YPC of NYC Blog

Japan Tour Rehearsals Continue

2009-07-01T13:04:00.007-05:00

YPC heads to Japan in less than two weeks! Today's rehearsal was the third day in a row that the chorus has been working with the choreographer. Things seem to be really coming together. Check out the picture of some dancing in-action!

Mrs. Onoyama was there for more Japanese language lessons as was the crew from the Japanese broadcast company, NHK. They were prepping for the filming they will be doing at next Thursday's rehearsal to be broadcast live on Good Morning Japan! They are doing a special segment about YPC and the Japan tour. The newscaster and the producer had the chance to ask some of the choristers questions about why the chorus is important to them and what opportunities it has given them. It will be exciting to see the segment air next week (even though it will be in Japanese, so must of us won't be able to understand it!).

YPC travels to Ithaca!

2009-06-29T22:13:00.002-05:00

Thirty-six choristers from Cantare, Concert Chorus, and Young Men traveled upstate to Ithaca, NY to join the Ithaca Children's Choir (ICC) as the resident chorus for Choral Music Experience (CME), led by Janet Galvan and featuring guest artist Kathy Armstrong.

We arrived in Ithaca on Sunday night. Sophia and Amy were heading up the trip, along with Cara Bernard and our chaperones Shannon Comp and Iris Harrison -- and Steve the bus driver. The YPC choristers were off to their home-stay families -- some staying in pairs, and one house taking as many as seven of our choristers!

Today was our first official day of CME. We started the day off at 9 a.m. with a joint rehearsal with the Ithaca Children's Choir -- the choristers enjoyed a slow, relaxed warm-up and rehearsed through several pieces with Ithaca College professor Dr. Jennifer Haywood before going to work on their African drumming and dance with guest Kathy Armstrong. This was definitely the high point of the day, as Kathy taught them some call-and-response patterns - using their voices, their bodies, and the drums. Janet then led the entire group in an open rehearsal for all of the graduate conducting participants to observe.

After lunch, the participants took their turns in a conducting master class. YPC and ICC choristers gave some fantastic feedback to the participants as they each conducted a piece; Janet worked with them on their gesture and style.

After our long day full of singing, drumming, movement, and campus dining hall food, we went swimming for an hour (indoors, because it was raining...it always seems to rain in Ithaca!)
before enjoying a pizza party and heading off to the host families for night #2.

We are working towards a workshop concert on Friday afternoon -- some of our YPC parents are even going to drive up to see the culmination of all we're working on this week! More to come tomorrow......signing off for now! - Sophia

Japan Rehearsals are in Full Swing!

2009-06-29T12:00:00.006-05:00

Friday was the first "official" Japan Tour rehearsal. After a strenuous 5 hour long recording session the evening before (for the upcoming YPC album, It Is Possible), some of the choristers took Friday rehearsal off, but those that were there were ready to get down to business.

Below: Zach, Will, Haru, and Lindsay pour over a map of Japan before rehearsal starts.

YPC Board Member Mrs. Onoyama was at the rehearsal to help everyone with the pronunciation and meaning of the Japanese pop song "Letters" they will be singing while on tour. The song is about the letter a teenage girl writes to herself that is given back to her 30 years later as an adult. It is a beautiful song and is very popular right now with young people in Japan so is sure to be a hit on the tour. Mrs. Onoyama complimented everyone in the chorus for their ability to pick up the words quickly. Must be all the music training!

Stay tuned for more updates on this week's rehearsals!

Spring Concert!

2009-06-22T11:42:00.008-05:00

Saturday night's Spring Concert was a great success! All five chorus divisions performed to a sold out crowd at the beautiful Kaufmann Concert Hall at the 92nd Street Y.

This concert was a particularly special event because it was the graduation ceremony for all of the YPC's graduating seniors this year, many of whom have been with the YPC for up to 10 years!!!

