Mark Shapiro & The Cecilia Chorus perform Brahms' Requiem, NY premiere of Hailstork's The World Called, Carnegie Hall

MARK SHAPIRO CONDUCTS THE CECILIA CHORUS OF NEW YORK in

 JOHANNES BRAHMS’ GERMAN REQUIEM ?with? Soprano BRANDIE INEZ SUTTON and Baritone JUSTIN AUSTIN

Paired with the

NEW YORK PREMIERE of ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK’S “THE WORLD CALLED”

Set to words by former poet laureate RITA DOVE, who will recite her work from the stage

This concert honors the memory of HEATHER HEYER in what would have been her 40^th year?Heyer’s mother Susan Bro will be present to address the audience

 Saturday, April 26, 2025, 8pm, Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall

New York, NY (March 24, 2025) – The American conductor Mark Shapiro conducts The Cecilia Chorus of New York in a program of Brahms’ majestic German Requiem featuring Soprano Brandie Inez Sutton and Baritone Justin Austin paired with the New York premiere of Adolphus Hailstork’s The World Called. The concert takes place on Saturday, April 26 at 8pm in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall.

Hailstork’s The World Called is a 22-minute setting for chorus, orchestra and solo soprano based on the iconic poem “Testimonial” by former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove.  Ms. Dove will recite her poem from the stage.  Heather Heyer, who was murdered in the Charlottesville terrorist attack on August 12, 2017, would have turned 40 in 2025. Her mother, Susan Bro will be present to address the audience.  The World Called was commissioned by the Oratorio Society of Virginia and premiered in May 2018.  Hailstork encodes the letters of Heyer’s name as musical notes, heard in a soft peal of chimes near the work’s muted end.

Mark Shapiro states, “When The World Called was premiered, the musical tribute was not made public.  Hailstork has authorized its disclosure in connection with this concert, whose music-making and message we dedicate in full memory of a principled life, ended too soon.”

Tickets available, cecililachorusny.org or carnegiehall.org, start at $40. Performance at Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, Carnegie Hall, 57^th Street and 7^th Avenue.

About Adolphus Hailstork

Adolphus Hailstork, a longtime member of Cantori New York’s advisory board, received his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University.  Additional studies included at Manhattan School of Music, the American Institute of Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger and at Howard University.  Dr. Hailstork has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, various chamber ensembles, band, orchestra and opera.  Significant performances by major orchestras (Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston and New York) have been led by leading conductors: James de Priest, Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maezel, and Jo Ann Falletta, among others.  The composer’s second symphony, commissioned by the Detroit Symphony, and a second opera, Joshua’s Boots, commissioned by the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Kansas City Lytic Opera, were both premiered in 1999.  Hailstork’s The World Called (based on Rita Dove’s poem Testimonial) a work for soprano, chorus and orchestra was a commission by the Oratorio Society of Virginia and received its premiere in May 2018.  This work will be performed by Maestro Shapiro and Cecilia Chorus New York on April 26, 2025, in Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall.  Dr. Hailstork resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia and is Professor of Music and Eminent Scholar at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

About Rita Dove

Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and essayist. She served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress from 1992-1995 and is the first African American to have been appointed since the position was created by an Act of Congress in 1986. Dove also received an appointment as "special consultant in poetry" for the Library of Congress's bicentennial year from 1999 to 2000.  She is the second African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1987, for Thomas and Beulah, a collection of poems loosely based on the lives of her maternal grandparents.  She served as the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2004-2006. Since 1989, she has been teaching at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville where she held the chair of Commonwealth Professor of English from 1993 to 2020; as of 2020, she holds the chair of Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing.

In addition to poetry, Dove has published a book of short stories, the novel Through the Ivory Gate (Pantheon, 1992), and numerous essays. She also edited Best American Poetry (Scribner, 2000), compiled The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry (Penguin, 2011), and edited the New York Times Magazine’s weekly poetry column from 2018–19, as well as, in 2000 and 2002, the Washington Post’s weekly “Poet’s Choice” column. 

Among Dove’s many other honors include the 1996 Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities, the 2007 Chubb Fellowship at Yale University, the 2008 Library of Virginia Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2009 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, and the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University, as well as twenty-eight honorary doctorates, among them from Yale University in 2014 and Harvard University in 2018. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. President Bill Clinton bestowed upon her the 1996 National Humanities Medal, and President Barack Obama presented her with the 2011 National Medal of Arts, making her the only poet who has received both medals. She served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2005 to 2011. In 2019, Dove received the Wallace Stevens Award, given annually by the Academy of American Poets to recognize outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry. In 2022, she won the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She has also been awarded the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the organization’s lifetime achievement award. 

