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 eleven world premieres and has commissioned works by Paul Alan Levi, Morton Gould, Stephen Paulus, and Robert De Cormier.

The NYCS just completed its 53rd season that included a December concert in Carnegie Hall entitled A Joyful Noise that included works by Haydn, Poulenc, Verdi and Puccini.  The chorus returned to Carnegie Hall in April for an evening of works by American composers.  Featured works were by Stephen Paulus, Morten Luaridsen Charles Ives and two compositions commissioned by the New York Choral Society: Robert De Cormier’s Legacy and Morton Gould’s Quotations. This performance marked Maestro John Daly Goodwin’s final concert at Carnegie Hall as music director of the New York Choral Society, a position he held for 25 years.

Guest appearances last season included an appearance at Pace University and in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on September 11 as part of the September Concert Foundation’s commemorative concerts throughout the city. The chorus made its 18th appearance with the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala in Avery Fisher Hall in November. In January the NYCS returned to Avery Fisher Hall in a performance of Wagner’s Rienzi with the Opera Orchestra of New York.  In May the Chamber Singers of the NYCS performed in Avery Fisher Hall in a work by Mario Jazzetti.  The season ended with a second concert at Pace University that included works performed on tour in Sicily in June/July 2012.

In 2010-2011 the NYCS season included A Holiday Celebration with Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey, of the legendary Peter, Paul and Mary folk trio conducted by music director emeritus Robert De Cormier.  In February the chorus performed Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle at the then newly renovated Alice Tully Hall.  The season ended with a performance of Dvořák’s Stabat Mater in Carnegie Hall.

Guest Performances

The NYCS is frequently in demand as guest artists.  During the 2010-2011 season, guest engagements included performing in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on September 11 for the sixth time and again with Andrea Bocelli in Madison Square Garden and at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.  An appearance at the Opera Orchestra of New York’s Gala featured Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Massenet’s La Navarraise, with an all-star cast that was conducted by OONY’s new Music Director, Alberto Veronesi.

During the 2009-2010 season, the NYCS again performed in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on September 11th for the fifth time as part of the September Concert Foundation’s commemorative concerts throughout the city. The chorus returned for its 17th appearance at the Richard Tucker Music Gala in Avery Fisher Hall.  The NYCS also made its sixth appearance with the international superstar tenor Andrea Bocelli.

During the 2007-2008 season the chorus performed Carmina Burana with the Pennsylvania Ballet four times at City Center.  The NYCS also made a guest appearance with the Opera Orchestra of New York performing Bellini’s La Sonnambula in February. In April, the NYCS again performed with the OONY in 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 include 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, Placido Domingo, Asher Fisch, Lukas Foss, Yong-yan Hu, Jaja Ling, Fabio Luisi, 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 annually on PBS since 1989.

Tours

The NYCS frequently tours.  In the summer of 2012 the chorus performed three concerts in Sicily.  The first was an outdoor concert in the Piazza del Duomo in Cefalù followed by a concert the next evening at the Basilica Minore Maria SS. Assunta in Montalbano Elicona.  Traveling on to Catania on the eastern end of Sicily, the chorus performed at the Teatro Massimo Bellini.

In the summer of 2011 the chorus performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in Mexico City.  In 2010, the chorus sang in six concerts in Mexico, singing three concerts of an international collection of classics, jazz, and mariachis.  The chorus also appeared in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto with the Orquestra Sinfónica de Minería at the Sala Nezahualcóyotl 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 di 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 Flanerles Musicales d’Ete de Reims and at Chartres Cathedral. They also performed at the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris.

Members of the NYCS 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 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 Uberty, arranged by Robert De Cormier; Legacy and Four Sonnets to Orpheus by Robert De Cormier; and Kodaly’s Missa Brevis and Vaughan Williams’s Mass in G Minor.

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.

For more information about the New York Choral Society please visit the website at www.nychoral.org.