The Cecilia Chorus of New York Presents All-Beethoven Choral Concert Tonight

The Cecilia Chorus of New York, Mark Shapiro, Music Director, will present an All-Beethoven Choral Concert, with orchestra tonight, May 2 at 8:00 PM in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, 57th Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan

The Chorus and orchestra will perform Beethoven's Mass in C Major, Choral Fantasy and the finale of Fidelio. Soloists will be sopranos Adrienne Danrich and Courtney Johnson, mezzo-soprano Shirin Eskandani, tenor Christopher Colmenero, baritone Theo Hoffman and bass-baritones Daniel Miroslaw and David Salsbery Fry. Guest artists will be the LIU Post Chorus and pianist Larry Weng, whose appearance is being underwritten by The Stecher and Horowitz Foundation.

Tickets for the May 2 concert range from $25 to $80, and can be purchased online at www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2015/5/2/0800/PM/The-Cecilia-Chorus-of-New-York-with-Orchestra/, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or by visiting the box office at 57th St and Seventh Ave. For more about this concert, visit www.ceciliachorusny.org or call 646-638-2535.

It was announced on April 13 that The Cecilia Chorus of New York is the 2015 winner of the ASCAP/Chorus America Alice Parker Award: www.chorusamerica.org/news/2015-chorus-america-award-recipients-announced.

The Cecilia Chorus of New York, a secular chorus, was founded in 1906 and has evolved into one of the finest avocational performing arts organizations in New York City. Recent performance highlights have included the commission and premiere of Tom Cipullo's Credo for a Secular City at Carnegie Hall in Spring 2014, the New York Premiere of the Mass in D (1892) by Dame Ethel Smyth and revivals of works by Peter Mennin and Isabella Leonarda, as well as the Chorus's first-ever commission/premiere for Carnegie Hall, Divis Cetera by Raphael Fusco in 2012. The Cecilia Chorus of New York was awarded third place for The American Prize in Choral Performance in 2013.

Mark Shapiro was appointed the seventh Music Director of The Cecilia Chorus of New York in 2011. He is one of a handful of artistic leaders in North America to have won a prestigious ASCAP Programming Award five times, achieving the unique distinction of winning such an award with three different ensembles. His February 2015 Juilliard performance of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia was characterized in The New York Times as "insightful"; The Times has elsewhere praised his work for its "virtuosity and assurance," and "uncommon polish," and his leadership was characterized by New Jersey's Star-Ledger as "erudite and far-reaching." His bio is at www.ceciliachorusny.org/music-director-mark-shapiro.