2016 PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now Festival Kicks Off Today

Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) and HERE present the fourth annual PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now festival, running today, January 6, through January 17, 2016, in New York City. Deemed "suddenly indispensable" (New Yorker), this "bracingly innovative" Festival, founded, directed, and curated by Kristin Marting (of HERE), Beth Morrison (of BMP), and Kim Whitener (of HERE), has quickly become "a point of reference" in the field (The New York Times) over three astoundingly successful seasons.

The 2016 Festival "prove[s] that thrilling opera continues to bloom," (Time Out New York), with a line-up of some of opera and theatre's brightest lights.

Mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer, known for her "throbbing low register and open-hearted performing style" (Wall Street Journal), stars in Angel's Bone (Du Yun/Royce Vavrek), which was workshopped in the 2014 Festival. The piece leads 2016's programming in a fully-produced world premiere co-production between Prototype and Trinity Wall Street. Meanwhile, the world premiere cast of Dog Days, David T. Little and Royce Vavrek's highly-acclaimed opera based on the short-story by Judy Budnitz, returns from a recent tour of Fort Worth Opera and Los Angeles Opera for the piece's New York City premiere. The cast features Lauren Worsham (Tony Award-nominated for A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder), tenor Peter Tantsits, and performance artist John Kelly. The Good Swimmer (Heidi Rodewald/Donna Di Novelli), which updates the relationships of Antigone and is set during the Vietnam War, gets a first-look at this year's Festival. The Last Hotel, by Irish creative duo Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh, comes to the new St. Ann's Warehouse for its American premiere after acclaimed performances at Edinburgh International Arts Festival, the Dublin Theatre Festival, and the Royal Opera House, with noted Irish actor Mikel Murfi and the "mesmerizing" singer Claudia Boyle (The Guardian). Sa?ga, told through the prism of Belgian indie band Dez Mona in collaboration with B.O.X. (Baroque Orchestration X) and singer Gregory Frateur, comes to New York for its American premiere and blurs the lines between a modern opera and a song cycle. Next up is a late-night opera-cabaret offering in the form of the "brazen, cheeky and just downright spunky" (World Music Central) band, Bombay Rickey, led by composer/coloratura soprano Kamala Sankaram. The Festival is rounded out with mezzo-soprano Audrey Babcock and baritone Christopher Burchett in a concert reading of La Reina, an electro-acoustic opera commissioned by American Lyric Theater with text in Spanish and English by composer Jorge Sosa and librettist Laura Sosa Pedroza, which draws its narrative from the Mexico-U.S. drug trade.

The 2016 Festival takes place at HERE and the following presenting partner/venues: 3LD Art & Technology Center, French Institute Alliance Franc?aise (FIAF), National Sawdust, NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, and St. Ann's Warehouse. Read on for more about each of the 2016 Festival programs and watch this space for more information, samples, and Festival extras: prototypefestival.org.

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THE PRESENTATIONS:

ANGEL'S BONE (WORLD PREMIERE)

Composer Du Yun
Librettist Royce Vavrek
@ 3LD Center for Art & Technology

Jan 6, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, & 17 at 7pm | Jan 9 at 3pm
$25 | $17 with PROTO Pack | Opening Night Event
on Jan 6 | Post-Show Conversation on Jan 13
Run Time: 80 minutes

Angel's Bone is a new work of opera-theatre that follows the plight of two angels whose nostalgia for earthly delights has, mysteriously, brought them back to our world. They are found battered and bruised from their long journey by a man and his wife. Mr. and Mrs. X.E. set out to nurse the wounded angels back to health: they bathe them, wash the dirt from their nails...then lock them in a room and decide to exploit these magical beings for wealth and personal gains. Angel's Bone melds chamber music, theatre, punk rock, opera, cabaret, and electronics, exploring the dark effects and motivations behind modern-day slavery and the trafficking industry.

