Choral Society of the Hamptons

17/10/2024

Did you catch the story about the Choral Society on Michael Makey's Morning Edition on WLIW yesterday?

Check out the 8.13 minute mark on this recording:

Holiday retail sales this year are projected to have the slowest growth since 2018 as consumers spend cautiously amid elevated interest rates and concerns about inflation, according to a national retail forecast. Tory N. Parrish reports in NEWSDAY that the healthy jobs market and wage growth are gen...

17/10/2024

Congratulations to our longtime Board President Daniel McKeever on his retirement from the position. We are grateful for your years of dedicated service to our beloved chorus and we are infinitely grateful you will continue to sing and lead us from within the membership.

Thanks to 27east for covering the story of our leadership transition. Read the article here:

By Stephen J. Kotz Daniel McKeever of Water Mill, who stepped down after 31 years as president of the Choral Society of the Hamptons last month, said he was looking forward to the group’s December 15 holiday concert, when he can focus solely on singi

29/06/2024

We can't wait to sing for you!

Today's the day! Concert performances at 5 and 7:30pm at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church. Tickets will be available at the door... but advanced purchases are encouraged.

https://tickets.chorusconnection.com/csh/events/1045

28/06/2024

Meet guest conductor for tomorrow's concert, A Mozart Playlist, Judith Clurman.

Conductor, chorus master and educator Judith Clurman has collaborated with some of the world’s most distinguished ensembles, composers, and institutions. A passionate advocate of new music and innovative programming, she has commissioned premieres, developed ensembles, and directed work from classical theatre, television, and film repertoires. She received two Emmy nominations and conducted Tania Léon’s music on the Grammy and Latin Grammy nominated CD, “In Motion.” She is the musical director for Essential Voices USA, an ensemble that has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, on NPR’S Tiny Desk Concerts and NBC television.

Highlights of her career include conducting performances at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, conducting the nationally televised “Music of the Spirit” (NBC and PBS), conducting performances with the New York City Ballet, supervising and conducting the choral music for the SONY movie “The Song of Names,” co-directing Harvard University’s “Bernstein: Boston to Broadway project,” working as an associate for all things vocal for the 39th Season of Sesame Street, creating and conducting the Singing Christmas Tree Float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and conducting the nationally televised July 4th Macy’s Fireworks Spectacular (NBC), with the Diva Jazz Orchestra. She has commissioned and conducted new works by over seventy American composers, and conducted the complete Mozart canons for Lincoln Center’s Mozart Bicentennial (on the anniversary of his death in 1791).
As an educator, Judith Clurman directed choral activities at The Juilliard School from 1989-2007 and served as visiting artist/teacher at numerous institutions, including Cambridge and Harvard Universities, and was the vocal specialist at the National Endowment for the Arts/Columbia University Institute of Classical Music. She teaches voice at the Manhattan School of Music, edits choral series for Hal Leonard, and is a member of ASCAP’s Special Classification Committee. Her own music and arrangements have been performed by major symphony orchestras and choruses throughout the country and many can be heard on numerous recordings. www. Judithclurman.com.

27/06/2024

"A Mozart Playlist" features the Poetica Ensemble! We are delighted to partner with them on this incredible program.

The Poetica Ensemble, a consortium of world-class musicians led by artistic directors Song-A Cho and Christopher Shaughnessy, has been performing together for over a decade at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Scorca Hall and other renowned concert halls throughout the greater New York area. The members of the ensemble also perform abroad in South Asia, Europe and Canada. Through their performances and educational endeavors, they strive to foster their shared love of chamber music in local communities. The String Quartet based ensemble includes piano, double bass, oboe, guitar and soprano. Their aim is to bring lesser-known compositions to the public along with well-known masterpieces.

27/06/2024

We cannot wait to hear and sing with soloist Amy Justman this Saturday.

Soprano Amy Justman’s varied crossover career has spanned classic and contemporary musical theater, opera, oratorio, and everything in between. Her current season has included her debut with Tulsa Symphony in Mozart’s Requiem, Titanic with City Center Encores!, and return performances of Handel’s Messiah with Glacier Symphony and Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream with New York City Ballet.

