New Amsterdam Singers Announce March Concert

Led by Music Director Clara Longstreth, New Amsterdam Singers continues its return to live performances with "American Voices: Classic and New." This program of choral works by both well-known and emerging American composers will be presented on Friday, March 18, 2022 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 20, 2022 at 4 p.m. at Broadway Presbyterian Church, Broadway at 114th Street, Manhattan.

The centerpiece of the program is Aaron Copland's In the Beginning, with acclaimed soprano soloist Sonya Headlam. Copland wrote this a cappella masterpiece in 1947, a few years after completing his Pulitzer Prize-winning score for the ballet Appalachian Spring.

The program's other classic work is Reincarnations by Samuel Barber, written in 1940 when he was a young teacher at the Curtis Institute of Music. The three choruses, Mary Hynes, Anthony O Daly, and The Coolin, share evocative texts by the Irish writer James Stephens.

Half a dozen more recent choral works - which could be called "new and newer" - make up the remainder of the program. All but one are by living American composers, both well-established and up-and-coming.

In 1973 Undine Smith Moore chose a joyful text from Leviticus for Lord, We Give Thanks to Thee, written for the Centennial Celebration of the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University. Poetry provides the inspiration for other works on the program. Ronald Perera's as freedom is a breakfastfood from 1997 is based on an E.E. Cummings poem. Dale Trumbore's 2016 In the Middle is a delightful setting of poet Barbara Crocker's tender, funny, and rueful look at middle age in our time.

Careless Carols by composer Andrew Rindfleisch uses texts by Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore to create an intricate, lively work. Tara Mack, a former member of New Amsterdam Singers, chose a poem by Langston Hughes for her 2020 Harlem Night Song. And esteemed American composer Adolphus Hailstork turned to a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar for his 2009 When Storms Arise.

For further information, go to www.nasingers.org or email info@nasingers.org. Tickets are available in advance online for $25 (plus a $2 processing fee) and at the door for $30. The concert will adhere to the safest possible precautions: All NAS singers and staff are fully vaccinated and tested on the day of the performance. Audience members must provide proof of vaccination and remain masked throughout the performance.