Margaret Hillis Award for Artistic and Organizational Achievement

Margaret Hillis Award for Artistic and Organizational Achievement 

The Margaret Hillis Award for Artistic and Organizational Achievement is given to a Chorus America member chorus in recognition of sustained artistic accomplishments and organizational strength.

Description

The Margaret Hillis Award for Artistic and Organizational Achievement is presented to a member chorus that demonstrates both artistic achievement and a strong organizational structure with financial stability for a significant period of time. The awardee also exhibits a commitment to access, diversity, equity, and inclusion, community engagement, and education.

This award is given in memory of Margaret Hillis, founder of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and its conductor for 37 years, for her more than 40 years of professional achievement and outstanding contributions to the choral art. 

For the 2025 awards cycle, this award is open to children/youth choruses. 

The awardee receives an engraved plaque and $5,000.

Eligibility

Applicants must be a chorus member of Chorus America. 

 For the 2025 awards cycle, this award is open to children/youth choruses. 

Eligibility rotates through a three-year cycle, and future categories include:

• 2026: Professional and professional-core choruses: fully professional choruses that pay 100% of their singers and choruses with a core of professional singers (25% of singers, or 12 singers, whichever is fewer) 
• 2027: Adult volunteer choruses 
• 2028: Children/youth choruses 

A chorus may win this award only once. 

Deadline and How to Apply

The 2025 application window for this award has now closed. 

The online application will ask for the following information:

• Chorus information and Mission Statement
• Describe how the chorus nominee has distinguished itself in the area of artistic achievement. Include information on the chorus’s programming philosophy and programming highlights from at least the last two seasons.
• Describe how the chorus nominee has distinguished itself in the area of organizational strength.  Include information on the chorus’ fiscal management, current financial position, and plans for maintaining stability in the future. If deficits occurred in any given season, explain the efforts made for debt reduction.
• Describe the chorus nominee’s efforts to advance access, diversity, equity, and inclusion through its work.
• List and briefly describe all programs involved with education, outreach or reaching new audiences in the chorus nominee’s community. 
• List repertoire performed during the last two complete seasons and current year. Give dates of all performances. 
• Financial statements for the last two complete seasons, such as income statements and balance sheets.
• Upload 2-5 representative recordings following these guidelines:
  • A minimum of two pieces and maximum of five, with a maximum total playing time of 20 minutes.
  • All selections on the recording must be from the last two complete seasons or the season in progress.
  • At least one selection must be an unedited live performance or rehearsal. 
  • Applicants are encouraged to exclude long instrumental introductions or interludes.
  • Applicants are encouraged to include a variety of compositional styles and choral techniques.
  • A number of audio or video file formats are accepted, including YouTube or Vimeo links. 
• Provide a track list of the representative recordings, listing composer, title, date performed/recorded, and timing of each selection. Note which are live recordings and which are edited recordings. An optional track list template can be found here. 
• Submit a request through CAAP for one letter of support from a partner or community member. 

Please refer to the Margaret Hillis Award for Artistic and Organizational Achievement rubric as an additional resource. 

Please note: While there are no word limits for responses to the narrative questions, we find that concise responses that address the prompt and award rubric criteria in 2-4 paragraphs tend to be most successful.

Recipients are selected by an award panel composed of experts in the award area from the Chorus America community, Chorus America board members, and/or past award recipients. This award is not required to be given annually and will be given at the discretion of the panel. 

Questions? Contact Vale Southard at 202.331.7577x253 or at [email protected]  

Past Awardees