The Great Choral Resume

CHORAL WORKS

Sung with the Stuvyvesant High School Chorus, the SUNY Stony Brook Undergraduate Chorus, Riverside Choral Society, Rottenberg Chorale (later renamed Nashir! The Rottenberg Chorale), Zamir Chorale, St. George's Choral Society, and Berkshire Choral Festival.


Johann Sebastian Bach

Lobet den Herrn

Samuel Barber

Easter Chorale
Sure on This Shining Night
To Be Sung On The Water

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Choral Fantasy
Missa Solemnis
Symphony #9 (Choral)

Leonard Bernstein

Chichester Psalms

David Berger

Hatikvah Hanoshanah
Megillat Haatzmaut

Lili Boulanger

Psalm 24

Johannes Brahms

Eine Deutsche Requiem
Geistlicheslied "Lass Dicht Nur Nichts Nicht Dauren"
"Hallelujah" from Triumphlied
Liebeslieder Waltzes (Nos. 1, 2, 4, 11)
Nanie
Shicksalslied

Yezhekhel Braun

Eishet Chayil
Shir Hashirim

Benjamin Britten

Hymn to the Virgin
Saint Nicholas Cantata

Harry Burleigh (arr.)

"Ezekiel Saw De Wheel"
"Wade In De Water"

Claude Debussy

Salut Printemps
Trois Chansons

Maurice Durufle

Requiem

Antonin Dvorak

Te Deum

Richard Einhorn

Voices of Light (June 2011)

Gabriel Faure

Requiem

Giovanni Gabrieli

Jubilate Deo

Nancy Gailbraith

Magnificat (December 2010)

George Frederick Handel

Israel in Egypt
Psalm 122

Howard Hanson

Lament for Beowulf
The Seven Last Words of David

Franz Joseph Haydn

Heiligmesse
Lord Nelson Mass
Te Deum

Arthur Honneger

King David

Flora Jagody

Ochos Kandelikas

Charles Ives

Symphony #4

Zoltan Kodaly

Missa Brevis

Felix Mendelssohn

Elijah
Psalm 42
Magnificat
Surrexit Pastor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mass in C
Regina Coeli K.281
Requiem

Carl Orff

Carmina Burana

Hubert Parry

I Was Glad

Ariel Ramirez

Missa Criolla

Salamone Rossi

Shir Hama'alot

John Rutter

The Sprig of Thyme (Afton Water, I Know Where I'm Going, The Keel Row)

Camille Saint-Saens

Christmas Oratorio (December 2010)

Simon Sargon

L'Moshel

Robert Schumann

Mass in C

arr. Robert Shaw

"Joy, Joy, Joy"

Randall Thompson

Alleluia
Frostiana

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Hodie
Symphony #1 (A Sea Symphony)

Kurt Weill

Kiddush



OPERA CHORUSES

(all with the Brooklyn Lyric Opera, later renamed the Empire State Opera)


Georges Bizet

Carmen

Francesco Cilea

L'Arlesiana (both alto and tenor!)

Gaetano Donizetti

Lucia Di Lammermoor

Charles Gounod

Faust (also understudied Marthe)
Romeo et Juliette

Rugierro Leoncavallo

I Pagliacci

Gian Carlo Menotti

Amelia al Ballo (in English, also played Second Chambermaid)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Cosi Fan Tutte (in English)
Don Giovanni
Die Zauberflöte (in English)

Giacomo Puccini

Madama Butterfly

Johann Strauss, Jr.

Die Fledermaus (in English)

Giuseppe Verdi

Aida
Un Ballo In Maschera
Rigoletto
Il Trovatore


This list will continue to be updated as I remember more things I have sung (a lot of smaller works, especially the ones sung with the Jewish choruses) or find the music, and, of course, as I add new concerts. I am not counting brief excerpts from larger works (unless they are song cycles, like the Rutter). For example, I have sung "And The Glory Of The Lord" and the "Hallelujah Chorus" from The Messiah many times, but never the whole work. I seem to vaguely remember singing some Praetorius and Schutz in college, but not specific works. I will also offer up some explanations of some of the more obscure works, especially the Jewish ones.

With great regret, I am also not counting works I extensively rehearsed with the Riverside Choral Society (Brahms Songs for Women's Chorus Op. 17, Orff's Cattuli Carmina, Hindemith's Serenade to Music), but never actually performed. At the time I worked for RGIS, an inventory company that didn't realize that slavery ended in 1865 (probably because most of the people who worked there were black!) and would drive us out to huge stores in the Bronx and Long Island and New Jersey and make us work 10 hours or more, often without any break (1), and I couldn't even call my section leader and tell her I had to miss the rehearsals! No great surprise, they kicked me out (2). And I was also having some hygiene issues at the time, which probably didn't help - I was 22 and really stupid. I have tried in vain to get back in. Unfortunately, while I think I have the voice for the really major New York choruses, which Riverside definitely is now (they perform at Carnegie Hall, have big management, and go on tour), my sightsinging skills are quite poor and I can't pass auditions (3). Once I'm in a chorus, I pick up things by ear and have few problems, especially in strong/large alto sections.


(1) Several workers did threaten to go to the Department of Labor over this, to which management replied "Go ahead. We have lawyers."

(2) And, of course, I was so enraged at this that I immediately quit RGIS. My immediate supervisor, who was as much a "slave" as I was, was totally sympathetic and I did get a new job very soon after working at Tower Records as a clerk in the classical department. Management there was almost as bad as RGIS, but the job itself was great and I loved talking to the customers.

(3) Naturally, I have taken sightsinging classes. The problem is since they are in groups, I naturally "cheat" and pick up from what other people are singing. In order to improve, I really think I need to study this privately.