CREATIVE TEAM & CAST
Music Direction by Julian Wachner
Directed by Michael McQuilken
Mrs. X.E. - Abigail Fischer
Mr. X.E. - Kyle Pfortmiller
Girl Angel - Jennifer Charles
Boy Angel - Kyle Bilfield
Featuring the Choir of Trinity Wall Street and NOVUS NY

Originally commissioned by the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia. Completion co-commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects and HERE. Co-produced by Beth Morrison Projects, HERE, and Trinity Wall Street. Co-presented with 3LD Center for Art & Technology.

DOG DAYS (NYC PREMIERE)

Composer David T. Little
Librettist Royce Vavrek
Based on the short story "Dog Days" by Judy Budnitz
@ Skirball Center for the Performing Arts - New York University

Jan 9 & 11 at 8pm | Jan 10 at 3pm
$25, $40, $45, $55, $75 | $25 through PROTO Pack
Post-Show Conversation on Jan 10
Run time: 150 minutes

Dog Days, of which The New York Times has said, "It's only a matter of time before this riveting show is confirmed as a groundbreaking American classic," is a work of contemporary opera-theatre that investigates the psychology of a working class American family pitted against a not-so-distant-future wartime scenario. Exploring the ultimate struggle of humanity-stuck between nature's indifference and society's barely restrained brutality-Dog Days asks: is it madness, delusion, or sheer animal instinct that guides us through severely trying times? Where is the line between animal and human? At what point must we give into our animal instincts merely to survive?

CREATIVE TEAM & CAST
Director: Robert Woodruff
Music Director: Alan Pierson
Scenic and Video Designer: Jim Findlay
Lighting Designer: Christopher Kuhl /Associate Lighting Designer: Masha Tsimring
Costume Designer: Vita Tzykun
Howard (Father) - James Bobick
Mother - Marnie Breckenridge
Captain - Cherry Duke
Prince - John Kelly
Elliott - Michael Marcotte
Pat - Peter Tantsits
Lisa - Lauren Worsham
Featuring the chamber ensemble NEWSPEAK, with special guests

Dog Days was originally produced by Peak Performances @ Montclair State (NJ) in association with Beth Morrison Projects. Dog Days was commissioned by Peak Performances @ Montclair State (NJ). Selections from Dog Days were commissioned and presented by Carnegie Hall for the Weill Music Institute. Scenes from Dog Days were presented as part of New York City Opera's VOX Contemporary American Opera Lab. The 2015-2016 tour of Dog Days is produced by Beth Morrison Projects. Dog Days is presented by arrangement with Hendon Music, Inc., a Boosey & Hawkes company, publisher and copyright owner. Co-presented with NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.

THE GOOD SWIMMER (FIRST-LOOK PRESENTATION)

Composer Heidi Rodewald
Librettist Donna Di Novelli
@ HERE's Mainstage Theatre

Jan 7-10 & 12-17 at 7pm | $25 | $17 through PROTO Pack
Post-Show Conversation on Jan 14
Run Time: 70 minutes

Part requiem, part lifesaving drill, The Good Swimmer is a new music-theatre piece set entirely on a surf beach. The piece translates the kinship relationships of a Greek tragedy to a family of lifeguards during the early days of the Vietnam War. Ripping apart found texts (archaic field guides, historical quotations, defunct manuals) to create song lyrics, The Good Swimmer pits the 'common good' against the primacy of kinship as a sister opposes a monument to be built in her beloved brother's memory. The young singers who make up the Lifeguard Chorus reflect the somber truth that a majority of the GIs lost in Vietnam would never reach their 22nd birthday.

CREATIVE TEAM & CAST
Director: Kevin Newbury
Choreographer: Sam Pinkleton and Chloe Treat
Set Designer: Victoria "Vita" Tzykun
Lighting Designer: Eric Southern
Costume Designer: David C. Woolard
Sound Designer: Brandon Walcott
Video and Projections Designer: Greg Emetaz
Music Co-Direction by Marc Doten and Heidi Rodewald
Music Orchestrations and Arrangements by Heidi Rodewald, Marc Doten and Mike McGinnis
Stage Manager: Marisa Levy
Band Members include: Marty Beller, David Driver, Jeff Hermanson, Dana Lyn, Mike McGinnis, Dan Miller and Heidi Rodewald

Developed with the support of the National Musical Theater Conference at the O'Neill Center, Bowdoin College, and the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA.

