The New York Choral Society to Perform Where Even the Sea Sings at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, February 11, 2018

The New York Choral Society (NYCHORAL), under the baton of music director David Hayes, will appear at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium (881 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019) with Where Even the Sea Sings, Sunday afternoon, February 11, 2018, at 3 pm. This program juxtaposes three composers of very different backgrounds and styles, inspired by a shared commonality in theme: the grandeur of the “sea”. Each composer responds to this theme in a different way, allowing the audience to experience a deep, personal, journey of the soul. It includes Sir Charles Stanford’s Songs of the Fleet, Op. 117, featuring baritone Jarrett Ott and the East Coast premiere of American composer Frank Ticheli’s Symphony No. 3 “The Shore.” Program information follows:

                        STANFORD, Charles Villiers             Songs of the Fleet, Op. 117

                        TICHELI, Frank                               Symphony No. 3, “The Shore” (East Coast Premiere)

                        MENDELSSOHN, Felix                     Hebrides Overture

Tickets will be available for purchase through the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57^th St and 7^th Ave, through CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800, and at https://www.carnegiehall.org/.

In partnership with the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, NYCHORAL will host a panel discussion on Frank Ticheli’s The Shore. This event will be held on Wednesday Evening, February 7, 2018, at 6 PM at the Bruno Walter Auditorium. NYCHORAL’s Music Director David Hayes and Frank Ticheli will explore the composer’s inspiration in creating this contemporary choral masterwork. This event, which is free and open to the public, will also be broadcast on Facebook Live.

This concert continues NYCHORAL’s commitment to fostering a greater appreciation of choral music and the work of choral composers to the New York community by providing musicologists, historians, and the general public access to insights about choral music and this important historical archive.

Frank Ticheli’s Symphony No. 3, “The Shore” was commissioned by the Pacific Chorale and based on poems by the composer’s colleague, poet David St. John. The poems inspire a rich palette of musical moods evoked by the sea: playfulness, awe, terror, beauty, mystery, calmness, and tranquility. Following the tremendous worldwide success of Frank Ticheli’s “There Will Be Rest,” The Shore is a luminous and evocative four-movement work.

Based on poems by young barrister and poet Henry Newbolt’s wildly popular first volume of poetry, entitled Admirals All, Charles Stanford’s Songs of the Fleet is inspired by Britain’s naval past. Stanford deploys all his harmonic inventiveness in depicting the fleet ‘waking’ with the sunrise, ready to set sail, and the ships motionless again at dusk. The strength, beauty, and character of Stanford’s folk-like melodies invoke the bustling and often grueling nature of life at sea.

Felix Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture was inspired by the composer’s visit to the Hebrides islands off the west coast of Scotland. First performed in 1830, the piece was revised many times by its composer and premiered (as Overture to the Isles of Fingal) in London in 1832. Mendelssohn loved Scotland, and he was stimulated by its sights and sounds. While on a ferry voyage in western Scotland, Mendelssohn was so struck by the misty scene and the crashing waves that a melody came into his mind, a melody with all the surge and power of the sea itself. In an exuberant letter, he described the experience to his sister Fanny, and, wishing to convey to her how deeply he was moved, he wrote down for her a few bars of the melody that he later used at the beginning of his overture.

The American composer Frank Ticheli’s music has been described as being as "optimistic and thoughtful" by the Los Angeles Times, "lean and muscular" by The New York Times, "brilliantly effective" by the Miami Herald and "powerful, deeply felt crafted with impressive flair and an ear for striking instrumental colors" by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. His works—mainly scored for chorus, orchestra, wind ensemble, and chamber groups—are published by Manhattan Beach, Southern, Hinshaw, and Encore Music and are recorded on the Albany, Chandos, Clarion, Equilibrium, Klavier, Koch International, Mark, Naxos, and Reference labels.

From 1991 thru 1998, Ticheli was composer-in-residence with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in Orange County, California. As a composer and conductor, Mr. Ticheli has been featured at a number of international festivals, including the Jeju Island Music Festival in Kora, Mid-Europe Music Clinic in Austria, Singapore Wind Band Festival, BASBWE Festival of England’s Royal Northern College, and the Banff International Wind Music Festival. He also served as a member of the advisory committee for the San Antonio Symphony’s “Music of the Americas” project, as well as the board of directors of the Texas Composer’s Forum.

Awards and recognitions include: The Arts and Letters Award, Goddard Lieberson Fellowship, and Charles Ives Scholarship, from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; the National Band Association/Revelli Memorial Prize; the A. Austin Harding Award; First Prize in the Texas Sesquicentennial Orchestral Composition Competition; the Britten-on-the-Bay Choral Composition Contest; the Virginia CBDNA Symposium for New Band Music; and the Virginia Ramo Award for excellence in teaching and the Dean’s Award for Professional Achievement at USC.

Mr. Ticheli earned a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Southern Methodist University, studying under Donald Erb and Jack Waldenmaier, as well as a Masters and Doctorate in Composition from the University of Michigan, under the tutelage of William Albright, Leslie Bassett, William Bolcom, and George Wilson. Mr. Ticheli has been a Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California’s Thorton School of Music since 1991.