The audience was made up of old and young; family and friends; new fans and long-time supporters alike. It was truly an inspiring and exciting night of music for all of those performing and in attendance.

Some program highlights included:

-Prelude had the crowd laughing and smiling along with their performance of Hard Knock Life from Annie- definitely a crowd favorite!

-Intermezzo's performance of Pie Jesu from Andrew Lloyd Weber's Grammy Award winning Requiem Mass was truly beautiful.

-The crowd was breathless after Cantare's performance of Richard Strauss' An der shonen blauen Donau. Their mastery of German was quite impressive!

-The Young Men's performance of the South African freedom song, Tshotsholoza, gave the audience a feeling of hope and joy.

-Concert Chorus performed Picaflor Esmeralda from the YPC commissioned work Two Mountain Songs by Gabriela Lena Frank.

-Chorale's performance of It Is Possible by Eric Dozier was an inspiring performance and the audience seemed deeply connected to the song and the performers.

-The Combined Choruses sang two songs together: Take Me To The Water and Oye and every foot in the audience was tapping at some point during those two songs (many hands were clapping and more than a few people were singing along too!).

What a great concert and congratulations to all the Choristers and especially, the graduating seniors!

Conversing with the composer - Bruce Adolphe

2009-06-14T17:07:00.001-05:00

Bruce Adolphe and I are sitting in the audience or Bergan PAC listening to an amazing quartet of young players (ages ca. 14) discussing which movement and quarter number this is, from the infamous Shostakovich.

Bruce went up to help the quartet with their tuning and tempo, they are doing a great job! (Francisco)

* * *

The piece I wrote for this 25^th anniversary concert is very hard: the rhythms are tricky, and two of the movements are predominately in 11/16. (Francisco asked me why 11/16 instead of ¾ , which is 12/16, and I admitted that in these hard economic times, I simply had to save some notes, so I took one 1/16 out of every bar. He believed me!)

It is really amazing to hear kids ages 8 to 18 playing and singing such a difficult work. I suppose I could have made it easier, but the tricky rhythms are a part of my nature, and my music wouldn’t be mine if the rhythms didn’t swing and bounce in a certain way – perhaps it is from growing up in New York and always weaving my through traffic and dodging danger. So I had no choice but to make the piece tricky. To see kids playing this is a great thrill. Two weeks ago, Yo-Yo Ma premiered a huge piece I wrote for him called Self Comes to Mind, and he played it amazingly & brilliantly including lots of very tricky rhythms. But hey! He’s Yo-Yo Ma not a 10 year-old kid whose been playing for 6 years! So, yeah that was great, but this is amazing! Also, need I say that the YPCNYC is fantastic and is singing this piece beautifully and accurately. They seem very far away in this huge theater, especially when the orchestra is in front of them --- so it is difficult to negotiate the acoustics, but I’m sure they will rise to the occasion and sing the place apart! By the way, Elizabeth Nunez (why are so many of the YPC conductors named Nunez, anyway?) is wonderful – very musical, inspiring, clear, and almost as pretty as Francisco, wait -- I mean prettier! I have to thank Elizabeth for taking on such a hard piece. Apparently Francisco was a little concerned about those 11/16 bars, so he made her do it. But she is fine with it. So thank YPCNYC and thanks, too, to the amazing young instrumentalists of the Thurnauer School of Music who are playing Music Is so beautifully and full of energy! Also – young Chase Park, a 10 year-old cellist, plays a solo in my piece along with the chorus and piano. He is such a marvel, and I am sure we will be seeing him on the great stages of the world very soon. ( Hey Yo-Yo watch out for Chase!)

Bruce

Music melts…

2009-06-14T16:36:00.001-05:00

Time to move on to the next movement… Music Melts. Just piano and chorus for this one. Once again, we are hearing the sounds of YPC’s Cantare Division, the Thurnauer School of Music Senior Chorus, and the Thurnauer School of Music orchestra. And this is Sophia Miller bringing you our live blog as the rehearsal goes on…

The strings and percussion join us as we move on to Sarasate Said. More instruments joining the orchestration means we are having difficulty hearing the chorus again. Francisco goes on stage to work with the chorus, reminding them to sing out and to fix their posture as well.

