Choral Chameleon Comes to Williamsburg with STORYTIME: PART TWO This May

Vocal music comes to indie-hub Williamsburg, courtesy of New York's Choral Chameleon ensemble, in a colorful presentation of narrative music, visuals, milk & cookies, staged in an intimate and quirky setting.

Winners of the 2015 Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, Choral Chameleon is led by Artistic Director and conductor Vince Peterson. The creative team also includes puppet designer Elizabeth Ostler and puppeteer Katie Proulx.

A brand new work by Rob Mosher, the talented multi-instrumentalist, who is bringing to life 'The Adventures of Cow - by Cow' - a humorous photo-story book by Marshall Taylor and Lori Korchek, which will be projected for the audience. Cow encounters many different animals but always mistakes which is which.

An 'ensalada' by Mateo Flecha called 'La Justa. This is a little-known secular genre from renaissance Spain - an 'ensalada' - meant to be sung near the end of a long and satisfying dinner. It tells the story of an imagined joust between Christ and Satan - which will be dramatized for the audience with shadow puppetry.

Part Two of "The Story of the Jumping Mouse" - a beautiful new commission from Liz Hanna based on a Native American Folktale about a mouse on a journey to the Holy Mountain. She encounters a series of creatures along the way in need of help that she is able to provide. We left on a cliff-hanger at the end of "Storytime I" in September 2014 where the mouse, now blind, having generously given away the sight of both eyes to other animals who were in greater need of it, was left exposed on a mountain with eagles circling.

Performances (May 16 at 8 pm and May 21 at 8 pm) take place at Acme Studio, Williamsburg (A Props Rental Facility/Photo Studio/Set Design company - acmebrooklyn.com), located at 63 N3rd Street, between Wythe & Kent, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 11249. For tickets, visit www.choralchameleon.com. Prices: $20 online thru April 27th, $28 online thereafter, $35 on the door.

PERFORMERS:

Sopranos: Erika Lloyd Whiteley, Mi Na Shin, Liz Hanna, Julie Waters

Altos: Kelly Baxter Golding, Jonathan May, Sharon Harms

Tenors: Alex Canovas, Evan Crawford, Kevin Rose

Basses: Mark Johnson, Joseph Bellino, Cameron Bernard Jones, Dusty Francis

About Choral Chameleon: A vocal experience like no other. Led by founder and artistic director Vince Peterson since 2008, this unique ensemble of the city's most versatile and adventurous professional singers draws inspiration from the diversity of genres and backgrounds that is New York: where world-class classical and jazz music rubs shoulders with urban genres, street musicians, arrivals from every continent and the sparkle of Broadway.

Choral Chameleon concerts present thematic and emotional journeys through kaleidoscopic elements of lightness, darkness, avant-garde gymnastics, new works and uncovered gems, sitting shoulder to shoulder with revered classical works and stunning arrangements of familiar, feel-good songs that we secretly love despite ourselves.

Usually there's an unusual staging or audience experience element to accompany the music. There's been beat-boxing, electronics, multi-room journeys and even bites of food the audience were conducted to eat on cue. Their most recent concert in March, Dance of Life, presented in collaboration with 3 other choirs, featured a troupe of actors & dancers.

It's the closest thing to a musical smoothie you can find: full of healthy things that don't look like they relate but taste terrific when blended together, leaving you feeling nourished.

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