THE LAST HOTEL (AMERICAN PREMIERE)

A St. Ann's Warehouse Presentation of a
Landmark Productions and Wide Open Opera production
Composer Donnacha Dennehy
Librettist & Director Enda Walsh
@ St. Ann's Warehouse

Jan 8, 9, 12, 15, 16 at 8pm | Jan 10, 17 at 3pm
$50, $60, $70 | $25 through PROTO Pack
Post-Show Conversation on Jan 12
Run Time: 90 minutes

A woman meets a couple in a hotel parking lot. All three are nervous. They have come to seal a pact. Enda Walsh's first opera and fifth St. Ann's premiere, The Last Hotel reunites Walsh and composer Donnacha Dennehy, creators of Misterman (with Cillian Murphy), and arrives at St. Ann's new theatre after thrilling engagements at the Royal Opera House, Edinburgh International and Dublin Theatre Festivals. Conducted (alternately) by André de Ridder and Alan Pierson, "this searingly powerful new chamber work," (The Guardian), is performed by an ensemble of New York's finest contemporary players and features singers Claudia Boyle, Robin Adams, Katherine Manley, and actor Mikel Murfi.

CREATIVE TEAM & CAST
Conductors: André de Ridder, Alan Pierson
Set and Costume Designer: Jamie Vartan
Lighting Designer: Adam Silverman
Sound Designers: David Sheppard, Helen Atkinson
Associate Director: Sophie Motley
Woman - Claudia Boyle
Husband - Robin Adams
Wife - Katherine Manley
Caretaker - Mikel Murfi
Woman (London) - Aoife Miskelly

Presented by St. Ann's Warehouse. Co-presented with The Irish Arts Center. Supported by piece by piece productions, The Arts Council Ireland, and Culture Ireland.

SÁGA (AMERICAN PREMIERE / MULTI-MEDIA CONCERT)

By Dez Mona and Baroque Orchestration X
@ National Sawdust

Jan 9 at 7pm & 10pm | Jan 10 at 7pm | $25
Post-Show Conversation on Jan 10
Run Time: 75 minutes

Dez Mona is one of Belgium's finest indie bands whose style fuses jazz, gospel, spirituals, and drama. For the creation of Sága, they engage in a sparkling collaboration with B.O.X. (Baroque Orchestration X) along with the outstanding vocalist Gregory Frateur.

Sága is a theatrical song cycle, which deals with "homecoming" as its main theme. The title of the work refers to the well-known epic tales composed in Iceland and Greenland some time between the 12th and 14th centuries, and also to Sága: in Norse mythology she is the goddess of history and storytelling. Dez Mona tells stories about the soul and goes in search of love for the land, a home, and the world in which they live. The songs emanate from the continuous search for ideal geographical and spiritual surroundings. By looking into the past, Dez Mona tries to explain the current state of affairs. But more than anything, their latest work is a poetic reflection on what is happening here and now.

Creative Team & Musicians
Composers - Gregory Frateur and Nicolas Rombouts
Vocals/Lyrics - Gregory Frateur
Double Bass/Vocals/Arrangements - Nicolas Rombouts
Accordion - Roel Van Camp
Theorbo/Arrangements/Vocals - Pieter Theuns
Harp/Vocals - Jutta Troch
Viola da gamba/Vocals - Pieter Vandeveire
Violin/Guitar/Trombone/Vocals - Tijs Delbeke

Sága was created with the support of deSingel in Antwerp, the Flemish Government, Klara festival and Opera Days Rotterdam. Co-presented with National Sawdust.

