On March 30th, Grace Chorale of Brooklyn performed at the Japanese Choral Festival at Carnegie Hall. Needless to say, we were thrilled!
We sang:
”I Believe in God” from Credo
Margaret Bonds, Composer
W. E. B. Du Bois, Text
Gott, unser Schild from Oratorium nach Bildern der Bibel
Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Composer
“Sing Unto God” from Judas Maccabeus
George Frederic Handel, Composer
Commission 2022-2023 Announcement
September 10, 2022-Grace Chorale of Brooklyn, as part of its commitment to commissioning and premiering new works, is thrilled to announce that Nicole Russell has been awarded our latest choral commission to be premiered at our spring 2023 concert: We Will Rise: Music of Resilience, Justice and Hope. The commission will be performed in dialogue with two seminal works by female composers. The first work by Fanny Mendelsson, Oratorium nach Bildern der Bibel (“Scenes from the Bible”), was composed in 1831 in response to the cholera pandemic, and the second work, Credo, by the African-American composer, Margaret Bonds, draws on the opening text from civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois’ Darkwater: Voices Within the Veil, which highlights the conflict between white and Black workers.
Nicole Russell is a Brooklyn based composer, pianist, vocalist, teacher, and producer. Her work is exploratory and harmonically adventurous, and is often inspired by nature, mental health, gender issues and race. She is originally from Austin, Texas. “I have always appreciated the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. One work that has been in the back of my head for a while is the poem The Black Finger by Angelina Weld Grimké. It's such a short poem, but a powerful message of resilience and perseverance in the Black community. The composers on this program are personal favorites of mine. I would like to use this poem by Grimké and combine it with poetry of contemporary Black poets to create a strong work that displays this resilience of the Black community throughout all our history,” says Nicole.
About Nicole Russell:
Nicole was named a recipient of the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her work was featured on the Calliope’s Call “Sounds of Unity” program and the 2019 Women in Music Festival on the campus of the Mississippi University for Women. She was also a selected student composer for the 2019 CISUM Percussion Workshop in New York City, and has had works performed by Transient Canvas, Hypercube, and the JACK quartet.
Nicole completed her bachelor’s degree in Music Composition at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and received her master’s in Music Theory and Composition at New York University. Her past teachers include, Julia Wolfe, Joan La Barbara, Morton Subotnick, Ethan Wickman, James Syler, and Andrew Lloyd. To learn more about Nicole Russell, visit nicolerussellmusic.com.
About Grace Chorale of Brooklyn:
Grace Chorale of Brooklyn is an 85-member community chorus based in Brooklyn. Under the baton of music director Jason Asbury, the Chorale is committed to serving the wider Brooklyn community by presenting various traditions of choral music.
The mission of Grace Chorale of Brooklyn is to promote and cultivate the art of choral singing in Brooklyn by:
Presenting a wide variety of choral music, including newly commissioned works, to audiences through concerts, partnerships and educational outreach
Offering amateur singers the opportunity to study the art of choral singing under dynamic and professional leadership
Engaging public support for these endeavors
To learn more about the Grace Chorale of Brooklyn, visit gracechorale.org
For More Information on the Civil Rights Tour Click HERE
The year 2019 marks the centennial of the Red Summer of 1919 when a series of deadly racial conflicts and lynchings in more than 30 American cities led to hundreds of people, most of them black, being killed or lynched, thousands of African-American businesses being destroyed and tens of thousands being forced to flee their homes. The Great Migration that began in 1910 involved the relocation of more than 6 million African-Americans who moved from the southern United States to the Midwest, West and Northeast over a 60-year period. Spurred by limited economic opportunities, Jim Crow segregation laws, and violence and lynchings by the KKK, African-Americans found employment in industrial cities that were experiencing labor shortages due to World War I. When soldiers returned from the war to major cities in the US, white workers in the North and Midwestern cities resented the African-Americans who were given jobs they once held in factories. In addition, African-American soldiers did not receive the same benefits as white soldiers who fought in the same war. Tensions reached a boiling point in May of 1919 when the first racially-motivated attacks began. The period from May to October of 1919 during which these racial conflicts occurred is referred to as the “Red Summer.” Fast forward a century. What progress have we made? The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 all led to reforms. Nonetheless, there remain daily parallels between the headlines of 1919 and those of today. This tour will provide insights to the long dark shadow of racism in the United States.
