VAN
FEATURES
New York premiere: Requiem for Robert F. Kennedy
Posted 4/29/2025
2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of both Robert F. Kennedy and my father, the composer Frank Lewin. On Sunday, May 4 at 3:00 PM at Rutgers Presbyterian Church (236 West 73rd Street in Manhattan), Matthew Lewis will lead St. George's Choral Society in the New York premiere of Requiem for Robert F. Kennedy (Mass for the Dead, in English), which was composed in 1969. Also on the program are The Peaceable Kingdom by Randall Thompson and Amy Beach's Canticle of the Sun.
My father's inspiration for this Requiem was rooted in a tragic historical event. On June 5, 1968, Kennedy, then a U.S. Senator from New York, was shot in Los Angeles after delivering a victory speech following the California Democratic presidential primary. He died the next day. On June 8, his funeral was held in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, and then a special train carried his body to Washington, DC for burial at Arlington National Cemetery.
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Utah-based Wasatch Chorale visits New York in June
Posted 4/28/2025
The Wasatch Chorale, based in Provo, Utah, is coming to New York City in June to celebrate the group's 50th anniversary as a community choir. Nestled under the Wasatch Mountains in Northern Utah, the Wasatch Chorale has been a mainstay in choral music since 1975. It was dreamed up by Dr. Jacob Bos, a professor of music at Brigham Young University. He recognized that the Utah Valley and surrounding areas had many people who loved to sing with few opportunities to do so at a more challenging level. We offer outstanding choral performances to the people of Utah County and surrounding areas. We have a rich history of collaboration with various arts organizations, including the Utah Valley Symphony, Utah Premiere Brass, Utah Lyric Opera and numerous ensembles at Utah Valley University, as well as professional musicians across the Wasatch Front.
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Melodia presents "A Brighter Garden"
Posted 4/15/2025
Melodia Women’s Choir, New York City’s premier women’s chorus, is thrilled to present its Spring 2025 concert, "A Brighter Garden," on Saturday, May 3 at 7:00 PM at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields, 487 Hudson Street. The concert will showcase an intriguing blend of choral works, offering a musical bouquet of beauty, passion and surprise.
"'A Brighter Garden' is a potpourri of everything we love about music -- from ethereal Bulgarian folk harmonies to the sumptuous choral sounds of Fauré, all woven together with an affinity for beauty and expressiveness," says Cynthia Powell, artistic director and conductor of Melodia.
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- Cantori New York is calling all alumni to join the group at its 40th Anniversary Gala Concert on May 10 at 7:30 PM at Merkin Hall featuring works by Laura Schwendinger, Gregory Spears, Elisenda Fábregas and Aaron Copland. Cantori will be joined by the Bergamot Quartet and mezzo-soprano Gabrielle Barkidjija. More information can be found on Cantori's Alumni Page. (2025-4-24)
- Cantori New York, conducted by Mark Shapiro, has released its recording Found Again, comprising works for chorus and instruments by Lembit Beecher, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate and John Rommereim, on Navona Records. See www.navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6703/. (2025-3-26)
- The Cecilia Chorus of New York, conducted by Mark Shapiro, has released its recording of Daron Hagen’s human rights cantata Everyone, Everywhere on Naxos Records. The chorus premiered Hagen’s cantata, which interleaves articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with quotations from human rights luminaries throughout history, in Carnegie Hall in December 2023. Performers include The Cecilia Chorus of New York, Every Voice Generations Choir (Nicole Becker, director); Gabrielle Barkididja, mezzo-soprano; and Bryan Murray, baritone. Visit www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.579180. (2025-3-26)
- New Amsterdam Singers announces the retirement of Music Director Clara Longstreth — who founded the chorus in 1968 and has led the group for 57 seasons — at the end of the current concert season. Ben Arendsen will succeed Longstreth, effective with the 2025-2026 season, becoming only the second conductor to hold that post in the history of the chorus. For more details, visit www.nasingers.org/announcing-our-new-music-director/. (2025-2-6)
- Choral Chameleon has released its new album, Changing. Give a listen on YouTube. (2024-11-11)
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NEW ON VAN
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- February 25, 2025: New Choir Directory listing and Choir Auditions ad for The Heights Vocal Ensemble, based in Washington Heights.
- January 10, 2025: New Choir Directory listing and Choir Auditions ad for The Goldenrod Chorale, a new 55+ community choir in Hoboken, NJ.
- November 4, 2024: VAN milestone: just entered the 20,000th listing into our concert database that dates back to January 1998.
- October 10, 2024: New Choir Directory listing and Choir Auditions ad for the Liederkranz Chorus on the Upper East Side.
- September 30, 2024: Curious about how we prefer to format bits of information on the Vocal Area Network website? See our new VAN Style Guide.
- September 27, 2024: New link for Dorico, music notation software from Steinberg, recommended as a successor to Finale. New link for Schubertline, an online digital database of downloadable and printable art songs by major composers.
- September 6, 2024: We've combined the duplicate listings for the
Choir of the Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew in Brooklyn and
added a new Choir Directory listing for the The St. Luke & St. Matthew Choir School.
- August 23, 2024: New Choir Directory listing for Re:Soundings -- A Choral Music Project, a 16-voice professional ensemble directed by Stephen Sands focused on creating a new concert-going experience by dispersing singers throughout the performance space.
- August 20, 2024: New Choir Directory listing and Choir Auditions ad for the St. Luke's Episcopal Church Senior Choir in Montclair, NJ.
- July 30, 2024: We've resolved a coding issue with our VCS file generator so that downloading calendar listings (by clicking the "D" icon to the left of the listing) should now work reliably, even if the month of the event has only one digit.
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