In 1973 a small group of local singers joined together to provide a forum for performing fine choral music. The Rogue Valley Chorale was born, and since that time the group has grown immensely in numbers and musical stature. The Chorale has performed many of the great choral masterworks including Bach's St. John Passion, Mass in B Minor, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Bloch's Sacred Service, and the Requiems by Brahms, Mozart, Faure, and Verdi. The Chorale has traveled to Europe on many different concert tours and appeared in concert and at a special mass in Alba, Italy, Medford's sister city, in the summer of 1998. It has also been heard in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Norway. In March 2000, the Chorale was featured in a Mid-America Productions concert performed in New York's Carnegie Hall. The Rogue Valley Chorale consists of the adult chorus plus the Rogue Valley Children's Choruses. Mr. Lynn Sjolund, the founding director of the Chorale, has conducted it many times. During a three-year absence to serve as Director of Choral Activities at Loyola University of the South in New Orleans, the Chorale was directed by Russ Otte and Sean Warren.