New Amsterdam Singers to Present SACRED WORKS OF FOUR CENTURIES 12/11, 12/13

The New Amsterdam Singers, led by Music Director Clara Longstreth, presents its first program of the season, featuring sacred works by Bach, Brahms, Bruckner, and Poulenc as well as newer works by composers from Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, England, and the United States, Friday, December 11 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, December 13 at 4:00 p.m..

Bach's exuberant motet, Lobet den Herrn, is a contrapuntal masterpiece of the Baroque, while Brahms' set of Three Motets (Op. 110) for double chorus a cappella is a Romantic work much indebted to his German forebears, Bach and Schütz.
Poulenc's Litanies à la Vierge Noire was triggered on a day in which the composer heard of a friend's death and immediately visited the shrine of the Black Virgin at Rocamodour. That evening, he began to compose the Litanies, for women's voices and organ.
Kirke Mechem found his inspiration in 2007 in a poem by Wordsworth written in 1807. The poet was reacting to the industrial revolution and the materialism of that age with words that seem appropriate to our times, The World Is Too Much with Us.

Abbie Betinis is a 29-year-old composer who has received 40 commissions from groups such as Dale Warland Singers and the American Suzuki Foundation. Cedit, hyems was written in 2003 on a Ninth Century text for chorus and flute.
The program will include short works by Arvo Pärt, Daniel Pinkham, Tarik O'Regan, Rihards Dubra, Ivan Hrušovský, and Mark Kilstofte.

New Amsterdam Singers

The New Amsterdam Singers was founded in 1968 by Clara Longstreth. A March 2004 issue of The New Yorker called Ms. Longstreth "one of the more imaginative choral programmers around" and the New Amsterdam Singers "a superb amateur group." The chorus has performed with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein; American Russian Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and at Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall under Leon Botstein; Concordia Orchestra and Anonymous Four in Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light with Marin Alsop at Avery Fisher Hall; and with the Limón Dance Company in Kodály's Missa Brevis.

Tickets are $20, $15 seniors, and $10 students and may be purchased by calling 212-568-5948 or online at www.NASingers.org.