Time for the chorus to take a break as we rehearse a movement with guitar and solo violin. Bruce gives some notes before Elizabeth takes the podium one more time (we had a podium brought onto the stage – everyone can see Elizabeth much more easily now!)

Some conferencing about placement of music stands between Bruce and the stagehands…

Just ten minutes left in the rehearsal before a dinner break!

I often think in music…

Rehearsing I Often Think In Music. Elizabeth stops – she wants a faster tempo (faster tempo seems to be the theme of the day…?)

One of the children from the orchestra is soloing on the cello – he is doing a beautiful job. His instrument sings with Bruce’s running eighth notes as he alternates between arco and pizzicato. I think this one might be my favorite movement – the chorus sings a beautiful lyrical melody, sometimes in unison, sometimes breaking into three parts.

You are the music, while the music lasts

Final movement of the rehearsal – just four minutes left! Lou takes the podium one more time for this movement.

Back to those familiar running sixteenth notes from the marimba as the chorus sings the words, “You are the music, while the music lasts.”

From one movement to the next, Bruce’s piece brings excitement and anticipation, as well as some haunting melodies and beautiful sounds from both the chorus and the orchestra. Looking forward to tonight’s performance, 7 p.m. at the Bergen PAC!

YPC Cantare "Music Is"

2009-06-14T16:05:00.000-05:00

4:37

Some of the younger children have left the stage and we are now prepared to begin Bruce Adolphe’s piece, “Music Is.”

The orchestra begins the piece under Lou’s baton, and the chorus sits. We hear motives in this first movement that we will later hear with the text. Sixteenth note patterns emerge from the marimba as the entire orchestra crescendos – a sforzando as we hear a new musical theme. These children are amazing musicians! Can’t wait to hear the movements with both chorus and orchestra.

Bruce speaks with Lou briefly after this first movement, and here we go with another run-through after some notes for the marimba, and some notes on tempo. Lou runs a few measures and looks to Bruce – Bruce nods in approval, but still needs a faster tempo.

4:49 p.m.

Elizabeth has taken the baton and we are now hearing the first movement in this piece that includes both chorus and orchestra: Music Is. It is difficult to hear the chorus – Bruce suggests we raise the lid on the piano, and asks the marimba player to play more softly. “You’d be surprised…” he says, “It is very loud. You can be a little quieter.” Meanwhile, Elizabeth tells the chorus she can use more – and while some of the younger children have left the stage, the chorus singing Bruce’s piece is still made up of YPC’s Cantare and the older children from the Thurnauer School of Music.

Elizabeth works on transitions as Francisco snaps some photos of the chorus – the balance of sound is beginning to improve.

(By the way, we interrupt the music to bring you this special announcement: if you’re parked in the South Right parking lot, please move your car or it will be towed.)

4:55 p.m.

Starting Music Is from the top one more time – Bruce asks the chorus to be mindful of holding their notes full value, and reminds the orchestra members not performing in this movement to make sure they stay still. Some of them are getting a little bit restless…

We can definitely hear the changes in balance – the marimba is playing more softly, the piano is more prominent…but we could still use a bit more of the voices. Moving on…

YPC Cantare at the Dress Rehearsal (Bergan PAC)

2009-06-14T16:02:00.002-05:00

4:24 p.m.

We are here at the Bergen PAC in Englewood, New Jersey with 37 members of YPC’s Cantare Division, performing with the Thurnauer School of Music.

