Our History
The New York Choral Society (NYCS) founded in 1958, has become known for the quality of its performances and the diversity of its repertoire, which encompasses well-known choral masterworks as well as many compositions rarely heard in concert halls. The NYCS has presented twelve world premieres and has commissioned works from Paul Alan Levi, Morton Gould, Stephen Paulus, Joelle Wallach, and Robert De Cormier.
The NYCS is the parent organization of the New York Choral Society Chamber Singers which is composed of NYCS members.
Each summer for the last 51 years the New York Choral Society has produced a popular series of Summer Sings that feature readings of major choral works led by prominent conductors in the New York area. Since 2008 the Summer Sings have been held at Peter Norton Symphony Space, Leonard Nimoy Thalia.
The New York Choral Society is proud to be a member of the New York Choral Consortium.
The 2010–2011 season began with the NYCS performing in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on September 11 as part of the September Concert Foundation’s commemorative concerts throughout the city. In October the chorus performed with Maestro Alberto Veronesi and the Opera Orchestra of New York (OONY) in Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Massenet’s La Navarraise in Carnegie Hall. In November the chorus returned for its 18th appearance at the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala in Avery Fisher Hall, and in December members appeared with Andrea Bocelli at Madison Square Garden and at the Prudential Center in Newark. In December the chorus presented A Holiday Celebration with Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary at Carnegie Hall.The concert was conducted by the trio’s music director and New York Choral Society music director emeritus Robert De Cormier. In late February, the chorus presented Rossini’s beautiful Petite Messe Solonnelle at Alice Tully Hall. The season ended with a performance of Dvořák’s emotionally powerful Stabat Mater in May at Carnegie Hall.
Anniversary Anthem
for the New York Choral Society at 50
Music greets me at the gates of sleep,
where I slip from weary to weightless
in a boundless realm. So too with singing –
our shared dream of blessèd possibility,
where we as one become the lost chord,
a soaring cathedral of voice upon voice.
We sing and music courses through us –
a silver river that lifts us up and leads us
down to the deepest waters of our selves.
We sing together & we blend & we listen.
And the song makes us better than who we are.
If only enemies would learn lullabies,
our bad-dream world might be blanketed with peace.
– Toni Mergentime Levi,
NYCS member since 1983
© Copyright 2009 Toni Mergentime Levi
The 2009–2010 season included a holiday concert in Carnegie Hall titled A Joyful Noise, a concert titled Vive la France! in February at St. Bartholomew’s Church, and a spring concert in Carnegie Hall featuring James DeMars’s Tito’s Say, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and the Mozart Requiem. Guest appearances included an appearance on 9/11 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala in Avery Fisher Hall, and an appearance with Andrea Bocelli at Madison Square Garden.
The chorus completed its gala 50th anniversary season in 2009. The season included the immensely popular A 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. Three unique works were featured on this program: Vaughn Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, and Whitman’s New York, a work commissioned for the special 50th season, from celebrated composer Stephen Paulus.
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 performed 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’s Mass in G Minor in St. Bartholomew's Church; the season ended with a Carnegie Hall performance of Itaipù by Philip Glass and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess Concert Suite. The NYCS also appeared with Andrea Bocelli in Madison Square Garden, having previously appeared with him in 2005 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia and at the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey. Other guest appearances included its 14th annual participation in 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.
During the 2005–2006 season the NYCS performed with Peter, Paul & Mary in Carnegie Hall with its music director emeritus, Robert De Cormier, on the podium, and in May 2006 performed Robert Levin’s edition of Mozart’s Mass in C minor, also in Carnegie Hall. 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 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.
Guest Performances
To view our guest performances for this season, please visit our Concerts and Events page.
Frequently in demand as guest artists, the NYCS has made numerous appearances with Andrea Bocelli, including a performance at Liberty State Park, broadcast live on PBS; a performance with Celine Dion at Radio City Music Hall; a performance at the 1998 Grammy Awards with Aretha Franklin; and several appearances on NBC’s Today show. Since 2005 the NYCS has continued a special tradition for our city by performing in St. Patrick's Cathedral on September 11th as part of the September Concert Foundation’s commemorative concerts throughout the city. The chorus returned for its 18th appearance at the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala in Avery Fisher Hall. The NYCS has also performed Carmina Burana with the Pennsylvania Ballet four times at City Center. Performances with the Opera Orchestra of New York have included Rossini’s William Tell, Mignon by Ambroise Thomas, Puccini’s Edgar, Lakmé by Delibes, and Bellini’s Norma and La sonnambula.
The NYCS has performed with the American Composers Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, China Philharmonic (Beijing), Collegium Ducale Orchestra (Venice), Dallas Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Juilliard Symphony, Lincoln Center Festival, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, New York City Ballet Orchestra, New York City Opera Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Opera Orchestra of New York, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (Mexico City), Orchestre Bell’Arte (Paris), Pennsylvania Ballet, Qingdao Symphony, Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra (Shanghai), and members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
Some of the many guest conductors have included: Marco Armiliato, Ankush Bahl, Charles Barker, Leonard Bernstein, Joseph Colaneri, Sergiu Comissiona, Dennis Russell Davies, Robert De Cormier, Asher Fisch, Lukas Foss, Margaret Hillis, Yong Yan Hu, Eugene Kohn, Jaja Ling, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Yehudi Menuhin, Steven Mercurio, John Nelson, Francisco Núñez, Daniel Oren, Robert Page, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Eve Queler, Julius Rudel, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, Gerard Schwarz, Michael Tilson Thomas, Alberto Veronesi, Roger Wagner, Hugh Wolff, and Long Yu.
The NYCS A Holiday Celebration with Peter, Paul & Mary has been broadcast occasionally on PBS since 1989.
Tours
The NYCS frequently tours. In August 2011 members of the NYCS will participate in the final performances of a two-year Mahler cycle with the acclaimed Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in Mexico City. The NYCS will join several Mexican choruses to perform three concerts of the Mahler’s Eighth Symphony (“The Symphony of a Thousand”) under the baton of Carlos Miguel Prieto. The NYCS’ participation in these performances is made possible in part by the generous support of Fomento Educacional, A.C.
The chorus is planning a concert tour in Sicily in June 2012 where they will be performing three concerts in Cefalù and three concerts in Taormina.
In 2010 the chorus gave six concerts in Mexico, singing three concerts of an international collection of classics, jazz and mariachis, and also appearing in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería at the Sala Nezahualcòyotl in Mexico City.
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 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 Hu Yongyan 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 De Cormier; Floodland with the Sisters Of Mercy; Songs of Liberty, arranged by Robert De Cormier; Legacy and Four Sonnets to Orpheus by Robert De Cormier; Kodály’s Missa Brevis; and Vaughan Williams’s Mass in G minor.