The Manhattan Choral Ensemble Concludes its 2012-2013 Season With New Music for New York

The Manhattan Choral Ensemble (MCE) will perform its signature springtime concert New Music for New York on Saturday, May 18, 2013 at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music. The program features three new works written by up-and-coming New York City composers Doug Brandt, Justin Giarruso and Elizabeth Lim.

Now in its ninth year, the MCE's New Music for New York series has made a significant contribution to the body of choral music written about New Yorkers about the city they call home. Through the series, the MCE has commissioned and premiered nearly 30 works based on poetry by New Yorkers who span various eras and genres. The works on this program are based on poems written by Dorothy Parker, Sara Teasdale and Carl Sandburg.

New Music for New York serves as both a concert and a composition contest. The works by Brandt, Giarruso and Lim were chosen from a range of scores that were submitted to the MCE in the first round of the contest. The second round will take place at intermission, when the audience will vote on their favorite of the three premieres. The crowd's selection will receive a cash prize and an encore performance at the end of the concert.

As usual on the New Music for New York program, the MCE will perform folksongs, partsongs and madrigals, including Claudio Monteverdi's Ah! Dolente partita and Ma, se con la pietà. The MCE will also reprise excerpts of Victoria Bond's Cyclops, which was performed on April 1, 2013 as part of the Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival at Symphony Space. The piece-based on the "Cyclops" episode from James Joyce's Ulysses-features a masterful arrangement of text and music that parodies the many voices and styles contained within Joyce's prose.

For more information visit ManhattanChoralEnsemble.org.