Concert highlights include the PBS Great Performances’ broadcast of Bernstein’s Mass with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, David Lang’s Prisoner of the State with New York Philharmonic, Handel's Messiah with Musica Sacra at Carnegie Hall, Dan Forrest’s Jubilate Deo and Requiem for the Living (both at Carnegie Hall), Bach’s Mass in B Minor and St. John Passion with Great Music in a Great Space, and Haydn’s Creation with Winston Salem Symphony.

Amy made her Broadway debut in the 2006 revival of Company, performing the role of Susan as well as playing piano as part of the actor‐orchestra. Her other Broadway credits include Carousel, In Transit, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, and Irving Berlin's White Christmas, as well as the Broadway and National Tour companies of The Phantom of the Opera.

She is on the Vocal Arts Faculty at Manhattan School of Music and teaches voice for the Musical Theater program at Marymount Manhattan College.

26/06/2024

Meet Mezzo Soprano soloist Heather Jones! Hear Heather sing with the chorus this Saturday at 5 or 7:30pm at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church.

Heather Jones (they/them) is a mezzo and performance artist based in Brooklyn, NY. In the 2023-2024 season, Heather makes operatic debuts with Kentucky Opera as Hannah in As One, with Intermountain Opera Bozeman in Monteverdi’s L'incoronazione di Poppea as Nerone, and reprises a favorite role as Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Savannah Voice Festival. This season’s concert appearances include: Britten’s Canticles II and IV with City Lyric Opera, Mozart’s Requiem with Modus Operandi Orchestra, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Juilliard 415 players, and joining the chorus for Handel’s Israel in Egypt with Apollo’s Fire and the New York Philharmonic. Heather is also elated to make their Lincoln Center soloist debut this season, originating the role of Brittain in Bryce McClendon’s operatic play The Smallest Sound in the Smallest Space.

Heather is also an active producer and recently co-wrote a chamber opera for vocalists, string trio, electronics, and dancer titled Expostulation(s) of Mary which was produced by the Grammy nominated Wild Up Ensemble in Los Angeles in 2023. Later this year, Heather will be a resident artist at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute to develop their one-person piece titled One Body about growing up as a q***r person in the Southern church. Heather holds education and performance degrees from Westminster Choir College and Mannes School of Music.
website: heatherjonesmezzo.com | instagram:

25/06/2024

Meet tenor soloist Jason Weisinger.

Jason Weisinger is a singer, music director/producer, composer/orchestrator, and educator based in Long Island City, NY

Jason has sung on stage with luminaries such as Andy Einhorn, Kate Baldwin, Ricky Ian Gordon, Stephanie Blythe, Judith Clurman, Donald Nally, Dawn Upshaw, and Mark Morris. He has performed with many esteemed ensembles including The Boston POPS, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, American Classical Orchestra, The Crossing, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Essential Voices USA, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. His voice also appears on Last Week Tonight’s EMMY-nominated song Eat S**t Bob: The Musical as well as The Crossing’s 2019 GRAMMY-nominated album The Arc in the Sky and 2021 GRAMMY-nominated album Rising: With The Crossing. Recently he performed the roles of The Oracle and The Blogger in Luna Pearl Woolf’s oratorio Number Our Days presented at the new Perelman Arts Center in downtown Manhattan. Jason most recently starred as Yudel Mark in composer Alex Weiser and librettist Ben Kaplan’s opera “The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language” presented by American Opera Projects and Bang on a Can’s Long Play Festival.

As "...an Olympian of a music director..." (The New York Times), Jason specializes in collaborating with independent writers, producers, & performers seeking to create an inclusive and safe theater industry. Recent productions include James Harrison Monaco's "Travels" at Ars Nova NYC (Associate MD), Casey Kendall & Jon Bauerfeld's "The Jury" at A.R.T. Gural Theater (MD), and MetLiveArts' mounting of Kate Douglas & Shayfer James' "The Ninth Hour"; a rock-noir musical adaptation of "Beowulf"(MD). Jason's work developing new musicals is where he finds himself most at home. He has supervised various readings, showcases, and workshops with companies like The Goodman Theatre, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Bedlam, and TheaterNOW.

