The Cecilia Chorus of New York facts for kids

The Cecilia Chorus of New York is a large singing group, or chorus, based in New York City. It used to be called the St. Cecilia Chorus. This group is made up of about 180 people who love to sing, but it's not their full-time job. They are also a nonprofit organization, which means they focus on their mission rather than making money.

The chorus performs two big concerts every year at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York. For these shows, they sing with a professional orchestra and solo singers. They also perform at other places around New York.

History of the Chorus

How it Started

Victor Harris, an early conductor of the chorus.

The Cecilia Chorus of New York is a group that isn't connected to any church or specific religion. It began in 1906 as a singing group just for women. The idea for the chorus started even earlier, in 1900. A small group of women in Manhattan would meet at each other's homes on Tuesday mornings to sing together.

The main people who organized these early singing sessions were Susan Warren and Mrs. Henry Burden. Elliot Schenck was their pianist and leader. These women created an all-female chorus and called it the Tuesday Morning Singing Club. You could only join if you were invited, and they practiced at the fancy Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

In 1906, the Tuesday Morning Singing Club asked Metropolitan Opera coach Victor Harris to be their conductor. Harris agreed, but he had two rules: practices had to be at his studio, and everyone had to take the music seriously. That's how the "Saint Cecilia Club" officially started in 1906. Under Victor Harris's leadership, the Saint Cecilia Club quickly grew. It became a very important singing group in New York City.

In 1922, the chorus was still only for women. They became quite famous when they performed with The Philharmonic Society of New York. They sang Mahler's Symphony No. 3 for the first time in New York. During these early years, the chorus performed many songs for the very first time in the world or in the U.S. These included pieces by composers like Amy Beach, Deems Taylor, and Virgil Thomson.

Victor Harris was the Music Director until 1936. After him, several other talented people led the chorus:

• Léon Barzin (1936–37)
• Willard Sektberg (1937–42)
• Hugh Ross (1942–195?)
• David Buttolph (195?–1965)
• David Randolph (1965–2010)
• Mark Shapiro (since 2011)

The David Randolph Years

In 1965, when David Buttolph left, the chorus members remembered how much they liked working with David Randolph. He had filled in for a rehearsal in 1959. So, they asked Randolph to become their sixth Music Director. He led the chorus until he passed away in 2010.

Under Randolph's leadership, the chorus got bigger and better at singing. In 1969, they performed their first concert at Carnegie Hall. Besides their two concerts a year at Carnegie Hall, some of which were even broadcast live on WNYC Radio, Randolph also led the chorus at other major places. These included Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall (now called David Geffen Hall).

In April 1981, a popular play called Amadeus made people interested in the composer Mozart. So, the chorus performed a special concert at Carnegie Hall. They sang Antonio Salieri's Mass No. 1 for the first time in the U.S., alongside Mozart's Great Mass in C minor. The concert was broadcast on WNYC. The writer of Amadeus, Peter Shaffer, even came and spoke from the stage!

In December 1986, also at Carnegie Hall, the chorus performed Oratorium nach Bildern der Bibel. This was by Fanny Mendelssohn, who was the sister of the famous composer Felix Mendelssohn. It was the first time this piece was performed in North America.

David Randolph was also known for conducting Handel's Messiah. He led this piece for 37 years with another group, The Masterwork Chorus. These performances became a holiday tradition in New York City. In 1995, Randolph led the St. Cecilia Chorus in their first Messiah performances. These two concerts at Carnegie Hall were very successful. Because people loved it so much, they brought it back in 1997, 2005, and 2008. His successor, Mark Shapiro, has also continued this tradition in 2011, 2013, and 2015, and other years.

In 1993, some chorus members made a recording with Liza Minnelli to help with AIDS research. In 1996, a small group of chorus members appeared as Christmas carolers in The Preacher's Wife. This was a major movie starring Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington.

During Randolph's time, the chorus also performed with other conductors. These included Lukas Foss, John Alldis, John Nelson, Romano Gandolfi (from La Scala), Peter Tiboris, and Eve Queler (from Opera Orchestra of New York).

Mark Shapiro's Leadership

In July 2011, after a nationwide search, Mark Shapiro became the seventh Music Director of the Chorus. In 2012, the chorus changed its name to The Cecilia Chorus of New York. This new name helped show that the group is not connected to any religion.

Under Shapiro, the chorus has continued to perform classic pieces. But they also started something new: asking composers to write brand new pieces for them. They perform these new works at Carnegie Hall and other places. At the same time, the chorus also started focusing on bringing back forgotten masterpieces from the past.

Some of the composers who have written new music for the chorus include The Brothers Balliett, Jonathan Breit, Tom Cipullo, Raphael Fusco, and Zaid Jabri. In 2015, the chorus won an award for their performance of Tom Cipullo's Credo for a Secular City (from 2014).

Other important achievements include the first New York performances of two major works by Dame Ethel Smyth. Both were performed at Carnegie Hall. These were the Mass in D (written in 1891), which the chorus performed in 2013, and The Prison (written in 1930), which they performed in 2018. In 2012, the chorus brought back a rare performance of The Christmas Story (1949) by Peter Mennin. He was an American composer and a former president of The Juilliard School. They also performed a Marian Trilogy by early Baroque composer Isabella Leonarda.

In 2018, the chorus performed the Messe Romane by Thierry Escaich for the first time in North America. In 2019, the chorus performed a concert honoring Walt Whitman. It included a new piece by Jorge Martín and music by the forgotten 19th-century American composer John Knowles Paine. This concert was even broadcast on the public radio show "Pipe Dreams."

In March 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit New York City, the chorus performed "The Belshazzar Project." This was a special evening of music in five languages. It told the story of Belshazzar from The Book of Daniel. Composers included Alexandre Guilmant, G. F. Handel, Arseny Koreshchenko, Gioacchino Rossini, and Robert Schumann. It also featured music by Johnny Cash, Penny Prince, and Harold Rome. The program also included spoken parts by writers like Byron and Dickinson, read by actor Kathleen Chalfant.

Images for kids

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  Victor Harris, an early conductor of the chorus.