Madrigal Singers to Perform World Premiere at Carnegie Hall

The St. Stephen’s Episcopal School Madrigal Singers have been invited to participate in the 2019 WorldStrides Choir Festival at Carnegie Hall in New York City during spring break. The internationally acclaimed vocal ensemble will perform twice during the festival on Sunday, March 10: as part of the prestigious National Youth Choir and as a featured choir.

 

The annual WorldStrides Festival at Carnegie Hall provides the most elite choirs in the country the opportunity to perform in Isaac Stern Auditorium, the largest performance venue at Carnegie Hall. The hour-long National Youth Choir performance will be led by world-renowned conductor Anton Armstrong of St. Olaf College. St. Stephen’s Director of Choral Music Kendra Lipman will lead the Madrigal Singers’ featured performance during the concert.

 

Upholding our founders’ vision for a school community that respects and celebrates the dignity of every human being, the Madrigals Singers’ featured performance will include the world premiere of “Tree of Life.” Commissioned by the Amatius Foundation specifically for the festival, the piece is dedicated to the remembrance of last year’s victims of the l’Simcha Synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh. “Tree of Life” features text by best-selling memoirist Zenon Neumark, a fugitive in Nazi-Occupied Poland during World War II, and music by composer Sam Lipman of Austin, Texas.

 

“The work reaches for the hearts of anyone who has suffered the angst of oppression,” Lipman said. “With Pittsburgh’s victims in our hearts and minds, ‘Tree of Life’ offers us a songful prophecy that we must and will overcome such atrocities.”

 

In addition to “Tree of Life,” the Madrigal Singers’ featured performance will include thought-provoking and uplifting works by composer Jody Noblett of San Antonio, Texas, and Joan Szymko of Portland, Ore. St. Stephen’s piano instructor Jodi Blount, D.M.A., will accompany the singers.

 

The St. Stephen’s Madrigal Singers comprise a select chamber group of 15 to 20 Upper School students and maintains a varied repertoire, including early-music, classical, Broadway, pop and world cultural music. The Madrigals Singers perform numerous annual concerts on campus each year and have performed in concert halls and cathedrals as far-flung as London, Vienna and Beijing.