SILENT VOICES at Center of Brooklyn Youth Chorus's 25th Anniversary Season

The GRAMMY Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus has announced that Silent Voices, a multimedia, multi-composer stage work conceived, co-commissioned, produced and performed by the Chorus, will be the centerpiece of the Chorus' 25th anniversary season.

A year-long series of performances commissioned by the Chorus, BAM and New York City's classical music station WQXR, featuring an extraordinary range of artistic collaborators, Silent Voices culminates in a world premiere at BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House in May 2017. The project harnesses the power of young people to be instruments of change, giving voice to those silenced or marginalized by social, cultural or religious circumstances.

The season also features several firsts for the Chorus, including the release of its first album, a WQXR Artist Residency and an Off-Broadway debut; and epitomizes the Chorus' role as a powerful lead performer, a seminal force in new music, and as a producer stretching the artistic boundaries of the youth chorus.

Brooklyn Youth Chorus' Founding Artistic Director, Dianne Berkun Menaker, conceived Silent Voices to engage the young singers artistically with the subjects and issues about which they are most passionate. The Chorus has commissioned a diverse group of innovative artists, curated by Berkun Menaker and director Kristin Marting, to interpret rich historical narratives and personal stories in creating music that explores race and identity, gender and sexuality, inequity and social disparity-music that matters.

Commissioned composers, whose contributions span multiple genres of music, include Sahba Aminikia, Jeff Beal ("House of Cards"), Rhiannon Giddens (Carolina Chocolate Drops), Alicia Hall Moran, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Ellis Ludwig-Leone (San Fermin), Nico Muhly, Toshi Reagon, Ellen Reid, Kamala Sankaram, Caroline Shaw and Paul Miller/DJ Spooky. Claudia Rankine (Citizen) and Hilton Als (The New Yorker) are providing original writing for the work, which also includes interviews, existing works by contemporary authors (Michelle Alexander) and historical texts. Video projections by Peter Nigrini and photo portraiture by Jay Maisel will be integrated throughout. rag & bone is providing costumes. Helga Davis hosts.

Each Silent Voices choral composition will take on a specific issue: the distribution of power and privilege, gender roles and stereotyping, systemic racism, economic abandonment and sustained inequity. What unifies this musically and topically broad work is the distinctively beautiful sound of the rigorously-trained singers, a GRAMMY Award®-winning chorus of culturally and socioeconomically diverse New York City young people aged 12-18. Brooklyn Youth Chorus' predominantly female Concert Ensemble, a highly acclaimed professional-level performing ensemble, is central to the project, which also features the dynamic Men's Ensemble. The singers' varied experiences and challenges will find expression as they develop their individual voices as the foundation of their identity, while also giving voice to that of other individuals and groups.

Brooklyn Youth Chorus will partner with WQXR's Q2 Music, which will live-stream the Silent Voices concerts. In addition, Q2 Music will produce audio and video editorial features highlighting the creative process of the commissioned composers and the stories of the choristers themselves. All live coverage will be recorded for on-demand streaming at q2music.org throughout the season.

Silent Voices performances include:

National Sawdust, November 20, 2016, 3pm: Silent Voices First Look Concert #1, exploring gender, sexuality and age, with commissioned music by Ellen Reid, Caroline Shaw, Nico Muhly, Kamala Sankaram, Ellis Ludwig-Leone and Jeff Beal. The ensemble WildUp will perform with the Chorus.

French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), Florence Gould Hall, as part of PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now 2017, January 14 & 15, 2017,5pm: Silent Voices First Look Concert #2, focusing on the voices of African-American and immigrant men and women in America today, with commissioned music by Sahba Aminikia, Jeff Beal, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Toshi Reagon and DJ Spooky. ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble) will perform with the Chorus.

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, May 12 & 13, 2017, [insert time]: BAM presents the world premiere of Silent Voices, performed by the Chorus and ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble).

Silent Voices is the most ambitious project in Brooklyn Youth Chorus' 25-year history, in which they have made a name for themselves not only as the go-to chorus for leading orchestras and popular recording artists, but as a vital commissioner of new music and a producer of unique large-scale concert works.

