The New York Choral Society Announces 2022-2023 Season Featuring the NY Premiere of A KNEE ON THE NECK & More

 

The New York Choral Society, New York's pioneering symphonic chorus that explores unique collaboration and dynamic repertory, announced their 2022-2023 season, bookended by historically significant events, and featuring New York premieres, and hybrid programming. From the stage of the new David Geffen Hall at the famed Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, to programs that include elements of visual art, dance, film and more, the season offers choral works explored through a progressive lens and a voice of activism, awareness, beauty, and legacy.

Kicking off the 2022-2023, the chorus continues its nearly three-decade association with the Richard Tucker Foundation with an appearance at their November 13th gala, held on the stage of the new David Geffen Hall. The following week, a historic staging of Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts moves into the Tishman Auditorium in partnership with The New School College of Performing Arts; a work that has not been staged in a concert hall setting in New York City in 35 years due to the magnitude of the production. Combining elements of jazz, classical music, choral music, spiritual, gospel, blues and dance, Ellington believed Sacred Concerts to be the most important work he had written. Leaving the audience awestruck at the mysteries of his harmonic language, Sacred Concerts delivers a positive message, filled with sentiments about love, hope and freedom. For this historic staging, the chorus has commissioned artist James Little to create a dynamic visual response to this music. In the spirit of accessibility, admission to Sacred Concerts is free to the public and will be performed November 18-19.

This season, the chorus also joins the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra for two performances: an evening of festive holiday music on December 16, in addition to a performance of Mozart's Coronation Mass-one of his most popular and endearing works later next spring. Performed for one night only on April 1, 2023, the music dates to 1791, including the beautifully tender Agnus Dei. Both performances will be held at the historic and remarkable St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn Heights.

Following the acclaim of organization's innovative Our Voices digital season that began during 2020, the chorus will continue new ways to both visually and musically explore choral works and collaboration with Angel of Light, premiering in February of 2023. This new acapella digital piece will feature passages from Kevin Siegfried's new cantata based on Shaker texts and tunes.

On March 30, The New York Choral Society returns to the Metropolitan Club for the first time since 2019 with its acclaimed Spring Gala. Each year, singers, musicians, conductors, and music lovers gather for this special evening of music and friendship to recommit to the important mission of the organization and the actualize its work for seasons to come.

May 28 brings The New York Choral Society to Carnegie Hall to join the New York Youth Symphony in a performance of Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, one of the composer's most popular and enduring works.

The season will close on June 13 at David Geffen Hall with the powerful New York Premiere of Adolphus Hailstork's new cantata A Knee on the Neck- a forceful recounting of an unspeakable act of violence that irrevocable changed the world. Performed days before the second anniversary of George Floyd's death, the work incorporates text from Herbert Martin in a call for peace and justice. The concert will pair this new work with Ralph Vaughn Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem in a program that seeks to place Hailstork's work firmly in the canon of major choral/orchestral works.

"This season is both incredibly ambitious and historical," notes NY Choral Society's Music Director David Hayes. "By using music as a moving medium to bring light to underrepresented works and creators while tackling such important social conversations is not something we take lightly," he continues. "Let us sing, let us listen, let us learn, and let us grow."

SEASON SCHEDULE AND DETAILS

November 13, 2022: Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala

November 18-19, 2022: Ellington's Sacred Concerts

*November 19 performance will be live streamed

December 16, 2022: Christmas Performance with the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra

February 2023: Angel of Light Digital Production

March 30, 2023: New York Choral Society Spring Gala

April 1, 2023: Mozart's Coronation Mass with Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra

May 28, 2023: Chichester Psalms

June 13, 2023: A Knee on the Neck

ABOUT THE NEW YORK CHORAL SOCIETY

Founded in 1959, the NY Choral Society is hailed as one of the mainstays of the city's music scene, known for its adventurous repertoire. Committed to presenting a diverse repertoire that spans from well-known choral masterworks, great compositions rarely heard in concert halls, and newer culturally significant choral works, innovative collaborations and exceptional artistry highlight the essential joy and power of live choral music for New York patrons each season. Made up of more than 150 voices, ages 19-90, the choir is led by Music Director David Hayes and has performed at prestigious venues throughout the New York metropolitan area such as Carnegie Hall, and partnered with major arts institutions like American Ballet Theatre, Lincoln Center, the New York City Ballet and Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and many others. From their debut concert at the David Geffen Hall, formerly known as Philharmonic Hall with just over a dozen singers in 1965, the New York Choral Society continues to expand its artistic mission, educational commitment and legacy, bringing choral music into the twenty-first century and beyond.