BOMBAY RICKEY (OPERA-CABARET PRESENTATION)

@ HERE's Dorothy B. Williams Theatre

Jan 8, 15 at 8:30pm | Jan 9, 16 at 8:30pm & 10:30pm | $25 | $17 through PROTO Pack | Post-Show Conversation on Jan 15

Called "the future of music" (New York Music Daily), Bombay Rickey is a five-piece, Brooklyn-based band with a unique sound evocative of 1960s movie soundscapes. The group plays both covers and original music that borrow equally from the worlds of surf rock, cumbia, spaghetti Western, and Bollywood, balanced out with a "little" coloratura soprano. Bombay Rickey has become a fixture at the world-famous Brooklyn club Barbés, performed live on WFMU radio, and their music has been featured in a television commercial for Citibank. Their debut album, Cinefonia has been described as "brazen, cheeky and just downright spunky" (World Music Central). Bombay Rickey will play 6 performances of a new work exploring the life of Peruvian singer Yma Sumac.

Creative Team & Musicians:
Creators - Bombay Rickey
Text - Rob Handel
Director - Kristin Marting
Vocals/Accordion - Kamala Sankaram
Guitar/Vocals - Drew Fleming
Alto Saxophone/Vocals - Jeff Hudgins
Upright Bass - Gil Smuskowitz
Percussion - Brian Shankar Adler

LA REINA (CONCERT READING)

Composer Jorge Sosa
Librettists Laura Sosa Pedroza and Jorge Sosa
@ French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), Florence Gould Hall

Jan 17 at 5pm | $25
Run Time: 120 minutes

La Reina is an electro-acoustic opera with text in Spanish and English. Drawing its narrative from the drug trade in Mexico and the United States, the opera is inspired by some of the most vivid real life players in this increasingly violent war from the past and present. Composer Jorge Sosa's music blends classically trained voices with a chamber orchestra of acoustic and electronic forces, and powerfully conveys a gripping libretto by Laura Sosa Pedroza. The orchestral concert, featuring mezzo soprano Audrey Babcock as La Reina, is co-presented as part of American Lyric Theater's InsighALT series, which features operas at various stages of development in the Composer Librettist Development Program. The concert is the culminating event of an extensive orchestral workshop, and will conclude with a detailed process-based discussion with the composer and librettist, moderated by Lawrence Edelson.

Creative Team & Cast
Conductor - David Alan Miller
Regina - Audrey Babcock
El Gringo - Christopher Burchett
Young Regina - Rosa Betancourt
El Pozolero - Javier Abreu
El Señor del Norte - Zachary James

Commissioned by American Lyric Theater, Lawrence Edelson, Producing Artistic Director. La Reina has received developmental support through the Composer Librettist Development Program at American Lyric Theater, lead funding for which has been provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and OPERA America/The Opera Fund. Co-presented with the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF).

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After just three years on the scene, PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now has been deemed "suddenly indispensable" by The New Yorker and The New York Times called the 2015 festival "bracingly innovative...a point of reference." PROTOTYPE has produced and presented 91 performances, shared the work of more than 275 local, national, and international artists, exposed visionary work to more than 9,000 people, and filled 19 stages across multiple boroughs of New York City. It has unleashed a powerful wave of opera-theatre and music-theatre from a new generation of classical and post-classical composers and librettists, and as Opera News proclaimed, "has become a major leader in opera theatre for the twenty-first century."

PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now receives leadership funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional generous support from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., Amphion Foundation, Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, The Charles and Cerise Jacobs Fund for New Opera, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, Fresh Sound Foundation, OPERA America's New Works Exploration Grant, The Reed Foundation, and The Ted Snowdon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. PROTOTYPE receives generous corporate support from Edison Properties. prototypefestival.org