Recently, Jason has served as Music Assistant on Hermes' site-specific immersive musical "Love Around the Block" by Dave Malloy, as well as readings of Dave Malloy's adaptation of Darren Aronofsky's film "Black Swan" and Duncan Sheik's adaptation of "Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen". Additionally, he is perpetually music directing and performing in presentations of songs from new musicals as part of the BMI Advanced Musical Theater Writing Workshop. Jason’s orchestrations and compositions have been performed by members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, GRAMMY-winning ensemble The Crossing, and various Broadway pit orchestras. His work is featured on the podcast [insert movie here]: The Musical!, available on iTunes and Spotify. He serves as orchestrator/arranger for cantor Azi Schwartz of Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan. Jason has workshopped three of his own musicals as a composer in the BMI Advanced Musical Theater Writing Workshop with collaborators Bryce Palmer and (separately) Kate Douglas. His setting of ee cummings’ i carry your heart received 2nd-place at the 2016 Sparks & Wiry Cries NYC songSLAM and is published in the Sparks & Wiry Cries songSLAM Songbook: Vol 1.

As an educator, he has taught classes and voice lessons at The New School - Mannes Opera, The Neighborhood Playhouse, and the University of Cincinnati - CCM. He has also held a private voice/piano/songwriting/music theory studio for 15 years, teaching remotely for the past 10 years.

24/06/2024

Meet our baritone soloist, performing with us in this Saturday's concert, A Mozart Playlist.

Joseph Beutel, Baritone has been making his career across five continents. He enjoys performing operas in the classic canon as well as originating roles in new and experimental works. He has also had the privilege of a concert career in oratorio and other concert works. Some roles of note include originating the role of the British Major in Silent Night, Kevin Puts’ and Mark Campbell’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, and in 2018 originating the role of Sir in Mila, an opera commissioned by Asia Society Hong Kong.

Most recently he made his Figaro debut in Marriage of Figaro, with Intermountain Opera in Boseman, MT. He has performed with companies that include the Santa Fe Opera, NYCO, the New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, Mark Morris Dance Company, English Concert, Seattle Opera, Minnesota Opera and Sarasota Opera.
In addition, he enjoys performing musical theater, with credits from Encores! At City Center and Live at Lincoln Center featured on PBS. Recordings include the Grammy nominated Memory Eternal to the Fallen Heroes (Requiem) by Alexander Kastalsky, performed live on the 100th anniversary of the WWI armistice in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., released on the Naxos label.

23/06/2024

Our summer concert, A Mozart Playlist, is less than a week away! It's time to meet the pros.

Jack Coen (pianist and organist) is Director of Music and Organist at Church of the Epiphany and adjunct lecturer in music theory and history at CUNY Baruch College From 2019 to 2023 he served as Organist and Choir Director at Temple Emanu-El, New York’s largest synagogue. He is also a composer and lyricist in BMI's Lehman Engel Workshop in Musical Theatre Writing where he received the 2018 Harrington Award for outstanding creative achievement in musical theatre writing. He was a finalist for the 2023 Kleban Prize and Stephen Sondheim called his work “remarkably craftsmanlike,” and “skillful and graceful.” As an organist he has concertized in many sacred spaces in Manhattan—including Saint Malachy’s, Temple Emanu-El and St. Patrick’s Cathedral–and has accompanied evensong services at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. As a pianist he has accompanied notable artists including Judy Kuhn, Rufus Wainwright and Harolyn Blackwell. When he isn’t making music, he attends to his deep love of marine and plant biology as an avid scuba diver, botanist and member of the Manhattan Orchid Society.

29/04/2024

Do you enjoy singing?
Are you looking for a fun community and a way to enjoy your Monday evenings?

Audition to be a singing member of the Choral Society! We are are just one week away from our next round of auditions!

