Blog

The Super Bowl this past Sunday was a big deal in New York, with our hometown Giants' big win. But the Super Bowl is now about so much more than just football: it's an excuse to get together with friends and eat lots of food, and it's a time for us to connect to pop culture. The halftime show and advertisements are often discussed more than the game itself! After all, it is the biggest media and advertising opportunity of the year, with companies spending huge sums of money and many hours to come up with the most inventive, creative advertisements.

The New York City Master Chorale is now entering its sixth week of rehearsals of our new repertoire, in preparation for our April 26 concert at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center. This concert, titled "Water and Night" focuses on a series of pieces themed on water and night, and includes works by major contemporary composers including Steven Paulus, Morten Lauridsen, Eric Whitacre, and Moses Hogan. It is an exciting and engaging set of music. In addition, we will be premiering a piece written for the Chorale by Paul Leavitt, whose stunning Requiem we performed last year.

Our concert last Friday was a wonderful experience. It was such a joy to perform our holiday concert with an orchestra, especially such a talented one. I heard from audience members that this felt like our most festive holiday concert ever; I attribute that to the choice of music and the bold, brass sound that we associate with the holidays. It was certainly festive music to perform!

Our holiday concert, MAGNIFICAT, will be held this Friday and I am so very excited. Last week we rehearsed with the orchestra - what a wonderful experience that was! The orchestra is full of very talented musicians and it was such a privilege to rehearse with them. One of our singers even said that he had to write a note in the margin of his music to remind himself to sing - and not just listen in awe of the beauty of the orchestra.

This Thursday, between 7 and 10 pm (Eastern Standard Time), the New York City Master Chorale will perform on the Busted Halo Show on Sirius XM Satellite Radio (Channel 129). Please tune in!

As Thanksgiving approaches, I like to take time to reflect on those things for which I am grateful. I am particularly grateful for the New York City Master Chorale and the many ways this chorus has enriched my life.

Today is Monday and that means that my new favorite show, The Sing-Off, is on TV tonight. Now, I'm not much of a TV person and I'm certainly not into reality TV or competition shows, but I still love The Sing-Off! The Sing-Off is a competition series featuring 16 a cappella groups competing for a cash prize and record contract. Each week, the groups perform in hopes of making it on to the next round.

This weekend, The New York Times ran an interview with Daniel Levitin, neuroscientist and author of This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, about the tenth anniversary of the release of the original iPod. In the article Happy Birthday iPod!, Levitin talks about how the iPod has changed how we experience music - everything from sound quality to sharing music. Yes, in the past ten years, the music industry has changed vastly.

October has been named National Arts and Humanities Month (NAMH). NAMH was initiated by Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the arts in America. NAMH is the country's largest celebration of the arts.

The New York City Master Chorale's new season is upon us! We are now entering our fourth week of fall rehearsals, as we prepare for our December 9 performance of J.S. Bach: Magnificat and John Rutter: Gloria. After performing Paul Leavitt's stunning Requiem six times last spring and this fall, it felt a bit strange to move on from that music. I love Leavitt's Requiem and I would have felt even more sad to put it away, but I trust we will have opportunities to perform it again.