The Oratorio Society of New York is a not-for-profit membership organization that performs choral music in the oratorio style. Founded in 1873 by conductor Leopold Damrosch, it is the third oldest musical organization in New York City. The Society had a prominent role in the building of Carnegie Hall. Throughout its history, it has premiered many new choral works.
Kent Tritle was appointed as the Society's 11th music director in January 2006, succeeding Lyndon Woodside.
Various individuals are credited with inspiring Damrosch's decision to found the Society: Anton Rubinstein, Marie Reno (wife of the Society's secretary Morris Reno), Elkan and Bertha Naumburg, and three unnamed women who felt New York needed a singing society like the ones they had heard on a recent trip to Germany. Bertha Naumburg is said to have suggested the name.
Rehearsals at the Society began in March 1873. On December 3, the Society presented its first concert. One year later, on Christmas night, the Society began what has become an unbroken tradition of annual performances of Handel's Messiah . In 1885, Walter Damrosch, the son of Leopold Damrosch, became conductor after his father's death.
In 1884 Andrew Carnegie joined the Society's board of directors, serving as its president from 1888 to 1919. Three years later, Carnegie added his support to a fund to build a hall that was suitable for choral music. He engaged architect William Tuthill, to design the "Music Hall," now known as Carnegie Hall. Carnegie hall opened in May 1891 with a five-day festival.
In April 1923 the Society, in conjunction with the experimental radio station, WEAF, presented the first choral concert broadcast from Carnegie Hall.
The Society has presented the U.S. premiere of Brahms' A German Requiem (1877), Berlioz' Roméo et Juliette (1882), a full-concert production of Wagner's Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera House (1886), Tchaikovsky's a cappella Legend and Pater noster (1891) and Eugene Onegin (1908), the now-standard version of The Star-Spangled Banner (1917), Bach's Mass in B Minor (1927), Dvořák's Saint Ludmila (1993), Britten's The World of the Spirit (1998), and Filas' Song of Solomon (2012). The Society has also presented works by Handel, Liszt, Schütz, Schubert, Debussy, Elgar, and Saint-Saëns.
In 1977, the Society inaugurated an oratorio solo competition. International in scope, it is the only significant competition devoted to oratorio solos. In 2006, the competition was renamed the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition in honor of Lyndon Woodside.
The Society's education program offers high school students in New York City classroom instruction and free tickets to its concerts. It also reaches out to teens by contributing tickets to High 5 Tickets to the Arts. The Society was instrumental in the 2010 founding of the New York Choral Consortium, a member organization comprising 65 choral groups—professional and avocational—throughout the metropolitan area.
On its 100th anniversary in 1973, the Society was presented with the Handel Medallion for its contributions to the musical life of the city. [1] At its May 1998 125th anniversary concert, the Society was honored by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as: "One of the most treasured institutions of our city's musical life . . . making all New York music lovers grateful for this venerable institution which helps keep our city the music capital of the world."
In March 2003, the Society received the UNESCO Commemorative Medal and the Cocos Island World Natural Heritage Site Award for its series of benefit concerts in Costa Rica. [2] In 2004 the Society received a certificate from the St. Petersburg Submariners Club commemorating its concerts there.
The Society made its European debut in Munich in 1982. Since then it has performed throughout Europe and in Asia and Latin America. In 2015, the Society performed in Halle, Quedlinburg, Dresden, and Leipzig. In 2017, the Society performed at the Teatro Solís in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Term | Lifespan | |
---|---|---|
Leopold Damrosch | 1873–85 | 1832–85 |
Walter Damrosch | 1885–98 | 1868–1950 |
Frank Damrosch | 1898–1912 | 1859–1937 |
Louis Koemmenich | 1912–17 | 1866–1922 |
Walter Damrosch | 1917–21 (2nd time) | |
Albert Stoessel | 1921–43 | 1894–1943 |
Alfred Greenfield | 1943–55 | 1902–83 |
William Strickland | 1955–58 | 1914–91 |
T. Charles Lee | 1959–73 | 1915–94 |
Lyndon Woodside | 1973–2005 | 1935–2005 |
Kent Tritle | 2006– |
Term | |
---|---|
Dr. F. A. P. Barnard | 1873–74 |
S. W. Coe | 1874–75 |
W. L. Goodwin | 1875–76 |
Rev. William H. Cooke | 1876–88 |
Andrew Carnegie | 1888–1919 |
Charles M. Schwab | 1919–21 |
No president | 1921–28 |
Henry Sloane Coffin | 1928–49 |
Donald H. Gray | 1949–59 |
Caramai Carroll Mali | 1959–63 |
Beatrice Shuttleworth | 1963–73 |
Joseph Brinkley | 1973–90 |
Ellen L. Blair | 1990–99 |
Richard A. Pace | 1999–2020 |
