Our Story
The Detroit Concert Choir (DCC) is Detroit’s international award-winning vocal ensemble. Honored as "Choir of the World", our ensemble is celebrated for exceptional programming and distinctive performances. The 75-voice choir is an auditioned group that is dedicated to promoting choral music of high artistic merit and cultural enrichment for our community. The Detroit Concert Choir rehearses August through May in alternating locations, including high school choir rooms in Grosse Pointe and Birmingham. Auditions are typically held in August. Approximately 10-12 concerts take place each season, including an annual 4-concert series and several collaborative and community performances. Concert venues include historic churches and contemporary auditoriums throughout Detroit and the surrounding areas.

The Detroit Concert Choir, founded by Gordon Nelson, began in 1987 and has been under the artistic direction of Dr. Michael Mitchell since June 2019. Gordon Nelson (1931-2015), whose passion for choral excellence and desire to enhance the lives of others through music became the foundation for a group that has blossomed into a local, national, and international pacesetter of choral music.

Throughout our three-decade history, the Choir has performed hundreds of concerts in our communities, presenting exciting performances to local audiences. Singers gather from over 35 communities and perform classical works for chorus and orchestra in some of the Detroit area’s most beautiful and historic churches and performing arts centers. In addition to the choir’s own concert series, the DCC regularly collaborates with other performing artists, having joined in performances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Sarah Brightman, the Michigan Sinfonietta, the Oakland Symphony, and the Oakland University Symphony Chorus, as well as Polish folk choirs and highland dancers.

DCC has proudly represented the United States with its rich musical heritage to audiences from around the world. The choir is the recipient of eighteen national and international honors in esteemed music conventions and international competitions and won the prestigious “Choir of the World” title at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales. DCC also received the nationally acclaimed Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence based on artistic excellence, strong organizational structure, and a commitment to outreach, educational, and culturally diverse activities. Highlights also include singing pops and classical programs with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and performances at National, Regional, and State American Choral Directors Association Conventions attended by top conductors and educators throughout the country.