Black Mountain Songs Album

Silent Voices builds upon Brooklyn Youth Chorus' experience producing and performing Black Mountain Songs, a multi-media choral work featuring commissioned music by Bryce Dessner (The National), Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire), Pultizer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw, Alexandra Vrebalov, Nico Muhly, Tim Hecker, John King and Jherek Bischoff, with staging and video projections, which premiered at the 2014 BAM Next Wave Festival, winning the Festival's coveted Richard B. Fisher Prize. Reviewing the work at BAM, Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times called Black Mountain Songs"exhilarating" and said "thechoral songs at the heart of this work are performed with confidence, energy and tenderness," adding, "the sheer beauty of their singing was captivating." New Amsterdam Records will release Black Mountain Songs as an album-the Chorus' first commercially available recording-on March 31, 2017.

WQXR Residency

Classical 105.9 FM WQXR, New York City's only all-classical radio station, has selected Brooklyn Youth Chorus to be the station's 2016-17 artists-in-residence, following in the footsteps of New York Philharmonic principal clarinetist Anthony McGill, The Knights and acclaimed soprano Deborah Voigt. The residency includes commissioning funds for Silent Voices and three concerts that will take place at The Greene Space at WQXR. Each concert will be offered as a live video webcast at wqxr.org and thegreenespace.org and will be available for on-demand viewing afterwards at wqxr.org.

Friday, October 21, 2016, 7:30pm: the kickoff of Brooklyn Youth Chorus' WQXR artist residency, celebrating the Chorus at 25 years. The evening will feature the work of composers whose music has shaped the Chorus' artistic development and helped expand the boundaries of choral performance: Bryce Dessner, Caroline Shaw, Richard Reed Parry, Kirk Nurock and Ellis Ludwig-Leone. The Chorus will also perform preview excerpts from Silent Voice.

Thursday, December 8, 2016, 7:30pm: Brooklyn Youth Chorus - WQXR Holiday Concert. Brooklyn Youth Chorus shares the joy of the holiday season, performing Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols and works by Daniel Brewbaker and Joel Martin, as well as arrangements of popular carols.

Friday, March 31, 2017, 7:30pm: Black Mountain Songs album release celebration. Q2 Music's Helga Davis hosts.

"WQXR is excited to name the Brooklyn Youth Chorus as our next artists-in-residence for the 2016-17 season," said Mikel Ellcessor, Interim General Manager, WQXR. "The residency was created to highlight and amplify musicians' profound commitment to the art and their community, and we believe the Brooklyn Youth Chorus are a true example of this. As an ensemble, they have extended the boundaries and relevance of both choral and contemporary classical music, and as group of individuals, they have fearlessly engaged with today's most pressing conversations. They are a testament to bravery and commitment in music-making, and they share our mission to inspire audiences."

Aging Magician Off-Broadway

This season, Brooklyn Youth Chorus makes its Off-Broadway debut in Aging Magician,an epic new opera-theater work composed by Paola Prestini and produced by Beth Morrison Projects, VisionIntoArt and Brooklyn Youth Chorus, March 3-12, 2017, at the New Victory Theater. Created specifically for the Chorus and Rinde Eckert, Aging Magician tells the story of Harold, an aging clockmaker near the end of his unusual life. Creators Julian Crouch, Rinde Eckert, Paola Prestini and Mark Stewart bring together the worlds of music, theater, puppetry, instrument making and scenic design to paint a poignant allegory on time, youth and the peculiar magic of ordinary life-or, perhaps, the ordinary magic of a peculiar life.

The upcoming engagement at the New Vic follows the world premiere of the work at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in March 2016 (world premiere); and a performance at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana, Illinois, in April 2016.

Aging Magician composer Paola Prestini has said, "I have had the joy of working with Brooklyn Youth Chorus for many years, from their role in my first work, the opera Oceanic Verses, to Aging Magician, which I wrote specifically for them. The collaboration has transformed my writing. They are my muse, and their dedication, skill and energy is infectious. I deeply admire Dianne Berkun Menaker's passion and commitment to music, her incredible work ethic, and the tremendous vision she has for what a youth chorus can do, including commissioning new American repertoire. It is an honor to be part of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus family."

