New York Choral Society, Mannes School of Music & Arvo Part Project to Celebrate Arvo Part Day

To honor Arvo Pärt, one of the world's most remarkable and frequently performed composers alive today, the New York Choral Society, the Mannes School of Music at the New School, and the Arvo Pärt Project have designated Sunday, January 24, 2016 as Arvo Pärt Day.

Open to the public with free admission, celebratory events are scheduled to take place from 1 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. at the Tishman Auditorium of the New School for the Performing Arts, 13th Street & Fifth Avenue.

Up first is a screening of "The Lost Paradise," a film on Arvo Pärt and Robert Wilson by Günter Atteln. Woven into the documentary is the filming of "Adam's Passion," a music theatre piece featuring three key works by Pärt, directed by internationally renowned Robert Wilson and premiered in a former submarine factory in Tallinn in May 2015.

At 2:45, members of the New York Choral Society and the Mannes Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro David Hayes, will perform excerpts of Pärt's music. "It is a great privilege for me to conduct Maestro Pärt's ineffable music as part of the events of Avro Pärt Day. Arvo Pärt is a man who eschews the turbulence of modern life, who has looked deeply into the past, and who has come to enrich our lives with music of contemplation and consonance."

At 3:45 a symposium panel moderated by Dr. Peter Bouteneff, will discuss the far-reaching impact of Arvo Pärt's compositions. Other panel members include Dr. Nicholas Reeves, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, and John Schaefer.

The complete program follows:

1:00 - 2:30 p.m.

The Lost Paradise, a film by Günter Atteln

2:45 - 3:30 p.m.

Live performances of excerpts from Pärt's music by members of The New York Choral Society, & The Mannes Orchestra, David Hayes, conductor

3:45 - 5:15 p.m.

Arvo Pärt Symposium Panel

Forced by the Soviets to leave Estonia in 1980, Arvo Pärt made his way via Vienna to Berlin where he lived for thirty years and established an international reputation as a unique voice in contemporary music. He returned five years ago to his native Estonia to live quietly away from the distractions of modern urban life. A member of the Russian Orthodox Church since 1970, Mr. Pärt is highly devout and famously shy. "The Lost Paradise" is the first international documentary about the composer; Günter Atteln follows him for a year, from the forests and the sea in Talinn, to Germany, Italy, and Japan, where he received the Praemium Imperiale, the world's most prestigious award in the field of music, in October 2014. Both Robert Wilson and Mr. Pärt express their relationship to light and color.

"I could compare my music to white light, which contains all colors," says Mr. Pärt. The film culminates in the premiere of "Adam's Passion," which features three of Pärt's major works "Adam's Lament," "Tabula rasa," and "Miserere" as well as "Sequentia," a new work composed specifically for this production. For more information: www.adamspassion.de.

Dr. Peter Bouteneff, a theologian and musician, teaches at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, where he co-founded the Arvo Pärt Project, and directs the Sacred Arts Initiative. He is author, most recently, of Arvo Pärt: Out of Silence. Dr. Nicholas Reeves, composer, producer, and music professor based in New York, co-founded the Arvo Pärt Project with Mr. Bouteneff. Writer and violinist Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, is a contributing classical music critic for The New York Times. Best known as the host of WNYC's Soundcheck and New Sounds, John Schaefer is also author of several significant books and essays on music.

An essential force in the New York choral scene since its founding in 1959, The New York Choral Society (NY Choral) is widely known for the outstanding artistic quality of its performances of choral masterworks as well as rarely performed and new compositions. In addition to its regular season appearances at Carnegie Hall, the 175-voice strong New York Choral Society has appeared at every major venue in the New York City area, including Avery Fisher Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House, Madison Square Garden, NJPAC, and St. Patrick's Cathedral. The next New York concert for the New York Choral Society takes place at the Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall on Friday evening, February 5, 2016, 8 p.m. and will feature Arvo Pärt's Te Deum and Beethoven's Mass in C, Op. 86.

Under the visionary artistic leadership of Music Director David Hayes since the 2012-2013 season, the New York Choral Society has further expanded upon its artistic mission to present a wide variety of choral repertory alongside masterworks of the 20th and 21st century, including John Adams's On The Transmigration of Souls, Hindemith's When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, and the New York premiere of Jennifer Higdon's The Singing Rooms, featuring violinist Jennifer Koh. Dedicated to carrying its tradition of musical excellence and community engagement beyond the Manhattan cultural centers, the New York Choral Society launched Christmas Around New York in December 2014, bringing family-friendly Christmas concerts to new audiences in all the boroughs of New York City.

Highlights of previous seasons include performances of Mendelssohn's St. Paul, Berlioz' L'enfance du Christ, Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony, Holst's rarely performed Hymn of Jesus, and Beethoven's Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, all at Carnegie Hall conducted by Music Director David Hayes. The 2011-2012 season marked the 25th and final season of Music Director John Daly Goodwin and included two compositions commissioned by the New York Choral Society, Robert De Cormier's Legacy and Morton Gould's Quotations, as part of an all-American program at Carnegie Hall.