Grace Chorale of Brooklyn participated in The Mile-Long Opera, a citywide public engagement project that brought together 1,000 singers from across New York for free performances on The High Line, October 3—7 2018.
If you were there, you found us strewn along the High Line between 22nd and 23rd street
Click the link above for more information about the Composers, Conceivers, and Producers
Chorale President Eliza Hicks in her greenery
The Music Director of The Events, Magnus Gilljam runs the rehearsal.
On the evenings of March 5th and March 12th, GCB joined the cast of THE EVENTS at the New York Theater Workshop on East 4th Street in Manhattan. The hit of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it garnered five-star reviews, along with a Fringe First and the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award, the Actors Touring Company production of THE EVENTS has gone on to international acclaim and came to New York for a strictly limited engagement in February and March 2015.
The Chorale sang THE EVENTS' lovely music (Bonkers, How Great Thou Art, Soul, Norwegian Coffee Song, Gabrielo Princep, and We Are All Here ) that underscored Award-winning Scottish playwright David Greig’s play about a community’s search for compassion, peace and understanding in the wake of unthinkable violence. The Chorale also sang a selection (This Heart) from our recently commissioned work, Three Joyce Poems, by Vince Peterson, which debuted at our January Concert.
A few of us showed off our Thespian skills in impromptu roles during the play.
...you know who you are.
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VAMO LA! by Christopher Urquiaga
(First Generation American Composer of Peruvian and Brazilian descent)
Movement One - "Those Times"
Movement Two - "Amor Profundo"
Movement Three - "Vamo La!"
Excerpts from CALLING ALL DAWNS by Christopher Tin
(Chinese-American Composer)
Movement One - "Baba Yetu" (Swahili)
Movement Five - "Rassemblons-Nous" (French)
Movement Ten - "Hamsafar" (Farsi)
Movement Eleven - "Sukla-Krsne" (Sanskrit)
Movement Twelve - "Kia Hora Te Marino" (Maori)
"Three Joyce Poems" from James Joyce’s Chamber Music by Brooklyn-based composer Vince Peterson
"Red Red Rose" by James Mullholand
"April Song" by Brooklyn based composer Matt Podd
Sacred Concert by Duke Ellington
Parts 1, 6, 8 and 10
“Praise God and Dance”
“Come Sunday”
“Almighty God”
“Praise god and Dance”
American the Beautiful, arranged by Michael McCarthy
The Fourth Annual Brooklyn Summer Sing-In of 2017 was a rousing success. Singers from all over the borough turned on Wednesday, June 10th. A big, heart-warming gathering, from 7 choirs, their conductors, their friends, family and neighbors, came together to make music.
What glorious voices!
Thanks to Jason Asbury (Our Leader! Grace Chorale of Brooklyn), Aaron Williams (Brooklyn Contemporary Chorus), Nelly Vuksic (Brooklyn Conservatory Chorale), Douglas March (Brooklyn Philharmonia), Jim DiBenedetto, and Steve Coburn (Brooklyn Community Chorus). Other Conductors (whose pix we need!): Jessica Corbin (Bella Voce Singers), Dusty Francis (Park Slope Singers), and Rachel Brook (Brooklyn Jewish Community Chorus).
Having Fun Tuning Up Before Friday's Performance!
A finely honed set of GCB members got the Holiday Season going in Brooklyn Hts. on Saturday, 11/28...all of us are honing our singing chops for the big concert coming up on 12/18 and 12/20...bought your tickets yet?
The caroling event is sponsored by The Montague Street Business Improvement District
Each December, on either the first or second Sunday, GCB sings a preview of its Winter Concert at Evensong in support of All Saints' Church work with CHiPS...Since 1971, CHiPS (Park Slope Christian Help, Inc.) has been a community of Brooklyn neighbors, volunteers, and friends who share a common spiritual vision to help those who are less fortunate. They prepare hot, nutritious meals and serve them to the needy.
