Kammerchor

I just sang a Lenten concert with the cathedral's professional chamber choir, which specializes in that super-difficult, beautiful one-on-a-part kind of stuff, the music you hear at high Episcopal city churches in the U.S. and Evensongs in Anglican churches. Here's our program from this evening:

Allegri: Miserere mei
Lotti: Crucifixus
Reger: Der Mensch lebt und besteht (Opus 138)
Mendelssohn: 22nd Psalm
Poulenc: Motets Timor et tremor, and Vinea electa mea
Barber: Agnus Dei (this is a version of the Adagio for voices.)
Mahler: Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (for 16 voices)

It's such an experience to sing with a group that can carry off this kind of music. Although I like opera and musicals, I love this stuff. The ephemeral beauty of those clean, vibrato-less harmonies makes me feel as if I'm floating on a cloud.
Many singers say they cannot sing without vibrato, or that they can but find it uncomfortable and/or bad for their voices. I can, although I can't really say why. It just seems to be something you either can or cannot do, and not a measure of talent in any way.