” and performances at the international LGBTQ+ GALA Choruses Festivals, the Eastern Division Convention of the American Choral Directors Association, and the Chorus America Conference.

In 2008, Coro Allegro established the Daniel Pinkham Award in memory of the late Boston composer and conductor. The award is given annually in recognition of outstanding contributions to classical music and the LGBT community. Previous award recipients are baritone Sanford Sylvan (2008), Bishop Gene Robinson (2009), flutist Fenwick Smith (2010), composer Patricia Van Ness (2011), conductor Donald Teeters (2012), Coro Allegro’s own Artistic Director David Hodgkins (2013), Laury Gutiérrez, founder and Music Director of La Donna Musicale (2014), conductor Lorna Cooke deVaron (2015), GLAD executive director and former Coro Allegro singer  Janson Wu (2016), and ArtsBoston Executive Director Catherine Peterson (2017)

An advocate of contemporary music, Coro Allegro received the prestigious Chorus America/ASCAP Alice Parker Award in 2012 for its world premiere performance of Kareen Roustom’s The Son of Man. This award recognizes a chorus for programming recently- composed music that expands the mission of the chorus and challenges the chorus’s audience in new ways.

Coro Allegro has released four critically acclaimed commercial recordings: In Paradisum and Awakenings on the Navona Records label, as well as In the Clearing and somewhere i have never traveled.