Our Story
Portsmouth Pro Musica is dedicated to providing an enriching musical experience to both our members and audiences through the scholarship and presentation of diverse professional-level choral repertoire. The chorus is well-known throughout the Seacoast for the warmth and energy of its sound, adventurous programming and excellent musicianship. Concerts are presented with attention to detail, precision and accuracy of interpretation. PPM aims to share with its audiences the beauty and variety of choral literature. The chorus draws its voices from the greater Seacoast area, including New Hampshire, southern Maine, and northern Massachusetts. You will truly be enriched, as we are, by becoming part of this wonderful music community at our concerts.
Priscilla Stevens French was a major partner in the world premiere of Greg Brown’s At This Point, commissioned for Portsmouth’s 400th anniversary celebration. In this collaboration with the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra at The Music Hall in November 2023, Portsmouth Pro Musica provided the vocal music for Todd Hearon’s texts explaining the history of our seaside city in a 9-movement cantata. Following this success, PPM commissioned Brown to compose a work for the chorus’ 40th anniversary, Where The Owl Lives, which utilizes the original poetry of Seacoast poet Mimi White (December 2024 performances).
The origins of PPM are rooted in the formation of Portsmouth Women’s Chorus in 1985 when Priscilla, new to the Seacoast, founded an auditioned community chorus for female voices. For 21 years (1985-2006) PWC explored a variety of music composed for treble voices from all style periods (16th through 20th century) including classical, folk, spirituals and more. PWC was invited to perform on the ACDA Eastern Division convention in Baltimore (2000) as the only choir from New Hampshire and also had a 10-day concert tour of England (1998). Priscilla also became music director of the Sandpipers Children’s Chorus (2012-18), a program training young voices in the finest children’s vocal music, which is now part of Portsmouth Music and Arts Center (PMAC).
Priscilla’s transformation of PWC into PPM in 2006 opened up repertoire which allowed singers to perform major works with professional soloists and orchestra. A few of these works include Carmina Burana (2010), Elijah (2014), A German Requiem (2018), and The Creation (2023). Recent concerts have also explored repertoire by lesser known composers of our time such as Carol Barnett, Margaret Bonds, Kim Andre Arnesen and James Whitbourn. New music can help link singers with contemporary issues. In 2015 Priscilla led a group of singers on a 10-day concert tour of Central Europe, performing in Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna and Prague.
Priscilla received her Master’s in Choral Conducting from New England Conservatory of Music as a student of Lorna Cooke deVaron. She spent her junior year from Beloit College in Oxford studying organ and musicology. She is the past president of the NH chapter of the ACDA where she also served as chair of women’s choirs in the Eastern Division. Priscilla believes in the beauty and power of choral singing to transform lives. Group singing brings together performers and listeners to create emotional connection. Priscilla is also a watercolor painter and member of both the NH Art Association and Kittery Art Association. She is married to Jameson French, and they are the proud parents of three adult children and one grandson!
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