Creative producer Beth Morrison Projects identifies and supports the work of emerging and established composers and their collaborators through the commission, development, and production of their work, taking the form of opera-theatre, music-theatre, and multi-media concert works. Relying on the core values of collaboration, exploration, experimentation, artistry, and excellence, BMP provides a nurturing structure that allows artists to push the boundaries of their art form. Founded in 2006, BMP rapidly developed a reputation for "envisioning new possibilities and finding ways to facilitate their realization" (The New York Times). In eight years, BMP has commissioned, developed, and produced more than forty operas and music-theatre pieces that have premiered or been performed in New York, across the country, and around the globe. The Wall Street Journal said, "Ms. Morrison may be immortalized one day as a 21st-century Diaghilev, known for her ability to assemble memorable collaborations among artists." BMP's ability to recognize emerging talent, invest in the vision of living composers and their collaborators, and partner with presenters to bring new work to life has allowed it to become vital in the landscape of new music and opera. The New York Times recently said, "The production of new [opera] works in the city still falls mostly to the tireless Beth Morrison and her Beth Morrison Projects..." BMP is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council for the Arts, the Department of Cultural Affairs of New York City, New Music USA, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, The Map Fund, a program of creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

BMP is led by Creative Producer Beth Morrison, an opera and theatre producer, singer, and voice teacher with bachelor and master of music degrees and a master of fine arts in theatre management/producing from the Yale School of Drama, as well as many years of experience in the development of new opera and theatre works. She first cultivated her extensive experience in arts administration at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute where she served as administrative director for four years. Beth served a founding tenure as the Producer for the Yale Institute for Music Theatre from 2009-2011, as well as Producer for New York City Opera's VOX:Contemporary American Opera Lab from 2010-2011. Beth is also a founding producer of 21c Liederabend, a much-lauded multi-media festival of contemporary art song. BMP is the realization of Beth's vision, which stems from a deep commitment to nurturing composers and other artists and fostering the development of new opera and other new music-theatre works.

Since 1993, HERE has been one of New York's most prolific producing and presenting organizations, and today stands at the forefront of the city's presenters of new hybrid art. HERE supports multidisciplinary work that does not fit into a conventional programming agenda. HERE's aesthetic represents the independent, the innovative, and the experimental. HERE has developed such acclaimed works as Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues; Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique; Young Jean Lee's Songs of The Dragons Flying To Heaven; Trey Lyford & Geoff Sobelle's all wear bowlers; and Taylor Mac's The Lily's Revenge. As the ultimate in hybrid forms, music-theater and opera-theater premieres developed and produced at HERE include Kamala Sankaram's first opera Miranda, Yoav Gal's Mosheh, Christina Campanella and Stephanie Fleischman's Red Fly/Blue Bottle, and Nick Brooke's Border Towns.

Kristin Marting is HERE's Co-Founder and Artistic Director and a director of hybrid work based in NYC. As Artistic Director of HERE, she cultivates artists and programs all events for two performance spaces for an annual audience of 30,000. Under her leadership, HERE has garnered 16 OBIE awards, 2 OBIE grants for artistic achievement, a 2006 Edwin Booth Award ("for Outstanding Contribution to NY Theatre") from the CUNY Graduate Center, five Drama Desk nominations, two Berrilla Kerr Awards, four NY Innovative Theatre Awards and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. She co-created and co-curates HARP, HERE's Artist Residency Program. She also has constructed 26 works for the stage, including 12 original hybrid works, 8 adaptations of novels and short stories and 6 classic plays. She works in a collaborative, process-driven way to fuse different disciplines into a cohesive whole. She is now developing TRADE PRACTICES, a collaborative live art event that examines the notion of values. Recent projects include ORPHEUS, a collaborative alt-musical also co-created with David Morris; LUSH VALLEY, a live art participatory performance on citizenship, and James Scruggs's interactive solo work DISPOSABLE MEN. She also directed SOUNDING & DEAD TECH (collaborative hybrid works inspired by Ibsen texts), both of which received MAP Fund awards. She was named Person of the Year by NYTheatre.com in 2011, a Person of the Decade in 2015 and honored with a BAX10 Award.