Join us for Evensong at 5pm and Community Meal at 6pm...
All Saints' Church
286-88 7th Avenue
at the corner of 7th Street
718-768-1156
www.allsaintsparkslope.org
Once again, Eric Adams, the Borough President of Brooklyn, visited GCB on June 3rd at the annual Patron's Party hosted by the chorale to honor their generous donors and supporters. The cocktail evening took place at the home of chorus member Didi Rick and her husband Barry Sheck and, in addition to a lively crowd of chorale boosters, included the GCB Board of Directors and Musical Director Jason Asbury and Assistant Director Matthew Henning.
Welcomed by chorale President Eliza Hicks, the Borough President gave a rousing call in support of music in Brooklyn, and expressed his fervent belief that arts organizations like GCB help to affirm Brooklyn's identity as an artistic mecca within the greater city of New York.
Jason Asbury spoke eloquently of the chorale's programs and ambitions for the upcoming year. All in all, the evening was filled with good spirit, good food, good banter and good support for the chorale. Thanks again to everyone who makes our singing possible.
Grace Chorale of Brooklyn has been selected to be a part of WNYC/WQXR Radio’s Salute the ARtS Initiative (STAR).
WNYC's Salute The ARts Initiative is a free program that profiles 36 small cultural non-profit organizations in the New York Metropolitan area over a 12-month period, through on-air promotional announcements and free website support.
“We hope that the on-air and website exposure through this program will help to increase awareness of your organization.”
Vincent Peterson (center) directing rehearsals with Music Director, Jason Asbury (right) and Accompanist and Assistant Director, Matthew Henning (left).
Grace Chorale of Brooklyn has been committed to commissioning new works each season, and premiered Lainie Fefferman's piece, And how was your day today? at our Winter Concert this past January. The twelve part work seeks to reproduce the emotional arc of a typical work day over the span of twelve short movements. In her words:
I love the little surprises and singular excitements that happen in any given day, but it's the predictable regularity of our common experiences that this music underscores: the mid-morning energy, the glory of lunchtime, the afternoon slowdown, and the serenity of returning home at the end of a long workday. Though most of the movements use abstract musical ideas without words, all of the text in this piece comes from members of the choir themselves: I asked each singer to answer questions about their respective daily routines and used their beautiful variety of answers to create word collages for movements 3, 9, and 11. I had a great time writing this piece – a big thanks to Grace and Spiritus for commissioning it!
Choral Soloists Brenda DeCommer, Olivia Sohmer Rosenbaum, and Paul Lockhart in lively Hocket mode
...led by Music Director Jason Asbury with Accompanist Matthew Henning playing silent piano.
To hear a clip from And how was your day today? Go to the 2014 Winter Concert page by clicking here
On April 23 and 26, Grace Chorale of Brooklyn will once again perform with the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Nicholas Armstrong in a concert entitled "Twentieth Century British Choral Masterpieces."
We will be performing two pieces by 20th century British composers: Belshazzar's Feast, a cantata by William Walton, and Ritual Dances by Michael Tippett.
Belshazzar's Feast, remains one of William Walton's most celebrated masterpieces. We look forward to presenting this dramatic, monumental work that vividly depicts Babylon's excesses and subsequent downfall.
Ritual Dances, with music and libretto by Michael Tippett, is a work extracted from The Midsummer Marriage – Tippet's highly regarded opera in three acts. In the words of one reviewer: "A tonal pallette that most can only dream of."
The Concert will be performed in the Beaux Arts Court at The Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Grace Chorale of Brooklyn – Jason Asbury, Director
Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra – Nicholas Armstrong, Artistic Director
with Baritone soloist – Christopher Dylan Herbert
Ludwig van Beethoven
For our annual Winter Concert of the 2014-2015 season, Grace Chorale of Brooklyn presented a program of music for Chorus and String Quartet.
Luminous Night, began with "Elegischer Gesang" by Ludwig van Beethoven, and was followed by works by living composers. After performing Eric Whitacre's "Five Hebrew Love Songs", a smaller chamber group from within the Chorale performed Veronika Krausas' "Language of the Birds."