About Brandie Inez Sutton (Soprano)

Hailed by Opera News for her “sumptuous, mid-weight soprano,” and The New York Times for her “warm, ample voice,” “ravishing performance” and “distinctive earthy coloring,” Brandie Inez Sutton, has appeared in concert halls and on opera stages around the world. Among her roles has been the Fairy Godmother in Massenet’s Cinderella at The Metropolitan Opera, and Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto with New York City Opera. Some notable house include Seattle Opera, Spoleto Music Festival, Detroit Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and many more. Concert hall appearances include Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Royal Danish Symphony Orchestra, and Radio Orpheus Symphony Orchestra in Moscow. As a versatile vocalist, Ms. Sutton has appeared as a guest soloist with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. She has appeared at Carnegie Hall with artists from Cyrus Chestnut to Cecilia Chorus of New York. In the summer of 2025, she appears with Opera Theatre St. Louis as Young Ida in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s new opera This House. This year she will return to Seattle Opera to perform Pamina in Barrie Kosky’s The Magic Flute, as well as (Julie Jordan) and house debut with Boston Lyric Opera’s 80th anniversary presentation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel.

Ms. Sutton’s fervent interest in social justice has also engaged her outside of the opera house. She has participated in events for EJI (Equal Justice Initiative), chosen personally by its founder Bryan Stevenson. She has also been immortalized as a hologram in the organization’s Legacy Museum: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration located in Montgomery, AL; appearing in concert with Andra Day, Bebe Winans and John Legend for the museum’s opening ceremonies.

 About Justin Austin (Baritone)

Possessing a “mighty lyric voice” (The New York Times) Drama Desk Award-nominated baritone Justin Austin was named Rising Star of the Year at the 2024 International Opera Awards and is a recipient of the 2024 Marian Anderson Vocal Award.

Justin’s 2024-2025 season includes his debut at Los Angeles Opera as Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette, and his role debut as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. He returns to Opera Theatre of St. Louis for the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s This House. In concert, he performs selections from Terence Blanchard’s Champion and Fire Shut Up In My Bones at La Jolla Music Society (La Jolla, CA), The Soraya (Northridge, CA), Seattle Theatre Group, and the Charleston Gaillard Center. Other concerts include the Stuttgart Philharmonic and Opera for Peace, New York Festival of Song for My Brother’s Keeper at Kaufman Music Center, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music for a guest recital, and Emory & Henry University for a special concert with his father. Last season, Justin starred as Young Emile in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Champion to great critical acclaim. He returned to the Metropolitan Opera, opening their season as the Motorcycle Cop in the company’s premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking. He additionally sang the title role in The Barber of Seville at Opera Theatre of St. Louis.  As a multifaceted musician, Justin enjoys performing a wide range of repertoire. He has collaborated and recorded with multiple groups and artists such as Aretha Franklin, The Boys Choir of Harlem, Mary J. Blige, Elton John, Lauryn Hill, The Roots, Ricky Ian Gordon, Kanye West, and jazz artists Reggie Workman, Hugh Masekela and Wynton Marsalis.

Justin strongly believes in utilizing his artistry to benefit music programs, new music projects, and community services worldwide.  He is the recipient of a 2023 Mabel Dorn Reeder Award from Opera Theatre of St. Louis which goes to “the single artist in each season with the greatest potential to make a significant contribution to the art form of opera.” Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Justin Austin is an alumnus of the Choir Academy of Harlem, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Heidelberg Lied Akademie, and Manhattan School of Music (M.M. and B.M.).

 About The Cecilia Chorus of New York

The Cecilia Chorus of New York, winner of the ASCAP Chorus America/Alice Parker Award, has been led by Mark Shapiro since 2011.  Under his dynamic leadership, the chorus has experienced vigorous artistic and institutional growth.  Notable accomplishments include the New York premieres of Mass in D (2013) and Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison (2018).  In 2010 the chorus premiered Fifty Trillion Molecular Geniuses, a commissioned work by the Brothers Balliett setting a libretto based on Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s My Stroke of Insight.  In 2023, they gave the Carnegie Hall premiere of Marianna von Martine’s Dixit Dominus, and the world premiere of Neither Separated, Nor Undone by Derrick Skye.  The Cecilia Chorus of New York was founded in 1906 by Metropolitan Opera coach Victor Harris as a 17-member women's chorus, and by 1922 the expanded chorus appeared with the New York Philharmonic in the first New York performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3.

 About Mark Shapiro

Mark Shapiro is a six-time ASCAP Award winner conducting choruses, orchestras, and opera.  He has led Cantori in appearances in all five major halls at Lincoln Cen?ter, and he and the ensemble have been presented by Death of Classical, Gotham Early Music Series, Great Performers at Lincoln Center, Music at the Anthology, World Financial Center Arts&Events, and many others.  He is music director of The Cecilia Chorus of New York, principal conductor of Marshall Opera, and conductor emeritus of the Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra, which he led for a decade.  Opera credits include five productions with Juilliard Vocal Arts and appearances with American Opera Projects, Center for Contemporary Opera, Encompass New Opera, Opera Company of Middlebury, and Underworld Opera, as well as programs of Hofstra and Rutgers universities.  Shapiro has recorded for Albany, Arsis, Newport Classic, and PGM, and radio appearances have included WQXR, WNYC, Minnesota Public Radio, and Sirius.  Shapiro has been a teaching artist with The Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and teaches conducting at The Juilliard School, Mannes School of Music, and Columbia University Teachers College.  Each summer he directs the conducting program of the European American Musical Alliance in Paris.  He is represented by Athlone Artists.  www.markshapiromusic.com.