Learn more at https://www.choralsocietyofthehamptons.org/join

07/04/2024

Today's the day! Join us at 5:30pm at the First Presbyterian Church of East Hampton for a concert like none other.

Tickets are available for sale online and at the door.

https://www.choralsocietyofthehamptons.org/april-2024

06/04/2024

Tickets still available for tomorrow's concert!

https://www.choralsocietyofthehamptons.org/april-2024

05/04/2024

Rehearsing for this concert has been such a fun and interesting experience as Guest Conductor Kinga Cserjési has leveraged the methods of Zoltán Kodály with the chorus. Come hear the fruits of our labor at this Sunday's concert. Tickets on sale online and over the phone. Learn more at:

https://www.choralsocietyofthehamptons.org/april-2024

04/04/2024

We are so pleased to collaborate with local organist Peter Ludlow for our spring concert, The Bringers of Light.

Peter Jaffray Ludlow began his professional organ career at the age of 12, as the organist at Incarnation Lutheran Church in Bridgehampton, under the tutelage of Charlotte Rogers Smith. Peter continued his training during school summers, attending Pipe Organ Encounter programs at the Juilliard School, Yale School of Music, and Westminster Choir College. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree with a focus on Organ Performance at Vassar College, studying with Grammy-award nominee Gail Archer, and classical piano with Thomas Sauer.

Upon graduation Peter returned to Bridgehampton where he now manages his family’s fifth-generation farm, Mecox Bay Dairy. He continues his musical career, however, as the Organist and Music Director of St. John’s Episcopal Church and St. Andrew’s Dune Church, both in Southampton. He and his wife Haley, and their Bernese Mountain dog Rudy, live on the farm in the house that his great-great-grandfather built and where his grandmother Marjorie, an avid lover of music and supporter of The Choral Society, lived until her passing in 2019. His love for farming and the land is only equaled by his passion for music and the organ. He is thrilled to be the organ soloist in today’s program.

03/04/2024

Alexandra Balog to perform at the Choral Society concert this Sunday!

Winner of the 2017 Béla Bartók International Piano Competition in Graz, pianist Alexandra Balog graduated with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2019. Typically, she gives solo or chamber music recitals in Budapest, Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Skopje, Mexico City, Manila, Beijing, Shanghai, New York and London, which include solo performances at such prestigious venues as Solti Hall of the Liszt Academy of Music, Philharmonic Hall in Skopje, Berlinische Galerie, the Steinway Salon in Vienna, the Hungarian Embassy in New York, the Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City and the Universidad de Caribe in Cancún, among many others. In 2022, she won first prize at the Franz Liszt Centre International Piano Competition La Nucia, Spain

Alexandra graduated in 2023 from the University of Music in Graz, where she obtained an Artist Diploma degree studying with Professor Markus Schirmer. Her previous teachers in the music conservatories include Ian Fountain, Zoltán Fejérvári and Erzsébet Belák. She was awarded the prestigious Junior Prima Prize in 2023 and a scholarship from the Hungarian Academy of Arts in 2022, and the Talentum Hungaricum scholarship in 2020.

As a soloist, she has also performed with the Savaria Symphony Orchestra, the Szent István Philharmonic, the Danube Symphony Orchestra, the Resonate Chamber Orchestra, the orchestra of the Royal Academy of Music and the Altalena Ensemble. The founder and artistic director of the Altalena Music Festival, and one of the leading members of the Altalena Young Artists Group, she is proud to be a moving force in a musical community of outstanding young musicians.

Her recordings include: Mozart: Piano concerto No. 25 K. 503 in C major; Brahms: Op. 117 No. 3, Mozart: Piano concerto No. 24 K. 491 in C minor, Schubert: Drei Klaviertücke D. 946 / 1, Mozart: Fantasy in C minor K. 475, and Beethoven: Sonata in F major Op. 10 No. 2

02/04/2024

Hear Hungarian clarinetist Noémi Sallai at this Sunday's Choral Society concert!