After a surprise rendition by the String Quartet of a lovely Beethoven piece for strings, the concert concluded with a commissioned piece by Brooklyn composer, Vince Peterson, based on excerpts from "Chamber Music," a text by James Joyce, and Ola Gjeilo's "Luminous Night of the Soul,"
The performances were held on Friday, January 23 at St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Brooklyn Heights, Saturday, January 24 at All Saints Episcopal Church in Park Slope, NY, and Sunday, January 25 at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene.
Ludwig van Beethoven's Elegischer Gesang, Op. 118 represents his late infatuation with the string quartet genre. The halting delivery of these tender words by an anonymous poet recalls some of Mozart’s heartbreaking arias, while also looking forward to Beethoven’s later style in which musical ideas are allowed to develop freely, without the constraint of standard Classical forms and phrasing.
"Five Hebrew Love Songs" by Eric Whitacre was conceived as a set of troubadour songs based on a text by Hila Plitmann who was born and raised in Jerusalem. They are laced with overtones of friendship, discovery, and love and explore harmonies with somewhat full choral and instrumental accompaniment.
Veronika Krausas' "Language of the Birds" was inspired by the San Francisco artist Brian Goggin’s site-specific sculptural installation, The Language of the Birds, which he created with Dorka Keehn. The installation is an illuminated flock of twenty-three translucent, suspended open books with bindings positioned to simulate the wings of birds in flight. Words, taken from books by neighborhood authors are scattered and embedded in the plaza as if the words have fallen from the pages.
Grace Chorale was thrilled to continue its commission series of works by local composers with Three Joyce Poems. In the words of its Brooklyn-based composer, Vince Peterson: "Three Joyce Poems is a reflection on fictional and non-fictional matters. The fiction is the digest of a man in love who goes to meet his intended in the woods, all the while his instincts ringing with ominous warnings about falling in love. After he gives himself to his beloved, the two quickly realize that, like all things in life, love is transitory, living "but a day." In other words, fall in love at your own risk, and if you choose to do so, embrace it for the moments of joy it gives to you, rather than focusing on looming heartache. Joyce is a master of this sentiment in these beautiful texts from his incomparable "Chamber Music" - a set of thirty three poems - all in this vein. The non-fictional matter is one of homage to my late teacher and friend, Conrad Susa, who in the course of his life, managed to set all thirty three of Joyce's poems in a series of three cycles. Though I can only hope to hold a candle to Conrad's genius, I know that the universality of these wonderful texts lends itself well to multiple styles and interpretations - something that my good teacher would have always celebrated."
Ola Gjielo's "Luminous Night of the Soul" uses a text by Charles Anthony Silvestri as well as a stanza from the St. John of the Cross’ poem. In his composition, Ola features the piano prominently, not just as generic, unassuming accompaniment, but as an equal partner to the choir, aided and supported by the string quartet
Luminous Night - A Concert for Chorus and String Quartet was made possible with public funds from the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, administered in Kings County by Brooklyn Arts Council.
On the weekend of November 22-23, Grace Chorale of Brooklyn performed Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni in collaboration with the String Orchestra of Brooklyn. The performances were held before packed houses on both nights at St. Ann and The Holy Trinity Church, 157 Montague Street, Brooklyn, NY.
An opera in one act, the Cavalleria rusticana draws on the post-Romantic operatic tradition known as "verismo" (meaning "realism") that sought to bring the naturalism of influential late 19th-century writers such as Émile Zola and Henrik Ibsen into opera. The style is distinguished by realistic – sometimes sordid or violent – depictions of everyday life, especially the life of the contemporary lower classes.
Eli Spindel, conductor
Jason Asbury, chorus master and organist
Sam Helfrich, director
Tom Cunningham, assistant conductor
William Long, vocal coach
Sarah Heltzel, Santuzza
Alex Richardson, Turiddu
Richard Lippold, Alfio
Kirsten Sollek, Mama Lucia
Joan Peitscher, Lola
Our first Newsletter, introducing the past and present happenings and harmonies of our Chorale...enjoy!
and hear a sample from our May 2013 Concert
with the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra
