The Cecilia Chorus of New York cultivates a rich and diverse community of musicians, composers and concert-goers to create distinctive choral experiences and performances that inform, challenge and uplift the human spirit. Each season, they perform at least two major concerts at Carnegie Hall with a professional orchestra and soloists. Their repertoire spans four centuries, and includes commissions and premieres by some of today’s most promising composers.
Founded in 1906, The Cecilia Chorus of New York, winner of the ASCAP/Chorus America Alice Parker Award, has evolved into one of the finest avocational performing arts organizations in New York City. The 150-voice chorus has been described as “reliably venturesome” (The New Yorker, 2017) and “admirable,” (New York Times, 2017). Recent highlights have included commissions from The Brothers Balliett, Jonathan Breit, Tom Cipullo, and Raphael Fusco; collaborations with actor Stephen Spinella and opera singers Julia Bullock and Ryan Speedo Green; the New York premieres in Carnegie Hall of the Mass in D and The Prison by Dame Ethel Smyth and the World Premiere of Fifty Trillion Molecular Geniuses by The Brothers Balliett.
Recent artistic partners have included the two-time Tony Award®-winning actor Stephen Spinella and prominent vocal artists Julia Bullock and Ryan Speedo Green in their Carnegie Hall debuts. In 2015 we were honored to receive the Chorus America/ASCAP Alice Parker Award in recognition of our adventurous programming, and Music Director Mark Shapiro is a six-time ASCAP Award winner. Membership by audition is open to all.