Feb. 20: The Dessoff Choirs Presents Florence Price, Schubert, Strauss, Schumann & Brahms

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Leah Rankin | Morahan Arts and Media
leah@morahanartsandmedia.com | 646.378.9386

The Dessoff Choirs Presents Florence Price’s 
Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight at James Chapel, 
Union Theological Seminary on February 20

“Full-bodied sound and suppleness” –The New York Times

www.dessoff.org

January 13, 2025 (New York, NY) – In its first concert of the new year, The Dessoff Choirs – led by Music Director Malcolm J. Merriweather – presents works from its history alongside a cantata by Florence Price on Thursday, February 20, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at James Chapel, Union Theological Seminary.

The program's first half celebrates founder Margarete Dessoff and her directorship of women’s choirs. Dessoff programmed Schubert’s Psalm 23 and Brahms’ Vier Gesänge für Frauenchor for her choirs in Germany before introducing the music to her choirs in New York in the 1920s. Now, The Dessoff Choirs brings these works back to audiences, and Maestro Merriweather sings works for baritone: Strauss’s Zueignung and Schumann’s Widmung. Continuing its mission of unveiling choral orchestra works of Black women composers, Dessoff will additionally perform a new edition of Florence Price’s Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight.

Malcolm J. Merriweather remarks, “Performing Florence Price’s Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight alongside works premiered and championed by Margarete Dessoff bridges two remarkable legacies: Dessoff’s pioneering advocacy for choral artistry and Florence Price’s profound voice in American music. This program honors the courage and vision of two women who reshaped the musical landscape of their time.”

Founded in 1924 by Margarete Dessoff, The Dessoff Choirs has been a fixture on the New York classical music scene ever since. Known for introducing unknown, long-forgotten, or newly composed works to American audiences, Dessoff’s nine music directors have continued expanding Margarete’s legacy, each in their own way. Merriweather has used this podium to reintroduce the works of Black women composers including Margaret Bonds, Florence Price, and Valerie Capers, along with commissioning new works. Merriweather has described this centennial season as “a tribute to Dessoff’s enduring legacy and its role in New York City’s vibrant cultural landscape.”

Dessoff’s 100th Anniversary season concludes with Verdi’s Requiem on Thursday, May 1, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. and Friday, May 2, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. at Trinity Church. Presented in collaboration with Trinity Church, Merriweather conducts The Dessoff Choirs, Trinity Choir, Downtown Voices, and NOVUS. In addition to Verdi's Requiem, this performance will include the world premiere of a new choral work by Tania León, commissioned in honor of Dessoff’s centenary.

Program Information

Florence Price: Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight
Thursday, February 20, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
James Chapel, Union Theological Seminary | 3041 Broadway | New York, NY
Tickets: $20-$100
Link: www.dessoff.org/events/abraham-lincoln 

Program:
FRANZ SCHUBERT: Psalm 23, op. 132, D. 706*
RICHARD STRAUSS: Zueignung**
ROBERT SCHUMANN: Widmung**
JOHANNES BRAHMS: Vier Gesänge für Frauenchor op. 17***
     Es tönt ein voller Harfenklang
     Lied von Shakespeare
     Der Gärtner
     Gesang aus Fingal
FLORENCE PRICE: Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight

Artists:
The Dessoff Choirs 
Malcolm J. Merriweather, conductor & baritone
Steven Ryan, piano

*December 22, 1929
**May 20, 1925 (performed on The Dessoff Choirs’ first concert)
***April 15, 1930

About The Dessoff Choirs
The Dessoff Choirs, one of the leading choruses in New York City, is an independent chorus with an established reputation for pioneering performances of choral works from the Renaissance era through the 21st century. Founded in 1924 by Margarete Dessoff, the chorus is celebrating its centennial during the 2024-25 season with programs that reflect music from its rich history and move us forward into the next 100 years with new collaborations and commissions.

The ‘s’ in Choirs connotes the group’s various incarnations – from Dessoff’s core group of 50 singers, to the Symphonic Choir assembled for larger engagements and Chamber Choir selected to present more intimate works. Since its founding in 1924, Dessoff’s mission is to enrich the lives of its audiences and members by giving voice to new or rarely heard, forgotten music and composers; and to bring great choral works to New York audiences in new ways. Dessoff concerts, professional collaborations, community outreach, and educational initiatives are dedicated to stimulating public interest in and appreciation of choral music as an art form that enhances the culture and life of these times.

