When modern society slips its moorings, classical music brings it back to the foundations of reason and beauty. Traditional folk music allows a people to preserve its lore through art, and discover what is universal among diverse cultures.
Recently, the Schiller Chorus received the Motif Awards Fine Arts Medal for Humanitarianism and Excellence in the Arts. The awards ceremony was held at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall) on October 20, 2023. We thank all our chorus members and supporters for your participation and support over the years.
Today, the world cries out for harmony and beauty and we continue our efforts all the more to help bring that about. Your participation with a tax deductible donation will help the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus continue to bring great classical music and traditional folk music to the public. All support, large and small, makes a big difference and is greatly appreciated!
If you missed any of our recent events, please go to Past Events above.
Beethoven's Credo: Believe in a Future without War
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Symposium: The Art of the Negro Spiritual
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Who We Are
The Schiller Institute New York City Chorus began on December 20th, 2014 at a Sing-Along performance of excerpts of Handel’s Messiah. The concert had been organized in answer to the outrage over the Staten Island Grand Jury decision on the death-by-suffocation of Eric Garner, which had come in the wake of the Ferguson, MO riots, after the killing of an unarmed African-American teenager, and which threatened to create dangerous divisions and violence in the City of New York. The concert was dedicated to “The Sanctity of Every Human Life.” Tragically, just as the chorus had opened the program, singing “Dona Nobis Pacem” (Give us peace), two police officers were murdered in Brooklyn as they sat in their patrol car.
Shortly after that concert, the Manhattan Chorus began holding weekly rehearsals in whatever space could be found. In March 2016, the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus, joined by friends from New Jersey, Boston, and Virginia, was able to perform the entire Easter section of the Messiah with a chorus of over 80 members, and a professional orchestra and soloists.
The chorus quickly expanded to four rehearsal locations, Manhattan, New Jersey, Flushing and Brooklyn. In 2017 Schiller Institute Chorus performed at Carnegie Hall as part of a Centennial Tribute to Sylvia Olden Lee, and again in December 2019 for the kick-off of the year-long international celebrations for the Beethoven 250th year birth anniversary. The program included the choral movement of the 9th Symphony, with the intention of performing Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in December 2020. The March 2020 Covid lockdown temporarily ended live rehearsals, and the planned live performance of was cancelled. Nevertheless, Schiller Chorus accomplished the daunting feat of presenting a virtual choral and orchestral performance of the complete Missa Solemnis in three segments over the year ahead, with a pledge for a future live performance which still stands.
By the fall of 2020, Schiller Institute Chorus reestablished live rehearsals in Manhattan and New Jersey, and within months returned to a full concert schedule. On October 20, 2023, the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus received the Motif Awards Fine Arts Medal for Humanitarianism and Excellence in the Arts at the Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall).
The chorus is committed to creating a renaissance in the United States based on principles of Classical Composition. In music this means Italian bel canto placement of the voice at the proper scientific tuning, as advocated by Giuseppe Verdi of Middle C = 256 Hz (A no higher than 432 Hz). This campaign to return to the Verdi pitch was revived in the 1980’s by statesman Lyndon LaRouche.
The chorus is also committed to the performance of African-American Spirituals in keeping with the tradition of Hall Johnson, H.T. Burleigh and so many others, as part of the Classical tradition, and an important American contribution to great music.
You are hereby invited and encouraged, "Join the chorus!"
Watch this exciting short documentary.