On December 13 at 8:00 PM, under the baton of Music Director Mark Shapiro, the Cecilia Chorus of New York and orchestra will welcome the young singers from the Every Voice Concert Choir (Dr. Nicole Becker, Director) to sing together Vaughan Williams’s Hodie, A Christmas Cantata at Carnegie Hall. The soloists will be soprano Liv Redpath, tenor Daniel T. Curran and baritone Takaoki Onishi. Also on the evening’s program will be Poulenc’s Gloria.

The Every Voice Concert Choir is one of three Every Voice Choirs, ensembles in residence at Columbia University Teachers College. Members range in age from 8 to 15, and their director Dr. Becker expressed delight at how much her young singers have enjoyed learning the Hodie. For several months they have been addressing classical vocal technique, diction, vowel heightening, rhythms and meanings of the texts. “I have been impressed by their endurance for this work....they are growing tremendously as musicians and singers. They have been excited about learning it from the start.”

When asked about casting a children’s chorus for the treble voices in the Hodie, Music Director Mark Shapiro stated that he knew working with Dr. Becker’s Every Voice Concert Choir would be “an ideal collaboration.” Dr. Becker and Maestro Shapiro worked together previously when she was a member of Cantori New York. “Mark is a gifted conductor,” says Dr. Becker, “I am so happy that the kids in the choir have this chance to sing with him.”

The Cecilia Chorus of New York (www.ceciliachorusny.org) and the Every Voice Concert Choir perform Hodie, A Christmas Cantata by Ralph Vaughan Williams, along with the Gloria by Francis Poulenc on Saturday, December 13 at 8:00 PM at Carnegie Hall, 7th Avenue and 57th Street, New York City. Tickets range in price from $25 to $85, and are available at CarnegieCharge, 212-247-7800, the Carnegie Hall web site at www.carnegiehall.org or from any chorus member.