Summer Sings

Do you miss singing in a chorus over the summer? Are you an aspiring choral singer who needs to improve your sight reading? Do you wish you could sing some of the beautiful choruses in your favorite choral works? Are you a choral music buff, but don't have time to belong to a chorus? Do you let loose your voice in the shower?

If your answer to any of these is "yes," the New York Choral Society Summer Sings are for you! Each summer, we read through the most popular masterworks of the choral literature. Six different prominent choral conductors familiar in the New York area lead the Sings. We lend you scores for the evening, provide accompaniment, air-conditioning, and YOU are the chorus!

Download our 2010 Summers Sings flyer! (PDF)

2010 Summer Sings Schedule

Wednesday, July 28
7:30PM
Fauré Requiem, Vivaldi Gloria
Robert De Cormier, conductor
Vermont Symphony Chorus & Orchestra
Music Director Emeritus, NYCS

Vivaldi's Gloria is deservedly one of the most popular pieces in the choral literature. Never was the "Red Priest" (as Vivaldi was known) more exuberant than in this exciting work. The Fauré Requiem is far more demure and understated, its beauty coming through its luscious sounds in this classic Mass for the Dead.

Wednesday, August 4
7:30PM
Verdi Requiem
Clara Longstreth
New Amsterdam Singers

Frequently called "Verdi's greatest opera," the Requiem surges with emotion and passion. From the vision of wrath in the Dies Irae to the beatific closing lines, the work is not to be missed. The premiere in 1874 was a triumph.

Wednesday, August 11
7:30PM
Mozart Requiem, Britten Rejoice in the Lamb
Michael Ciavaglia, conductor
New York Choral Society

Mozart's Requiem is one of the most popular and beloved works in the choral repertoire. Composed in the last year of his life, Mozart's Requiem contains all the power for which the composer is famous in its vision of the finality of Death. His musical legacy - and particularly his Requiem - has brought outstanding beauty and richness to Western culture like few other composers. Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb is a chaotic, brilliant and festive catalogue of the variety of ways in which all living things worship and praise God.

Wednesday, August 18
7:30PM
Brahms Requiem
Mark Shapiro, conductor
Cantori New York

This expansive piece demands excessive quantities of passion and drama, angst and sweetness, power and intimacy. Clara Schumann, in a letter to Brahms wrote, "It is a truly tremendous piece of art which moves the entire being in a way little else does."

Wednesday, August 25
7:30PM
Orff Carmina Burana, Brahms Nänie
Patrick Gardner, conductor
Riverside Choral Society

Rollicking fun will be had as we sing these 23 songs of de-frocked, and frequently inebriated, monks. The rhythmic music is catchy and the singing so expressive and dramatic it begs for your attention. A favorite of singers and audiences. Brahms' Nänie, based on a poem by Friedrich Schiller, is an impassioned lamentation on the brevity of life and the fleeting nature of beauty.

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Wednesday, September 1
7:30PM
Haydn Lord Nelson Mass, Te Deum, Bach Magnificat
John Daly Goodwin, conductor
New York Choral Society

Haydn's chief biographer, H. C. Robbins Landon, has written that the Lord Nelson Mass "is arguably Haydn's greatest composition." The mass, one of the six late sacred works of Haydn, is a masterwork influenced by his experience of his London symphonies. His Te Deum composed during the same period, is a short joyous expression of praise composed for an ardent admirer, Empress Maria Theresa. Bach's Magnificat, familiar to all choral singers, is one of his major vocal works.

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