With repertoire ranging over a wide variety of eras and styles, Dessoff’s musical acumen and flexibility has been recognized with invitations from major orchestras for oratorios and orchestral works. Past performances include Britten’s War Requiem and Mahler’s Symphony No.8 with Lorin Maazel in his final performances as Music Director with the New York Philharmonic. Over the course of its near-100-year history, Dessoff has presented many world premieres, including works by Virgil Thomson, George Perle, Paul Moravec, and Ricky Ian Gordon; the first American performance in nearly 100 years of Montemezzi’s opera La Nave with Teatro Grattacielo; and the American premieres of Philip Glass’s Symphony No.5 and John Tavener’s all-night vigil, The Veil of the Temple.

Dessoff's world-premiere recording of Margaret Bonds's Credo and Simon Bore the Cross was released in February 2023 and received rave reviews. WRTI wrote that “Margaret Bonds: Credo, Simon Bore the Cross brings new luster, and the utmost care of execution. Under the baton of Malcolm J. Merriweather, The Dessoff Choirs has a profound simpatico with Bonds’ mature compositional style...” We are also featured on a new album from Roomful of Teeth, Rough Magic, in a recently commissioned Eve Beglarian work, None More Than You.

Other recent discography includes Margaret Bonds: The Ballad of the Brown King & Selected Songs, a debut recording of Margaret Bonds’s crowning achievement, which was cited as a “Best Classical Recording of 2019” by WQXR-FM Radio; Reflections, featuring music by Convery, Corigliano, Moravec, and Rorem; and Glories on Glories, a collection of American song featuring composers from Billings to Ives.

The Dessoff Choirs is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Learn more at www.dessoff.org.

About Malcolm J. Merriweather
Grammy-nominated conductor, Malcolm J. Merriweather, is the Director of the New York Philharmonic Chorus and Music Director of New York City’s, The Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra. He is a Professor of Music and the Tania León Chair of Music at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

He is a sought-after interpreter of symphonic choral works most recently conducting grand performances of Bach’s St. John Passion, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Handel’s Messiah. In addition to core symphonic works, he is known for the world premiere recordings of The Ballad of the Brown King, Credo, and Simon Bore the Cross by Margaret Bonds (AVIE Records) with The Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra. A frequent guest conductor, he has conducted the Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Novus Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Merriweather opens his season conducting works of Mary Lou Williams at Disney Concert Hall for Solange Knowles series, Glory to Glory (A Revival For Spiritual and Devotional Art). At the historic Town Hall he conducts Brahms’s Requiem for the centennial celebration of the Dessoff Choirs with soloists Will Liverman, baritone, and Joélle Harvey, soprano. He leads the Buffalo Philharmonic in performances of Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road and Margaret Bonds’s Montgomery Variations. His season concludes with performances of Verdi’s Requiem at Trinity Church, Wall Street.

Highlights from his 2023-2024 included a return to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to conduct choir and orchestra in the world premiere of Handel: Made in America with Terrance McKnight and soloists, Latonia Moore, J’Nai Bridges, Noah Stewart, and Davóne Tines. With the Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra, he conducted Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and two contemporary oratorios about the lives of Sojourner Truth (Valerie Capers) and Anne Frank (James Whitbourn). Continuing in his role as Director of the New York Philharmonic Chorus, he prepared the professional choir for the reprise of Émigré, An Oratorio, and Mahler 2 with the New York Philharmonic. In China with the New York Philharmonic Choir, he prepared the ensemble for the world premiere of Émigré with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

Maestro Merriweather’s 2022-2023 began leading the Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Novus Orchestra in three performances (staged) of Considering Matthew Shepard. His new appointment as Director of the New York Philharmonic Chorus launched by preparing the professional choir for three programs throughout the season for Maestro Jaap van Zweden including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for the reopening of David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. With the Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra, he conducted Duruflé’s Requiem, Bach’s St. John Passion, and motets by Vicente Lusitano, the first Black composer to have music published. This season included the long-awaited release of the premiere recording of Margaret Bonds’s Credo and Simon Bore the Cross with the AVIE label.

He has served on the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music and was the founding Artistic Director of “Voices of Haiti,” a 60-member children’s choir in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, operated by the Andrea Bocelli Foundation.

Dr. Merriweather has earned degrees from Eastman, Manhattan School of Music, and Syracuse University and was a fellow at Tanglewood. Connect with him on Twitter and Instagram @maestroweather and at malcolmjmerrweather.com 

Photo at top of release by Fadi Kheir

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