History of Chorus

The New York Choral Society (NYCS) just completed its gala 50th anniversary season. It has become known for the quality of its performances and its diverse repertoire. The 2008–2009 season included the immensely popular Holiday Celebration with Peter, Paul & Mary in Carnegie Hall on December 5, 2008, as well as a special 50th Anniversary concert on April 23, 2009.

In 2007–2008, the NYCS presented its popular New York Choral Society Celebrates the Holidays at Carnegie Hall on December 20 and on May 3, 2008 sang the Berlioz Requiem. The 2006–2007 season included its popular New York Choral Society Christmas at Carnegie Hall; Britten's St. Nicolas, and Vaughan Williams' Mass in G Minor in St. Bartholomew's Church; and the season ended with a Carnegie Hall performance of Glass' Itaipu and Gershwin's Porgy and Bess Concert Suite.

Guest Performances

To view our guest performances for this season, please visit our Current Season listing.

The NYCS is frequently in demand as guest artists. Last season, the NYCS continued a special tradition for our city by performing in St. Patrick's Cathedral on September 11th for the fourth time as part of the September Concert Foundation's commemorative concerts throughout the city. The chorus returned for its 16th appearance at the Richard Tucker Music Gala in Avery Fisher Hall. During the 2007-2008 season, the chorus made two appearances with the international superstar tenor Andrea Bocelli and returned for its 16th appearance at the Richard Tucker Music Gala in Avery Fisher Hall. In addition, the chorus took its popular New York Choral Society Celebrates the Holidays to Freehold, New Jersey. The NYCS also performed Carmina Burana with the Pennsylvania Ballet four times at City Center, and made a guest appearance with the Opera Orchestra of New York, performing Bellini's La Sonnambula in February. The NYCS again appeared with the Opera Orchestra of New York in April performing Puccini's Edgar.

In 2006–2007, the NYCS appeared with Andrea Bocelli in Madison Square Garden, having previously appeared with Bocelli in 2005 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia and at the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey. Other guest appearances included its 14th appearance with the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala, an engagement with the Opera Orchestra of New York, featuring Cilea's L'Arlesiana and a performance of Bruckner's Te Deum with the New Jersey Youth Symphony at NJPAC.

In addition to its 2005 appearance with Andrea Bocelli, the NYCS also appeared at Jazz at Lincoln Center in a gala for the Fortune 500 and made a recording with Cirque du Soleil.

In 2004 the chorus appeared with Dancing in the Streets in the Grand Steps Project and with the Buglisi/Foreman Dance in four performances of a commissioned score. In May 2003, the NYCS appeared with the American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House for seven performances of HereAfter, choreographed to the music of John Adams's Harmonium and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.

Other NYCS guest appearances included Andrea Bocelli at Liberty State Park, broadcast live on PBS; Celine Dion at Radio City; and NBC's Today Show. The NYCS has performed with the American Composers Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Juilliard Symphony, Lincoln Center Festival, New Jersey Symphony, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, Opera Orchestra of New York, and at the 1998 Grammy Awards. Guest conductors have included: Charles Barker, Leonard Bernstein, Sergiu Comissiona, Dennis Russell Davies, Asher Fisch, Lukas Foss, Yong Yan Hu, Jaja Ling, Zubin Mehta, Yehudi Menuhin, Steven Mercurio, John Nelson, Daniel Oren, Robert Page, Eve Queler, Julius Rudel, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, Roger Wagner, and Hugh Wolff. The NYCS A Holiday Celebration with Peter, Paul & Mary has been broadcast occasionally on PBS since 1989.

Tours

The NYCS frequently tours. In 2008, the chorus traveled to Beijing at the invitation of the Chinese Ministry of Culture and the China Performing Arts Agency to perform three concerts in the Olympic Cultural Festival. In the summer of 2006, NYCS members toured Italy, performing at the Chiesa di Santo Stefano in Venice and at the Basilica San Marco. In 2005, members toured Shanghai where they performed Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Shanghai Opera Chorus and Orchestra in the Singing for the Future choral exchange project. In 2004, the NYCS had a triumphant tour of France, where they performed Mozart's Mass in C Minor and Morton Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna at the Les Flâneries Musicales d'Été de Reims and at Chartres Cathedral. They also performed at the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris.

Members of the NYCS performed a series of concerts in China with dynamic young conductor Yong Yan Hu and the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra at the Beijing Music Festival in October 2002. On that tour, the chorus also performed the Chinese premiere of Mahler's Eighth Symphony in Beijing with a 1,000-voice chorus from four countries and a 180-piece orchestra.

In July 2001, the NYCS made a successful tour to China where it performed the Verdi Requiem and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Shanghai Grand Theater and a concert of all-American music at the New Century Theater in Beijing. Other tours have taken the chorus to Austria, Greece, the former Yugoslavia, Israel and the Czech Republic.

Recordings

New York Choral Society recordings include Christmas is Coming; Randall Thompson's Frostiana and Testament of Freedom; Carmina Burana by Carl Orff; Mark Twain Suite by Paul Alan Levi; Christmastide by Donald Fraser, with Jessye Norman; A Holiday Celebration with Peter, Paul & Mary, arranged by Robert DeCormier; Floodland with The Sisters Of Mercy; Songs of Liberty, arranged by Robert DeCormier; Legacy and Four Sonnets to Orpheus by Robert DeCormier; and Kodály's Missa Brevis and Vaughan Williams's Mass in G Minor.

The NYCS is the parent organization of the New York Choral Society Chamber Singers. Composed of NYCS members and conducted by NYCS assistant conductor Michael Ciavaglia, the Chamber Singers gave its inaugural performance in November 2008. The Chamber Singers presented a 50th anniversary performance of Randall Thompson's Frostiana along with works of Johannes Brahms, Cecil Effinger, and Eric Whitacre in May 2009.

Each summer the New York Choral Society produces a popular series of Summer Sings, open readings of the choral literature led by prominent conductors in the New York area.