Named one of Opera News’ twenty-five “Rising Stars” in 2015, American baritone Jarrett Ott has been described as a “highly expressive artist” with an “often ravishing, airy” “voice that is polished and immaculately produced.” Mr. Ott has most notably appeared as W.P. Inman in the East Coast premiere of Cold Mountain with Opera Philadelphia and at Deutsche Oper Berlin as Angel in the world premiere of Andrea Scartazzini’s Edward II. Other engagements include with the Glimmerglass Festival, North Carolina Opera, Opera Memphis, Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris, Opera Philadelphia, American Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Institution, and Annapolis Opera, among others, as well as tenure in Santa Fe Opera’s Apprentice Program and Marlboro Music’s Young Artist Program. A regular soloist with the New York Choral Society, Mr. Ott has performed as guest soloist in the world-premiere of The Hyland Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 2017 and Handel’s Israel in Egypt at Carnegie Hall in 2015.

During the 2017-18 season, Mr. Ott will make many important role debuts, including Papageno in Die Zauberflöte with Opera Philadelphia as part of their inaugural O17 festival, Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Lyric Opera Kansas City and Dayton Opera, Jupiter in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld with New Orleans Opera, and Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos and Maximilian in Candide at Sante Fe Opera. Important concert debuts include Carmina Burana with Seattle Symphony and Brahms’ Requiem with Columbus Symphony. Mr. Ott will join the Ensemble of Staatsoper Stuttgart beginning in 2018-2019.

Mr. Ott has also been a competition finalist in the George London Foundation and Third Prize winner of the Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition; he has received a grant from The Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation and a Career Development Award from the Sullivan Foundation. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music under baritone Randall Scarlata and Marlena Kleinman Malas.

An essential force in the New York choral scene since its founding in 1958, The New York Choral Society (NYCHORAL) is widely known for the outstanding artistic quality of its performances of choral masterworks as well as rarely performed and new compositions. In addition to its regular season appearances at Carnegie Hall, the 180-voice strong New York Choral Society has appeared at every major venue in the New York City area, including Avery Fisher Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House, Madison Square Garden, NJPAC, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Under the visionary artistic leadership of Music Director David Hayes since the 2012-2013 season, the New York Choral Society has expanded its artistic mission to present a wide variety of choral repertory alongside masterworks of the 20^th and 21^st century, including John Adams’s On The Transmigration of Souls, Hindemith’s When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d, and the New York premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s The Singing Rooms, featuring noted violinist Jennifer Koh. Dedicated to carrying its tradition of musical excellence and community engagement beyond the Manhattan cultural centers, the New York Choral Society launched Christmas Around New York in December 2014, bringing family-friendly Christmas concerts to new audiences in all the boroughs of New York City.

In the 2017-18 season, The New York Choral Society opened with Roads Less Travelled, a program of works by Schubert and Thompson featuring soprano Gabriela Reyes de Ramírez and pianist Zalman Kelber of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Of the performance, Vishnu Bachani of New York Classical Review wrote: “David Hayes and the New York Choral Society performed an exquisite program…The entire performance was tightly controlled in all senses, from crisp articulation to idiomatic phrasing and shaping to clear enunciation and dynamic contrast" (19 Nov 2017). NYCHORAL continued its long association with the Richard Tucker Foundation, performing at the annual Richard Tucker Gala at Carnegie Hall on December 10, 2017, alongside renowned soprano Nadine Sierra. The choir also returned to its traditional December engagement of singing in Andrea Bocelli’s Madison Square Garden concert with conductor Eugene Kohn, soprano Larisa Martinez, and Broadway sensation Heather Headley. Still to come, the season will close in May 2018 with a performance of J.S Bach’s choral masterwork Mass in B Minor at Carnegie Hall.

In the 2016-17 season, NYCHORAL gave the New York City Premiere to James MacMillan’s St. Luke Passion at the St. Bartholomew’s Church, performed Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, and returned to Lincoln Center for Christmas at Alice Tully Hall. The choir took part in the American Premiere of Joseph Vella’s The Hyland Mass: A Prayer for Unity in Diversity at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in a performance presented by the Order of Malta, American Association.

Highlights of previous seasons include performances of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s 1985 Te Deum, Beethoven’s Mass in C Op. 86, Handel’s oratorio Israel in Egypt, Mendelssohn’s St. Paul, Berlioz’ L'Enfance du Christ, Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, Holst’s rarely- performed Hymn of Jesus, and Beethoven’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, all at Carnegie Hall conducted by Music Director David Hayes. The 2011-2012 season marked the 25^th and final season of Music Director John Daly Goodwin and included world premieres of two compositions commissioned by the New York Choral Society, Robert De Cormier’s Legacy and Morton Gould’s Quotations, as part of an all-American program at Carnegie Hall.

A sought-after guest artist in New York City for many decades, the New York Choral Society has collaborated with the Lincoln Center Festival, Cirque de Soleil, New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, New York Youth Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Juilliard Symphony, and the Opera Orchestra of New York and has performed with conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Sergiu Comissiona, Dennis Russell Davies, Placido Domingo, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Yehudi Menuhin, Julius Rudel, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, Patrick Summers, Robert Spano, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

International tours have included the Chinese premiere of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony in Beijing in 2002; performances of Mahler’s Symphonies No. 2 and 8 in Mexico City with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto in 2010 and 2011; a return to Beijing for performances at the Olympic Cultural Festival in 2008; and several European tours with appearances in France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Greece, the Czech Republic, and Israel.

Each summer since 1960 NYCHORAL has produced a popular series of NYCHORALSings, participatory performances of choral music that are open to the public and feature emerging soloists from the New York area.

For further information, please contact Hemsing Associates at 212-772-1132 or visit www.hemsingpr.com.
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