The Fredösphere

Daniel Wolf stopped by to comment on the conservatism of the NEA list of American choral masterpieces I blogged about yesterday.  I agree, and with him, I regret it, although with a slightly different take.  The extra bit that's missing is the observation that, of all areas of music, choral music is the most affected by amateurism, with all the good and bad that that implies.  Instrumentalists wouldn't dream of joining any (non-student) orchestra until they have some training, but when it comes to singing, "anybody" can do it, right?  We have a great many choirs; supposedly almost ten percent of the U.S. population belong to one.  Where are the choirs that can convincingly perform the pieces Daniel mentions?  They are too few and far between.  What can we do about that?