Noémi was selected as the sole clarinet fellow in Carnegie Hall's prestigious music program, Ensemble Connect for the 2018-2020 season. A devoted chamber musician and passionate interpreter of solo repertoire written for the clarinet, Ms. Sallai premiered works for the clarinet in the United States by way of The Juilliard School's Focus. Festival and received first prize at several national and international clarinet competitions.

The winner of the 2018 PRISMA Concerto Competition in Canada, Ms. Sallai had the opportunity to play in the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, in Russia. A prize-winning enthusiast of orchestral music, she went on tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, participating in its production of Mozart's Don Giovanni. She also appeared as a clarinetist in such renowned groups as the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Bard Conservatory Orchestra, the Binghamton Symphony Orchestra, The Princeton Symphony Orchestra, the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, the New Juilliard Ensemble and the Axiom Contemporary Music Ensemble. In addition, she participated in the Zoltán Kodály World Orchestra conducted by the renowned Hungarian pianist and conductor Tamás Vásáry.

Born and raised in Hungary, Ms. Sallai began her musical studies at the age of eight and started to play the clarinet at the age of eleven. She is not only a determined clarinet player but also a lover of other art forms such as drawing and painting. Besides playing classical music, Ms. Sallai also enjoys performing klezmer and folk-style pieces. She holds a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School of Music, where she was a recipient of the Irene Diamond and R. & H. Gold Woodwind Award. She completed her Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts degrees at Bard College, receiving the László Z. Bitó Scholarship. Her principal teachers include Jon Manasse, David Krakauer, Anthony McGill and Laura Flax.

02/04/2024

Meet our guest conductor, Kinga Cserjési. The Bringers of Light: Featuring Music by Zoltán Kodály takes place this Sunday.

Conductor, soprano, singing teacher, choir conductor and Kodaly instructor Kinga Cserjési is the Associate Artistic Director of the Libero Canto School of Singing in New York City. She has been teaching singing in Budapest and New York City since 1999 and since 2007, has taught several workshops. From 2013 – 2015, she joined Deborah Carmichael to teach at the Il Cuore Canta summer workshops in Upstate New York. She moved to New York City in 2014 to establish the Libero Canto School of Singing together with Deborah This is currently the only licensed center worldwide for the Libero Canto Approach. In 2020, Kinga and Deborah launched their first official Libero Canto Teacher Education program.

Kinga has a master’s degree in choir conducting and in the Kodály Method from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest, and a postgraduate degree in Early Vocal Music from the Brabants Conservatory in the Netherlands. In July 2022, she received a certification from the Kodaly Summer Institute at New York University/Steinhardt (director Dr. Jerry Kerlin), founded in 1989, which is endorsed by the organization of American Kodály Educators. Kinga has twenty-five years of experience teaching music and singing and leading vocal ensembles. Her work is based on world-renowned Hungarian approaches to music education, including the work of Zoltán Kodály, Béla Bartók, and Lajos Szamosi (founder of the Libero Canto Approach). She has taught countless singers and musicians between the ages of 5 and 70.

As both a soloist and as a member of various choruses and vocal ensembles, Kinga has sung internationally with various groups, including Gächinger Kantorei (Helmuth Rilling), Ensemble Organum (Marcel Pérès), Ensemble Kantika (Kristin Hoefener), Pacific Music Festival (Nicholas McGegan), L.E.O. - Last Enjoyable Opera Theater (Stefan Fleischhacker). She has been a member of the Constellation Chor ( Marisa Michelson), which premiered Ashley Fure’s work at Lincoln Center in 2018. In 2019, she sang at Carnegie Hall with The River Voices (Nikolett Pankovits). Since 2018, Kinga has developed and performed several programs together with colleagues from the Libero Canto School of Singing: Monteverdi & Bartók (2018), The Cozy Side of Beethoven (2019 – 2022), Brahms in ¾ Time (2022), and Ágról Ágra (2022), a program based entirely on Hungarian folk songs and the a ca****la choral pieces of Béla Bartók. The ensemble performed The Cozy Side of Beethoven again in October 2022 at Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Music Center, among other venues.