Now entering its 25th anniversary season, the GRAMMY Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, under the direction of Dianne Berkun Menaker, is one of the country's leading youth choruses and the vocal ensemble of choice for internationally renowned orchestras and artists. The New York Times has said that "the sheer beauty of their singing [is] captivating." The Chorus studies and performs a vast repertoire of music-classical and contemporary-and has an active commissioning program, New Voices, to develop works for young voices across a variety of genres. Composers commissioned to date include Nico Muhly, David Lang, Bryce Dessner, Missy Mazzoli, Paul Moravec, Julia Wolfe, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Shara Worden, John King, Colin Stetson, and others.

The Chorus has appeared with a wide array of celebrated orchestras and conductors, including Valery Gergiev, the late Lorin Maazel, Marin Alsop, James Levine, Robert Spano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Reinbert de Leeuw as well as recording artists such as Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Lou Reed, Grizzly Bear, and John Legend. Brooklyn Youth Chorus won a Grammy® Award for the world premiere live recording of John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls with the New York Philharmonic in 2005. Known for its polished performances, the Chorus frequently appears at such important music festivals as BAM'sNext Wave and Crossing Brooklyn Ferry festivals, the Ecstatic Music Festival, and Park Avenue Armory's Tune-In Festival, and the MusicNOW festival.

It has also garnered a strong reputation as an arts producer with such major collaborative projects as Brooklyn Village (2012), an evening-length collaboration with the Brooklyn Philharmonic featuring music by David T. Little and Sarah Kirkland Snider; and Tell the Way (2011), co-produced with St. Ann's Warehouse and featuring compositions by Nico Muhly, Sam Amidon, Bryce Dessner and Bishi; in addition to Silent Voices (2016-17) and Black Mountain Songs (2014).

The Chorus serves more than 550 singers annually in ten ensembles at its headquarters in Cobble Hill and locations in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Red Hook and Sunset Park. Choristers, who range in age from 7 to 19, hail from 71 different zip codes, reflecting the broad diversity of the Metropolitan area.

Berkun has developed a groundbreaking, comprehensive method for teaching vocal technique and musicianship to the Chorus' young singers, Cross-Choral Training, which she has been invited to teach to chorus directors and music educators across the country.

Dianne Berkun Menaker (Founder & Artistic Director, Brooklyn Youth Chorus)

Dianne Berkun Menaker is the Founder & Artistic Director of Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Under her visionary leadership, the Chorus has become one of the most highly respected and sought after ensembles in the country, and has stretched the artistic boundaries of choral performance. Hailed by The New York Times as a "remarkable choral conductor," Berkun Menaker has prepared choruses for performances with acclaimed conductors including Alan Gilbert, Marin Alsop, Valery Gergiev, Charles Dutoit and Robert Spano. This season she will make her Off-Broadway debut conducting the Chorus and cast in The Aging Magician at The New Victory Theater.

Berkun Menaker prepared Brooklyn Youth Chorus for its 2002 debut with the New York Philharmonic, in John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls, the recording for which the Chorus won a GRAMMY Award in 2005. She has also prepared the Chorus for appearances and recordings with artists such as Barbra Streisand, Sir Elton John, Lou Reed, Glen Hansard, Philip Glass, Grizzly Bear and Alicia Keys. Berkun Menaker has developed an active commissioning program, born out of a desire to showcase Brooklyn Youth Chorus' versatility and uniquely beautiful sound, and has collaborated with some of the most important composers of our time.

Berkun Menaker is a regular choral clinician and teaching artist for such organizations as the New York Philharmonic and the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, and has also presented workshops and masterclasses for New York University, American Choral Directors Association, New York State School Music Association, and the New York City Department of Education. She is the creator of the Chorus's Cross-Choral Training® method, a unique pedagogical approach to voice and musicianship training that has been proven successful in published research by noted voice scientists.

Learn more at www.brooklynyouthchorus.org.

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