October 3–8, 2018: Mile-Long Opera by David Lang, High Line, NYC.
In the early autumn of 2018, conductor Claude Lévy recruited a handful of singers to participate in an intriguing interactive performance piece involving 1000 people singing diverse stories about 7 pm, early evening, inspired by first-hand interviews with New Yorkers from all walks of life.
CantaNYC was chorus 21 of 29, and our assignment was a lament about early-evening food deliveries and the noise, garbage, and rats they produce. We were asked to each interpret the melody and lyrics in our own style and time.
Click here to see CantaNYC on the High Line in a MLO performance.
June 3, 2019: Human Rights and other works. St Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, NYC
In June 2019, as part of our first full-length concert, we presented the US premiere of Human Rights, commissioned by Maestro Lévy from his former student Antoine Miannay, along with other pieces, at St Mark’s Church–in-the-Bowery, in Manhattan’s East Village.
This choral piece, with a jazz-inspired quartet accompaniment (piano, clarinet, percussion, double bass), includes text from the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Other pieces on the program included Arvo Pärt’s Da pacem Domine, Stephen Schwartz’s Testimony, and Beyond the Concert Hall, written and performed by CantaNYC member Nicole Zaray Meter.
December 8, 2019: Human Rights by Antoine Miannay. Performed at the Amnesty International Group 11 annual benefit concert. Christ & St Stephen’s Church, NYC.
The group partnered with Manhattan’s Amnesty International (AI) Group 11 to perform Human Rights again, this time with an expanded chorus including AI members, at the organization’s 2019 benefit concert.
Click here to view a full video of that performance.
March–June 2021: March in Vermont by John Hetland. Virtual video by four CantaNYC members, with audio engineering by Erik-Peter Mortensen.
During the pandemic, CantaNYC was of course forced into quiescence, but the 4-member board of directors continued planning and working with composers to gather repertoire.
One of the composers was John Hetland, who generously gave us the rights to several of his rounds.
We thought we might put together a virtual video, as so many groups had been doing, of one of his pieces to have as an example of CantaNYC’s industry.
Once the audio track had been assembled and edited by our friend Erik-Peter Mortensen, we met to lip-synch a video.
Click here to view the final product.
September 2022. Lament for Mariupol by Andrew Lawrence-King. Video for Amnesty International Group 11.
In the autumn of 2022, when fears about Covid infection began to recede, we met live to make a video of Andrew Lawrence-King’s arrangement of the Ukrainian Anthem, Lament for Mariupol, again for an Amnesty International event.
June 26, 2022: CantaNYC in the Gardens mini-concert, Morningside Gardens, Upper West Side, NYC.
In the spring of 2023, we were able to partner with a social service group, Morningside Retirement and Health Services (MRHS), at the Morningside Gardens apartment complex on the Upper West Side of Manhattan to present a short, eclectic concert with both resident and nonresident singers as CantaNYC in the Gardens.
May 7, 2023: Gaia’s Harmony: A Choral Tribute to Mother Earth, Morningside Gardens, Upper West Side, NYC.
With the success of the 2023 concert, CantaNYC was invited back by MRHS to present a full-length CantaNYC in the Gardens concert in 2024. Our chorus of 16 members—four each of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass—included not only residents but also old friends.
Deciding on a theme of nature and earth, Maestro Lévy was able to put together a concert that included three world premieres, as well as recent settings of traditional pieces and songs by Pete Seeger and Harry Belafonte, among others.
A highlight was the presentation of a rainbow flag to CantaNYC by Charley Beal, a friend of the flag’s original designer, in honor of the choral premiere of Rainbow Flag by Singing Grandma Sherri.
CantaNYC, a Community Chorus 