New York Choral Society Presents Digital Short Of EARTH SONG

The New York Choral Society, New York's pioneering symphonic chorus that explores unique collaboration and dynamic repertory, is proud to announce their first digital production of their 2021 - 2022 season, Reimagine, with American composer Frank Ticheli's Earth Song in collaboration with Danielle Russo Performance Project and her environmental activist initiative, #Final Notice.

The short film will release to the public on the company's website and YouTube page for viewing on Wednesday, October 13, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.

With music direction by David Hayes and choreography by Danielle Russo, Earth Song explores themes of environmental justice and community empowerment to convey a message of refuge and action through music and movement.

A timely piece for the start of The New York Choral Society's season, Earth Song reimagines Ticheli's oft performed choral work through the lens of environmental activism to conjure a renewed spirit of humanity and groundedness in a time of continued loss, social injustices and uncertainty. While Ticheli originally wrote the score in 2009 as a personal response to an uncertain fate of the world, the digital collaborative short today centers this uncertainty on the imminent dangers of climate change and the ways it directly impacts our communities. Hayes and Russo look to the song's plaintive opening and closing words: Sing, Be, Live, See- an arching musical phrase that feels and sounds like breathing as calls to agency, renewal, and action. Following eighteen months of anxiety and isolation, voices of the chorus sing with an intention to center, console, and renew both audience and community as Ticheli's lyrics return us to the Earth, its solace and as a refuge amidst its still uncertain future.

Part art and part activism, Earth Song amplifies the mission of Russo's grassroots #FinalNotice initiative; to bring attention to rising sea levels and pollution that will completely overcome at-risk communities in Red Hook and Williamsburg by 2100. #FinalNotice projects include collaborations with youth leaders at The Red Hook Initiative and El Puente community groups and an app that explores the histories and urgent environmental threats of these communities brought on by climate change.

Pairing choral music, dancers, and the findings of environmental research around the plight of local Brooklynites, audiences will experience a visual juxtaposition of interchanging aerial and on the ground perspectives at the borough's waterfront. Movements, solos and still tableaus use tempo, repetitions, and musical themes to mimic specific numerical data of rising temperatures and the impact pollution has on the health and wellness of our own breath and the cyclical breath of Mother Nature.

We wish for our interpretation of Earth Song to communicate to stay strong in the face of desolation of climate, war, and the heart," explains New York Choral Society Music Director David Hayes. "Music and singing, the most basic and intimate form of human music, are a consolation and refuge in times of strife, and this piece wraps its warm arms around the listener and says: 'Stop; breathe; calm your anxiety; take comfort and courage in singing, find peace, and act. With Earth Song, our voices will make visible an urgent issue impacting our communities."

"Earth Song is for everyone because climate change impacts everyone in New York City," adds Russo. "One of the main issues our work seeks to address is the fact that the local government is legislating climate change protection plans and protocols exclusively, not inclusively. This needs to change, and immediately. We must stop, breathe, and take action, and the work starts here with working to raise awareness through creative mediums of song and dance."

The film will be released on both https://www.nychoral.org and the company's YouTube page.