Kim Whitener is HERE's Producing Director, co-curating and co-producing all of HERE's activities. Since early 2007 under her leadership, HERE's programming has grown exponentially, and several major initiatives have launched, including the PROTOTYPE festival and MADE HERE, an online video documentary series about New York performing artists. From 2001 until 2007, Ms. Whitener was an independent producer with her own company, KiWi Productions, working with a diverse range of US artists, both companies and individuals, in the contemporary theater, music-theater, dance-theater, and multi-media worlds to develop and produce new projects, working with co-producers worldwide. Her clients have included The Builders Association, Martha Clarke, Big Dance Theater, and 33 Fainting Spells, among others. Ms. Whitener was consulting producer on Logic of the Birds, artist Shirin Neshat's live performance featuring singer Sussan Deyhim (Lincoln Center Festival, Walker Art Center, Artangel London) in 2001. She also was co-producer of Zero Church, a multi-artist concert/performance event by Suzzy and Maggie Roche, at St. Ann's Warehouse in April 2002. Previously she was Managing Director of the ensemble theater company The Wooster Group, and worked with both the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia and the Boston Music Theatre Project at Suffolk University in Boston.

3-Legged Dog exists to produce new, original works in theater, performance, media and hybrid forms. Our mission is to explore the new narrative possibilities created by digital technology. 3LD Art & Technology Center is an artist-run production development studio for artists and organizations that create large-scale experimental artworks of all kinds. Since opening in 2006, we have hosted more than 700 artists a year. www.3ldnyc.org

American Lyric Theater (ALT) was founded in 2005 by Lawrence Edelson to build a new body of operatic repertoire for new audiences by nurturing composers and librettists, developing sustainable artistic collaborations, and contributing new works to the national canon. The company's flagship initiative, the Composer Librettist Development Program (CLDP), is the only full-time training program for emerging operatic writers in the United States. Operas developed through the CLDP and by CLDP alumni have been presented by a wide variety of companies, including Chicago Lyric Opera, Washington National Opera, Tulsa Opera, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Opera Saratoga, Urban Arias, Center City Opera, San Francisco Conservatory, Fort Worth Opera, and Beth Morrison Projects. www.altnyc.org

The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) is New York's premiere French cultural and language center. FIAF's mission is to create and offer New Yorkers innovative and unique programs in education and the arts that explore the evolving diversity and richness of French cultures. FIAF seeks to generate new ideas and promote cross cultural dialogue through partnerships and new platforms of expression. www.fiaf.org

National Sawdust is an unparalleled, artist-led, non-profit music venue that opened in Williamsburg, Brooklyn this month. Led by composer Paola Prestini and curated by a community of remarkable artists, National Sawdust is a place where artists can experiment and explore, and where serious fans and casual listeners alike can discover genre-spanning music at accessible ticket prices. The flexible, state-of-the-art chamber hall, housed within the preserved brick shell of a century-old former factory, is ideal for the performance and recording of a vast range of music. National Sawdust seeks to re-envision how a non-profit can offer comprehensive support to artists, providing composers and musicians commissioning support, mentoring, and other critical resources essential to create, and then share, their work. www.nationalsawdust.org

NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts is the premier venue for the presentation of cultural and performing arts events for New York University and lower Manhattan. Led by Executive Director Michael Harrington, the NYU Skirball mission is to showcase and support diverse and eclectic talent from around the world, while cultivating audiences for live performance through deeper engagement opportunities. For more information visit: www.nyuskirball.org.

St. Ann's Warehouse plays a vital role on the global cultural landscape as an American artistic home for international companies of distinction, American avant-garde masters and talented emerging artists ready to work on a grand scale. This fall, St. Ann's opens its new home, a spectacularwaterfront theater in the iconic Tobacco Warehouse in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The building offers 25,000 sf. of the flexible, open space that is St. Ann's signature. Located at 45 Water Street in DUMBO, the new St. Ann's Warehouse allows artists to stretch, both literally and imaginatively, enabling them to approach work with unfettered creativity, knowing that the theater can be adapted in multiple configurations to suit their needs. stannswarehouse.org

Trinity Wall Street is an Episcopal parish that has been part of New York City since 1697. Located in Lower Manhattan, Trinity's two principal places of worship, the historic Trinity Church and St. Paul's Chapel, stand as symbols of spiritual values and social action for a world of good. Trinity is also known for its world-class Music and the Arts program, home of the GRAMMY-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street and NOVUS NY under the leadership of Julian Wachner. www.trinitywallstreet.org