The New Amsterdam Singers to Present JUXTAPOSITIONS, 3/2 & 4

The New Amsterdam Singers and a bluegrass band will join forces for Carol Barnett's The World Beloved, A Bluegrass Mass,Friday, March 2 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 4 at 4 p.m. at The Church of the Holy Trinity, 316 East 88th Street (between First and Second Avenues). The work, premiered in 2007, combines the Latin text of the Mass with modern poetry and is accompanied by violin, mandolin, bass, banjo, and guitar- the traditional bluegrass forces.  

The program, entitled "Juxtapositions," also features the New York City premiere of Whispers by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky, a work that uses William Byrd's iconic motet, Ave verum corpus, as a background presence combined with Walt Whitman's Whispers of Heavenly Death and a setting of his own music. Whispers was composed in 2002 for the male ensemble Chanticleer.

The program also includes an elaborate setting of the American folk hymn, Amazing Grace, by the rising Latvian composer, Eriks Esenwalds; and motets by Byrd, Victoria, and Bruckner. 

Carol Barnett's varied catalog includes works for solo voice, piano, chorus, diverse chamber ensembles, orchestra, and wind ensemble. She was awarded the 2003 Nancy Van de Vate International Prize for Opera for her chamber opera, Snow; Meeting at Seneca Falls was featured at the 2006 Diversity Festival in Red Wing, Minnesota. Other recent works include Song of Perfect Propriety, Prelude and Romp, and Praise, for organ and steel drum. The Minnesota-based composer has received commissions from the American Guild of Organists, Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Harvard Glee Club, and American Guild of Organists. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, where she studied composition with Dominick Argento and Paul Fetler, and currently teaches at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. 
  
Steven Stucky received the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for his Second Concerto for Orchestra. His extensive catalogue of compositions ranges from large-scale orchestral works to a cappella miniatures for chorus, an eight-minute work for five percussionists, solo piano pieces, and music for ensembles such as piano quartet, string quartet, wind quintet, voice and piano, and saxophone and piano.  Active as a conductor, writer, lecturer, and teacher, Mr. Stucky for 21 years enjoyed a close partnership with the Los Angeles Philharmonic-as composer-in-residence and later as the orchestra's consulting composer for new music. Highlights of recent seasons include the world premiere of his evening-length concert drama, August 4, 1964, by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; the U.S. premiere of Rhapsodies by the New York Philharmonic; the world premieres of Spirit Voices, a percussion concerto for Evelyn Glennie; Jeu de timbres in Washington; and the premiere of To Whom I Said Farewell - a song cycle with chamber orchestra. Mr. Stucky, whose works have been performed by numerous orchestras, has taught at Cornell University since 1980, chaired the music department from 1992 to 1997, and now serves as Given Foundation Professor of Composition. He has been visiting professor of composition at the Eastman School of Music and Ernest Bloch professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

New Amsterdam Singers
The New Amsterdam Singers was founded in 1968 by Clara Longstreth.  In a recent review, The New York Times wrote that "the choir's performances have always been spirited and finely polished," noting that "the group's real charm, though, is its passion for contemporary American music," and that "having built relationships with choral composers around the country, Ms. Longstreth has made a point of building smart thematic programs around their work." The chorus has performed with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein; American Russian Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and at Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall under Leon Botstein; Concordia Orchestra and Anonymous Four in Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light with Marin Alsop at Avery Fisher Hall; and with the Limón Dance Company in Kodály's Missa Brevis.  In the summer of 2010 the chorus sang concerts in Cuba, and, in December 2010, at a Holiday Open House at the White House.

New Amsterdam Singers
"Juxtapositions"
Friday, March 2, 2012, at 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 4, 2012, at 4 p.m.
The Church of the Holy Trinity, 316 East 88th Street
(between First and Second Avenues)

Carol Barnett The World Beloved, A Bluegrass Mass
Anton Bruckner       Christus factus est pro nobis
William Byrd Ave verum corpus
William Byrd Civitas sancti tui
William Byrd Sing Joyfully
Traditional/arr.
Eriks Esenwalds      Amazing Grace
Steven Stucky      Whispers (New York City premiere)
Tomás Luis de Victoria Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes

For further information, call 212-568-5948 or go online at www.nasingers.org.  Tickets are $20 in advance by mail, phone, or online; $25 at the door.  Senior and student prices are available by mail, phone, or at the door.

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