MasterVoices to Launch BRIDGES - CONNECTING COMMUNITIES THROUGH MUSIC

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) announces the inaugural concert for"Bridges - Connecting Communities Through Music," an outreach initiative that provides people in a New York community with the opportunity to come together to make music with MasterVoices, regardless of their abilities or backgrounds. MasterVoices provides the structure of the event, and this season, to get things started, composer Marisa Michelson has been commissioned to create a work with Royce Vavrek to showcase some unique sounds and skills of six highly diverse constituent groups from Lawrence, Long Island, along with MasterVoices. The groups include the Lawrence High School and Middle School Choruses and Life Rhythms Percussion Ensemble, the Meshuga Daddies barbershop quartet, and two groups of Hispanic and Gospel singers. Prior to the NYC concert at Ansche Chesed, the work will be performed in Lawrence on Thursday, June 2 at the Lawrence High School.

Michelson and Vavrek's melodic and earthy new community oratorio, entitled Naamah's Ark, draws from the natural language of the body in combination with influences from the folk, classical and musical theatre traditions. Inspired by Hurricane Sandy, which united different communities in a time of strife, Naamah's Ark is set after the great flood in the story of Noah's Ark, at the crucial point in which all of the different species of animals must learn how to share the future.

Inspiration for Naamah's Ark came out of my conversations with various community leaders from Lawrence, Long Island," said composer Marisa Michelson. "After the first few visits, I possessed a distinct feeling for a community fiercely devoted to nurturing open-mindedness... There is vast economic disparity in this community, but a seemingly deep sense of peace between families from different socio-economic backgrounds. Out of my conversations with community members, it became obvious that one of the themes of our piece needed to be about the intention for co-existence among people who harbor different world-views."

The performance of Naamah's Ark will feature soloist Katie Geissinger. Building on the theme of rainstorms, floods, and braving new worlds, the program will open with MasterVoices performing traditional spiritual Didn't It Rain (arranged by Michael A. Gray) and Eric Whitacre's Cloudburst.

Tickets for the June 5 performance at Ansche Chesed Synagogue are $30 and $45, available at mastervoices.org.