The full chorus, including Cantare and many children from the Thurnauer School of Music, is on stage right now with the school’s orchestra. They are rehearsing Francisco’s “Three Dominican Folksongs.” Elizabeth began the rehearsal, and now the orchestra’s conductor, Lou Kousma, is continuing the rehearsal. He keeps checking with Francisco about balance as Francisco listens from several locations throughout the hall. At first it was difficult to hear the chorus over the orchestra, but with some rehearsing the balance has improved!

4:32 p.m.

Still working on “Three Dominican Folksongs” – trying the third movement, Arroz con leche. This time, we’re going to take it more up-tempo – instead of conducting in 3, let’s try conducting in 1. A bit of improvement as Lou looks back at Francisco – still needs to be a little faster! Better. Elizabeth is speaking to the chorus – she tells them we need a brighter tone, and stronger consonants. She demonstrates for them and they make improvements for the next run-through. Much better!

Radio Radiance ends

2009-06-02T19:43:00.003-05:00

You've been watching Radio Radiance, created by Francisco Nunez and the Young People's Chorus of New York City live from WNYC's Jerome Greene Performance Space.

Watch for our podcasts of this event on www.ypc.org soon!

Thank you for sharing this time with us!

Two Mountain Songs

2009-06-02T19:24:00.003-05:00

Now we've come to Gabriela Lena Frank's Two Mountain Songs. Gaby says that this is based on the poetry of the Andes, which dominates a large part of South America and was once inhabited by the Inca. This piece is based on an old Inca poem. The Inca, says Gaby, "ate everything," including language. The poems were collected by Jose Maria Arguedes using the Quecha language of these Inca mountain people.

So far, says John, we've heard the voice sounding like anything from transportation to machines. Here, says Gaby, she plays on the sound of echoes. If you were there on the Andes, you would hear a kind of hum. So one group here will tell the story and another will hum, and still another will sound the echo.

The second song has more of a rhythm. Listen to picaflor (hummingbird), where the person is asking the hummingbird to carry back a letter to his parents. The sound imitates the sound of pan pipes, also a distinct musical instrument of the Andes.

Everthing about this song, she says, is about lung power, about stamina. Here we go with Gaby Frank's Two Mountain Songs, live from WNYC.

Three Heavens and Hell, Movement 5

2009-06-02T19:04:00.003-05:00

Awesome! We took the Crosstown M42 twice! The kids in the audience really had fun, and Francisco's asking them to identify the sounds.

Next up: the amazing Meredith Monk, our in-house Genius (as in MacArthur). This is a first for Meredith -- the first work she's ever done with words. The words are from a poem by then 10-year old Tennessee Reed, daughter of author Ishmail Reed. It goes this way:

"There are 3 heavens and hells, people heaven and hell, animal heaven and hell, things heaven and hell. What's the difference? There is none."

Meredith says she doesn't usually use words, but just voice, because the voice in itself speaks to the heart. So she chose a poem with very few words. The voice is also about the body, and Meredith says she wants YPC to groove!

It's all about the sound, she says. This is the "things" section. This is "thing hell," when things go out of control.

But as you can see, this awesome live performance is anything but.

Here we go: Meredith Monk singing with YPC! And it's all live!

Crosstown M42

2009-06-02T18:44:00.002-05:00

Did you guys listen to that!!??!! Liement me deport is such a haunting piece. The performance got rousing applause from our young (and not so young) audience, and so did Eve.

Now Robert is explaining what his piece, Crosstown M42, is about. He's having the kids do some of the sounds and they're all having fun. "Teaching kids to hyperventilate through internet technology," quips John. He's introducing Robert and Fred now, explaining what "foley" is. Fred is doing some foley sounds to the great amusement of the kids.

The story behind this piece goes something like this: Robert and Fred took the M42 across Manhattan and they didn't really know what to, except that there were all those sounds that they found so interesting ("back door!!! back door!!!"). They decided to mix the music they heard along the way (e.g. sitar) with the sounds, then get a choir to try all these sounds (that choir being YPC).

