PAST CONCERTS

December 2024 - Songs of Light and Peace: A Holiday Celebration

Songs of Light and Peace:  A Holiday Celebration

On December 7th and 8th, 2024, the Grace Chorale of Brooklyn performed: Songs of Light and Peace:  A Holiday Celebration.

Songs of Light and Peace: A Holiday Celebration brought together a rich tapestry of choral works that celebrated the universal themes of light, hope, and peace during the holiday season.  The program was accompanied by an 18-piece string ensemble and piano.

Program
Hanukkah Cantata by David Ludwig, b.1974 
Magnificat by Antonio Vivaldi, 1678-1741 
Three Christmas Settings 
       Jesus Christ the Apple Tree by Elizabeth Poston (Chamber Choir) 
       Peace on Earth by Errollyn Wallen 
       Christus Natus Est by Rosephanye Powell 

David Ludwig

Antonio Vivaldi

David Ludwig’s  Hanukkah Cantata  is a compelling and richly textured work that bridges ancient tradition and contemporary music. The cantata integrates traditional Hebrew songs with an English narrative, retelling the story of Hanukkah in eight movements. Ludwig honors the festival’s timeless themes of resilience, community, and renewal, while making the work accessible to all audiences, regardless of familiarity with the Hanukkah tradition.  With a blend of recitatives, arias, choral movements, and instrumental dance music, Ludwig preserves the beauty of Jewish folk melodies while capturing the spirit of triumph and hope that defines the Hanukkah story. The cantata concludes with  Maoz Tzur, emphasizing the power of community in overcoming loss and rebuilding with love and strength. The program will feature  Chad Kranak  as tenor soloist. 
 



Vivaldi’s  Magnificat in G minor, RV 610  is one of the composer’s most celebrated sacred works, originally written around 1715 for the Ospedale della Pietà,  a renowned orphanage for girls in Venice where Vivaldi served as music director. Composed to be performed by the talented young women of the orphanage, Vivaldi’s  Magnificat  demonstrates his extraordinary ability to blend expressive vocal writing with intricate instrumental accompaniment. He later revised the piece, adding two oboes to create RV 610a, also producing yet another version (RV 611) featuring more solo arias. 
Divided into nine movements, each corresponding to a verse of the Latin text from the traditional  Magnificat  (the Song of Mary), Vivaldi’s  Magnificat  showcases the composer’s mastery of both vocal and instrumental composition, offering a richly varied, emotional journey through one of the most iconic of biblical texts. This vibrant work remains one of Vivaldi’s most frequently performed sacred compositions.  
The Magnificat will feature soloists from the Chorale. 

In addition to the abovementioned, the program featured a performance of Three Christmas Settings, consisting of the latter-day (1967) carol Jesus Christ the Apple Tree by British composer Elizabeth Poston, Peace on Earth by the Belize-born Errolyn Wallen, named by King Charles III the Master of the King’s Music, and the haunting Christus Natus Est by American composer Rosephanye Powell.

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June 20, 2024 - Courtney’s Stars of Tomorrow Opera in the Park Concert

On Thursday, June 20, 2024, Grace Chorale of Brooklyn was featured in Courtney’s Stars of Tomorrow Opera in the Park concert at the Jackie Robinson Park Bandshell.

Courtney’s Stars of Tomorrow Opera in the Park concerts have become an integral part of the New York City summer experience, transforming Harlem’s parks into a tapestry of opera enthusiasts, picnickers, families, and friends enjoying an evening of music-making for free! Emmy award-winning journalist Elijah Westbrook (CBS New York) hosted an exciting evening of opera arias, duets, and ensembles featuring Barbara Quintiliani (Soprano), Limmie Pulliam (Tenor), Joo Won Kang (Baritone), Grace Chorale of Brooklyn, The Concert Chorale (CSOT), Jason Asbury (Guest Conductor), and Courtney Carey.

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The Constitution, a Secular Oratorio

ON MAY 14 AND 15, 2022
Grace Chorale of Brooklyn presented The Constitution, a Secular Oratorio by Benjamin Yarmolinsky at St Ann & the Holy Trinity Church. The concert was accompanied by a chamber orchestra in a semi-staged musical performance of our nation's foundational document.

- You can see a HIGHLIGHTS video from the concert by clicking HERE.
- And you can see a video of the WHOLE CONCERT HERE.

Featuring: Liz Lang, soprano - Michelle Trovato, soprano - Linda Collazo, mezzo soprano - Andrew Egbuchiem, countertenor - Byron Singleton, tenor - Blake Burroughs, bass baritone - Isaac Mann, baritone -Gavin McDonough, baritone -Jason Asbury, conductor - Judith Barnes, director - James Rutherford, consulting director - Karni Dorell, set design - David Frutkoff, stage manager

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Mother to Son - performed by Grace Chorale of Brooklyn with Jamal Jackson Dance Company

In January 2021, under continued Covid restrictions, the chorus remotely recorded Mother to Son, with music by composer Undine Smith Moore and poetry by Langston Hughes. The Jamal Jackson Dance Company choreographed a dance, and made a videotape, which you can see by clicking on the photo below.

