NYChoral Rings in the Holiday Season At Alice Tully Hall 12/21

The New York Choral Society (NYChoral) under the direction of its music director David Hayes will ring in the holiday season with a Christmas concert at Alice Tully Hall on Wednesday evening, December 21st, at 7:30 p.m. The program, featuring soloists Frederick Ballentine and Justin Hopkins, will present works by two musical giants of 20th Century American choral music, Robert Shaw, whose 100th birthday would have been this year, and Robert De Cormier, NYChoral Music Director Emeritus, who was awarded the 2016 Michael Korn Founders Award by Chorus America for his lifetime contribution to the choral arts. The concert will also include works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Elizabeth Poston, and James MacMillan, and will end with an audience sing-along of beloved Christmas carols. The complete program follows:

Fantasia on Christmas Carols Ralph Vaughan Williams
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree Elizabeth Poston
Many Moods of Christmas arr. Robert Shaw/Robert Russell Bennett
In Splendoribus Sanctorum James MacMillan
Shout for Joy Robert De Cormier
Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming Variations

Audience Sing-along of favorite Christmas Carols

Tickets are $40 - $75 and available for purchase online at www.nychoral.org

Earlier in the month, on Thursday evening, December 8th, from 6 - 8pm a Holiday Caroling Party will take place at The Century Club, 7 West 43rd Street, New York City. Tickets are $150 if purchased before December 1st and $175 after. Children under 12 can come for free. Please visit http://www.nychoral.org/holidayparty/ or call 917 442 1391 to purchase tickets. The evening will offer a cocktail hour, hors d'oeuvres, a carol sing-a-long, and a special raffle.

An essential force in the New York choral scene since its founding in 1959, The New York Choral Society (NYChoral) is widely known for the outstanding artistic quality of its performances of choral masterworks as well as rarely performed and new compositions. In addition to its regular season appearances at Carnegie Hall, the 175-voice

New York Choral Society has appeared at every major venue in the New York City area, including David Geffen Hall, formerly Avery Fisher Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House, Madison Square Garden, NJPAC, and St.

Patrick's Cathedral. In the 2016-2017 season, NYChoral returns to Carnegie Hall for Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass and Duruflé's Requiem and will give the New York City Premiere of James MacMillan's St. Luke Passion at St. Bartholomew's Church in April. Recent engagements in the fall included the U.S. Premiere of Maltese composer Joseph Vella's The Hyland Mass: A Prayer for Unity in Diversity at St. Patrick's Cathedral and NYChoral's annual performance at the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala at Carnegie Hall. Later in December NYChoral will appear in holiday concerts with Andrea Bocelli in Madison Square Garden and at NJPAC.

In February of 2016, NYChoral sang Arvo Pärt's Te Deum and Beethoven's Mass in C, Op. 86 at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium. George Grella praised the performance in the New York Classical Review: "Depending on the demands of the music, they were grand or intimate, warm or dark. [The Mass is C] was fine and impressive in every way. Hayes' pace in the Beethoven felt ideal; relaxed but flowing forward easily. The phrases had the opportunity to rise and fall as if the music were breathing."

Under the visionary artistic leadership of Music Director David Hayes since the 2012-2013 season, NYChoral has expanded its artistic mission to present a wide variety of choral repertory. Alongside masterworks of the 20th and

21st century, NYChoral has performed John Adams's On The Transmigration of Souls, Hindemith's When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, and the New York premiere of Jennifer Higdon's The Singing Rooms, featuring violinist Jennifer Kohl.

Highlights of previous seasons include performances of Mendelssohn's St. Paul, Berlioz' L'Enfance du Christ, Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony, Holst's rarely performed Hymn of Jesus, and Beethoven's Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, all at Carnegie Hall conducted by Music Director David Hayes. The 2011-2012 season marked the 25th and final season of Music Director John Daly Goodwin and included two compositions commissioned by the

New York Choral Society, Robert De Cormier's Legacy and Morton Gould's Quotations, as part of an all-American program at Carnegie Hall.

A sought-after guest artist in New York City for many decades, NYChoral has collaborated with the Lincoln Center Festival, Cirque de Soleil, New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, New York Youth Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Juilliard Symphony, and the Opera Orchestra of New York and has performed with conductors such as Marco Armiliato, Leonard Bernstein, Asher Fisch, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Julius Rudel, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, Patrick Summers, Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, and EmManuel Villaume.

NYChoral has also regularly appeared as guest artist at the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala and with Andrea Bocelli. Recently members of NYChoral sang at the 80WSE and CHEAP's production of The Magic Flute, a re-imagining of the narrative of Mozart's celebrated music drama.

International tours have included the Chinese premiere of Mahler's Eighth Symphony in Beijing in 2002; performances of Mahler's Symphonies No. 2 and 8 in Mexico City with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto in 2010 and 2011; a return to Beijing for performances at the Olympic Cultural Festival in

2008; and several European tours with performances in France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Greece, the Czech Republic, and Israel.

Each summer since 1960 the New York Choral Society has produced a popular series of Summer Sings, open readings of the choral literature led by prominent conductors in the New York area. NYChoral Sings continue to provide a wonderful musical opportunity to the community and to attract new singers to the chorus.

For further information, please contact Hemsing Associates at (212) 772-1132 or e-mail jhemsing@hemsingpr.com

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