Robert W. Conley | 2020–2024 |
Gyasi Barber | 2024– |
February 22, 1875 | Leopold Damrosch | Ruth and Naomi |
May 4, 1881 | Leopold Damrosch | Festival Overture |
April 20 & 22, 1882 | Leopold Damrosch | Sulamith |
April 18 & 19, 1883 | Max Bruch | Jubilate amen |
May 5, 1891 | Peter I. Tchaikovsky | Marche solennelle |
May 7, 1891 | Peter I. Tchaikovsky | Suite No.3 for Orchestra |
May 8, 1891 | Peter I. Tchaikovsky | Pater noster |
Legend | ||
May 9, 1891 | Walter Damrosch | To Sleep |
Peter I. Tchaikovsky | So schmerzlich | |
Piano Concerto, Op. 23 | ||
January 4, 1895 | Walter Damrosch | The Scarlet Letter |
April 24 & 25, 1896 | Georg Henschel | Stabat mater |
March 19, 1907 | Edward Elgar | The Apostles |
March 26, 1907 | Edward Elgar | The Kingdom |
December 8, 1908 | Gustav Mahler | Symphony No. 2 |
April 7, 1920 | Sergei Rachmaninoff | Springtime |
April 12, 1935 | Walter Damrosch | Golden Jubilee |
March 25, 1938 | Albert Stoessel | Festival Fanfare |
February 20 & 21, 1941 | Walter Damrosch | Cyrano |
March 1, 1957 | Howard Hanson | Elegy in Memory of Serge Koussevitsky |
Lament for Beowoulf | ||
May 8, 1962 | Virgil Thomson | Missa pro defunctis |
April 7, 1968 | T. Charles Lee | Farewell, Voyager, Much Yet for Thee |
November 8, 1980 | Aaron Copland | Fanfare for the Common Man |
November 8 & 9, 1980 | Aaron Copland | Short Symphony |
Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson | ||
The Tender Land (excerpts) |
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel. The text was compiled from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Psalter by Charles Jennens. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.
The Cincinnati May Festival is a two-week annual choral festival, held in May in Cincinnati, Ohio, US.
Walter Johannes Damrosch was a Prussian-born American conductor and composer. He was the director of the New York Symphony Orchestra and conducted the world premiere performances of various works, including Aaron Copland's Symphony for Organ and Orchestra, George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F and An American in Paris, and Jean Sibelius' Tapiola. Damrosch was also instrumental in the founding of Carnegie Hall. He also conducted the first performance of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the composer himself as soloist.
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Leopold Damrosch was a German American orchestral conductor, composer, violinist, and teacher. He was the patriarch of the Damrosch family, which includes Frank Damrosch and Walter Damrosch.
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Lyndon Woodside was the 10th conductor of the Oratorio Society of New York. He toured Europe and the Americas, but his home performance space was Carnegie Hall, built by Andrew Carnegie to house the Society. While his repertoire was broad, perhaps he was best known for the annual Christmas-time production of Handel's Messiah.
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Yvonne Regina Ciannella was an American coloratura soprano in opera and concert. She began her career performing and recording with the Robert Shaw Chorale in the early 1950s. After graduate voice studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, she embarked on a career as an opera singer; working mainly in Germany at the Staatstheater Braunschweig, Theater Bonn, and Theater Dortmund during the 1960s. She also appeared as a guest artist with opera companies in Berlin, Cologne, Florida, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Vienna. For many years she was a member of the voice faculty of the College of Music at Florida State University.
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Barbara Thorne, also known by her married name Barbara Stevenson and as Barbara Thorne Stevenson, was an American soprano who had an active performance career from 1930 through 1959. She made her professional singing debut in 1930 as a soloist with the Portland Symphony Orchestra while an undergraduate music student at Pacific University. She performed in several more oratorios with that orchestra in the 1930s. She continued to perform professionally while pursuing further vocal studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia from 1935–1938 where she was a pupil of Harriet van Emden and Estelle Liebling. She was a leading soprano of the Philadelphia Opera Company from 1939–1942, and also performed with other American opera companies during the 1940s and 1950s. She also worked as an oratorio soloist, mainly in the cities of Philadelphia and New York City, but also on stages throughout the United States. In 1939 she recorded Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem with the Philadelphia Orchestra for RCA Victor. In the 1950s she taught on the voice faculties of the University of North Texas and Southern Methodist University.
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