YOU CAN SEE THE VIDEO BY CLICKING HERE.

Undine Smith Moore (1904–1989) was regarded as the "Dean of Black Women Composers." In 1924 she received the first scholarship from the Juilliard Graduate School to study music at Fisk University. Although she composed works for piano and other instrumental groups, Moore is best known for her choral works. Scenes from the Life of a Martyr, based on the works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She composed more than one hundred pieces between 1925 and 1987, but only twenty-six were published during her lifetime.

Mother to Son (L. Hughes)
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So, boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps.
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

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The Constitution - the 5th and 6th Amendments

In Dcember we continued our virtual programing with a video of the 5th and 6th Amendments from The Constitution, a Secular Oratorio by Benjamin Yarmolinsky in collaboration with members of the Vertical Player Repertory. The piece brings to music major portions of the United States Constitution,

The Constitution, A Secular Oratorio premiered live in the fall of 2019 in a small production by The Vertical Player Repertory and we enjoyed taking on this virtual version with them. GCB also had plans to present a compete production of The Constitution with full orchestra sometime in the future when we can once again enjoy live music together. In the meantime, we hope you are all managing in these difficult times, that you are healthy, safe and keeping the faith.
…Enjoy

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GOTV - GET OUT THE VOTE

In September and October 2020, it was still considered too dangerous to rehearse or sing in person, so we continued our remotely recorded projects. In response to the coming election we recorded a Get out the Vote video, using a tune from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. Click on the image below to see the video.

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March 2019 - A Long Dark Shadow

On March 1st and March 3rd, GCB presented their second concert of the 2018-19 Season:

A LONG DARK SHADOW
 Commemorating the Centennial of the Red Summer of 1919

featuring
And They Lynched Him On A Tree
by Composer William Grant Still (1895-1978) with text by Katharine Biddle
performed by
 Grace Chorale of Brooklyn;
Jason Asbury, Music Director
Brooklyn College Symphonic Choir and Conservatory Singers;
Malcolm J. Merriweather, Conductor  
The String Orchestra of Brooklyn;
Eli Spindel, Artistic Director
with Malcolm J. Merriweather, Guest Conductor 
and
George Walker’s Lyrics for Strings
Performed by The String Orchestra of Brooklyn
Eli Spindel, Artistic Director
and
The Premiere of a new GCB Commissioned work:
A Stone to the Head: The Death of Eugene Williams
by composers Flannery Cunningham and Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa
Jason Asbury, Conductor

Concert Dates: Friday, March 1st at 7:00pm and Sunday, March 3rd at 3:00pm; St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church, 157 Montague St., Brooklyn

Concert Notes and Music Clips:

WGS.jpg

Grace Chorale’s 2019 spring concert, “A Long Dark shadow” brings together a diverse group of singers, composers and conductors  in a centennial musical exploration of race and the African-American experience in the United States.

The year 2019 marks the centennial of the Red Summer of 1919 when deadly racial conflicts and lynchings across the country led to the deaths of hundreds of people, mostly black. Tens of thousands of other African-Americans were forced to flee destroyed homes and businesses. The Great Migration had just begun. A seminal period in our history, it involved the relocation north and west of 6 million African-Americans from the southern United States over the next 60 years. Spurred by limited economic opportunities and segregation laws, African-Americans began finding employment in cities that were experiencing labor shortages due to World War I. However, returning white soldiers resented the African-Americans who were given the jobs they once held.  African-American soldiers, in turn, resented not receiving the same peacetime benefits as white soldiers. Tensions reached a boiling point in 1919 when the first racially-motivated attacks began. Lasting from May to October, the period of these conflicts became known as the “Red Summer.” Fast forward one hundred years - 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; however, many parallels remain between the race matters of 1919 and those of today.

 Our concert gives voice to the "long dark shadow" of racism in the United States. The program will consist of two parts. We will begin with the great African-American composer William Grant Still’s choral ballad, And They Lynched Him on a Tree. This ground-breaking piece of music on lynching in America was conceived by eminent members of the Harlem Renaissance, and premiered by the New York Philharmonic in 1940. The composition calls for a small orchestra and narrator along with a soloist to play the mother of the victim, a "white chorus" to depict the mob, and a "black chorus" that discovers the lynching. 

 Our partnerships with The Brooklyn College Symphonic Choir and Conservatory Singers led by Malcolm J. Merriweather, and The String Orchestra of Brooklyn led by Eli Spindel, Artistic Director will comprise choruses of 100+ voices, two conductors, and 20 instrumentalists and soloists.

 Finally, as part of the Chorale’s commitment to commissioning new works, the second part of the program will be a piece by two young composers, Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa and Flannery Cunningham whose winning composition, A Stone to the Head, The Death of Eugene Williams, examines the historical context of the Red Summer.

This program reflects Grace Chorale’s ambitions and successes over the past year. “A Long Dark Shadow” allows us and our expanding audiences to embrace this important history together, with the hope that, particularly in these times, we might all step forward with greater racial awareness.

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