A Tradition of Choral Excellence

Please be patient as we completely revamp and revitalize our website!

Portsmouth Pro Musica is dedicated to providing an enriching musical experience to both our members and the community through the scholarship and presentation of professional, high-quality, diverse choral repertoire. The chorus is well known in the Seacoast area and regional choral venues for its unique sound and skilled performances of sacred and secular works gleaned from centuries of choral music. Priscilla Stevens-French, founding director and conductor, provides weekly choral voice coaching and insight for musical interpretation. The chorus draws its voices from the greater Seacoast area, including New Hampshire, southern Maine, and northern Massachusetts. We thank you for your continuing support and invite you to come sing with us or attend our performances. You will truly be enriched, as we are, by sharing this wonderful music program.

Priscilla Stevens French, founding director of Portsmouth Women’s Chorus for 21 years, led the transformation of Portsmouth Women’s Chorus into a new mixed chorus, Portsmouth Pro Musica, in the spring of 2006. Priscilla earned a B.A. from Beloit College and received her Master’s degree in Choral Conducting from the New England Conservatory of Music. She spent her junior year abroad at Oxford studying organ and musicology. Prior to moving to New Hampshire in 1985, Priscilla was chairman of the Music department at Spence School in New York City. She is past president of the New Hampshire chapter of the American Choral Directors Association and past Eastern Division chairman for women’s choirs. Currently, she is a member of the board of Young Organist Collaborative (YOC) in Portsmouth, and Arts in Reach (AIR), a nonprofit organization that partners teenage girls with professional artists based in Dover. Priscilla lives with her family in Portsmouth.

Robert Littlefield, accompanist, is a prominent figure in the North Shore music world. Mr. Littlefield has taught piano and organ for over 40 years and has been accompanying Chorus North Shore since 1983. Mr. Littlefield holds a Bachelor and Master in Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, with focus on harpsichord and organ performance as well as choral conducting. Mr. Littlefield also serves as Music Director and organist at the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Beverly, Mass. He frequently surprises auditioning soloists with his musical genius by playing strictly from memory the piano accompaniment to arias they have chosen for their auditions.