A sought-after guest artist in New York City for many decades, the New York Choral Society has collaborated with the Lincoln Center Festival, Cirque de Soleil, New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, New York Youth Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Juilliard Symphony, and the Opera Orchestra of New York and has performed with conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Placido Domingo, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Yehudi Menuhin, Julius Rudel, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, Patrick Summers, Robert Spano, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

International tours have included the Chinese premiere of Mahler's Eighth Symphony in Beijing in 2002; performances of Mahler's Symphonies No. 2 and 8 in Mexico City with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto in 2010 and 2011; a return to Beijing for performances at the Olympic Cultural Festival in 2008; and several European tours with appearances in France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Greece, the Czech Republic, and Israel. NYChoral has also regularly appeared as guest artist at the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala and with Andrea Bocelli. Recently members of NYChoral sang at the 80WSE and CHEAP's production of The Magic Flute, a re-imagining of the narrative of Mozart's celebrated music drama.

Each summer since 1960 the New York Choral Society has produced a popular series of Summer Sings, open readings of the choral literature led by prominent conductors in the New York area. Recently, Summer Sings have been held at Symphony Space, and continue to provide a wonderful musical opportunity to the community and to attract new singers to the chorus.

Music Director David Hayes is a conductor with an unusually broad range of repertory, spanning the symphonic, oratorio/choral and operatic genres. His role as Music Director of the New York Choral Society complements his other roles as Music Director of the Mannes Orchestra and Staff Conductor of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Hayes served on the conducting staff of The Philadelphia Orchestra from 2001-2011. In May 2015 he completed twenty-three years as Music Director of the critically acclaimed professional vocal ensemble The Philadelphia Singers, which was the resident chorus of The Philadelphia Orchestra from 2000-2011. He has also served as a cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic as well as for Sir André Previn on the Curtis Symphony Orchestra's 1999 European Tour with Anne-Sophie Mutter.

In addition to his work with the New York Choral Society this season, Mr. Hayes also conducts the Mannes Orchestra in two concerts at Alice Tully Hall, including an adventurous program featuring Ives's Central Park in the Dark, Varèse's Intégrales, and Morton Feldman's Coptic Light as well as Sibelius's Fifth Symphony. Their second program on April 8th features symphonies by Arvo Pärt and Anton Bruckner. Mr. Hayes returned to the Curtis Opera Theatre for a production of Massenet's Manon in November 2015, and he travels to Italy to conduct at the Spoleto Festival Italy in summer 2016.

Mr. Hayes is in demand as guest conductor with both orchestras and opera companies across North America. Recent guest conducting engagements have included a production of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore for Opera Memphis, Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, and the East Coast premiere performances of Tan Dun's Tea: A Mirror of Soul for the Opera Company of Philadelphia. Mr. Hayes also conducted the finals of the Fulbright Piano Competition with the Artosphere Festival Orchestra.

Past seasons have included concerts with such significant ensembles as The Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra 2001, Curtis Opera Theatre, European Center for Opera and Vocal Art, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Washington Chorus, Louisiana Philharmonic, Berkshire Choral Festival and the Verbier Festival.

Trained as a violinist and violist, Mr. Hayes received his Bachelor of Music in musicology from the University of Hartford and a diploma in Orchestral Conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Otto Werner Mueller. He also studied with Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School. He served on the Board of Directors of Chorus America from 2000 to 2009.

Founded in 1916, Mannes School of Music at The New School seeks to develop citizen artists who engage with the world around them in and through music, in traditional, new, and emergent forms of practice. The eminent Mannes faculty of artists, scholars, and educators of international stature, including active professionals from all areas of the music world foster close, constructive relationships with students and are committed to advancing the creative role of music throughout all aspects of a rapidly changing society. (For further information, visit www.newschool.edu/mannes.)

Notable faculty include Jeremy Denk, multi-award winning and MacArthur Fellow pianist; Dave Douglas, multiaward winning and MacArthur Fellow trumpeter; Cynthia Phelps, principal violist of The New York Philharmonic; David Chan, Concertmaster of The Metropolitian Opera; Joan La Barbara, vocalist and pioneer in contemporary vocal music; William Burden, renowned operatic tenor; David T Little, composer; Missy Mazzoli, composer; Paul Moravec, composer; and many more.

In the fall of 2015, under the leadership of Mannes Dean Richard Kessler, the conservatory moved downtown into The New School's new performing arts hub, designed by Deborah Berke Partners, at Arnhold Hall. The new facilities create a unified New School College of Performing Arts comprising Mannes, The School of Jazz and The School of Drama-all located on campus and in close proximity to the rest of the design, liberal arts and social science university. Mannes celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2016.