So Fred sent Robert a piece with all these sounds he recreated on a computer, and Robert wondered what he could do to lift it to another level. His idea: at each stop, they would hear some kind of music. Music and sound effects = a new kind of music lifted as metaphor, so that when you get on the bus again, says Fred, you think about the music. You think about the sounds, says Robert, in a musical way.

The real message of the piece: If you see something, sing something. For those of you outside of NYC, this is a pun on the paranoid Metro bus message after 9/11 (if you see something, say something).

Here we go, Crosstown M42!

Machaut in the Machine Age: Liement me deport

2009-06-02T18:22:00.004-05:00

This is a beautiful, haunting piece which Eve based on the words and music of 14th century trouvere, Guillaume de Machaut. Eve's idea was to give this work a contemporary "techno" feel, bringing the 14th century to the 21st.

Eve is such a groundbreaking, cutting edge composer, so very downtown NYC and so hip. What's interesting is that Machaut himself was the cutting edge composer of his time, forerunner of Ars Nova, and turning the current music of his time on its head and introducing what would be known as isorhythm, introducing more complex rhythms and structures, often repeating patterns and manipulating them. Sounds familiar, no? Today it would be sort of like sampling.

In the same vein, Eve takes this music and does a Machaut. She takes one line from Machaut and spreads it out in four layers. She's now explaining the song to the children, about wanting what you don't have. The best way to get what you don't have, she says, is to be clear about wanting it.

Actually, for anyone who's ever had his or her heart broken (and who hasn't?), Machaut is the man. Unrequited love was his forte, and his ideas of lamentation for the beloved sounds contemporary even today. Even Dante was profoundly influenced by this guy -- check out Dante's La Vita Nuova.

Eve is explaining what we've done earlier -- we've recorded two versions, and now we're recording the song live.

Here it is: Liement me deport. Eve's translation: Smile when your heart is breaking.

Back live on the web

2009-06-02T18:17:00.004-05:00

We are back live on the web, at www.wnyc.org/thegreenespace.

You can see Francisco wowing our Satellite School children from PS75 (Upper West Side) and PS268 (Crown Heights, Brooklyn). He's introduced Eve, Meredith, Gaby, Robert and Fred to the special guests and he's been talking about each composer's piece so they'll have an idea what the show will be all about.

F. has also introduced John Schaefer to the kids. We'll go to live performance very soon.

Amy is now introducing the 4 pieces to the kids, explaining their elements and structure, and how the sounds and voices are being put together. As she does so, our choristers are coming on stage (the girls are now wearing their signature YPC scarves).

We will perform Eve's piece first.

Our Satellite School kids are here

2009-06-02T18:08:00.003-05:00

Our Satellite school children from PS75 and PS268 are now in the hall, and Francisco is asking each one to go around and introduce themselves. These are some really spritely kids and we're all having fun getting acquainted with them.

Also in the house tonight: our conductors Elizabeth Nunez, Amy Kotsonis, and Sophia Miller, who also teach at our Satellite Schools.

Also here are Linda Golding, YPC's artistic advisor, Shelly White, our listening guide writer/consultant, and Angela Duryea, our publicity manager. And our tireless production staff, Nicole Arbes and Dena Tasse-Winter.

John's also here now, and ready to start the show. He says the interviews went really well. They'll all be available online when YPC posts all the episodes online on our web site.

The composers are now chatting with the children, telling them about their background and what schools they went to and what music meant to them. These kids are so into the music that many of them, we hope, will become singers or composers as well.

We will go live with our performances soon. Stay with us!

Gaby Frank's post

2009-06-02T18:02:00.004-05:00

YPC is awesome! And a total composer's dream -- I'm having a blast here at the radio studio, my second time to work with the singers, and most definitely hope this won't be my last. As I'm listening to these guys work on their music, my brain's getting flooded with ideas for future songs. YPC's my new muse.

(...Now, I'm going to grab six inches of Subway sandwich in the Green Room before all the food is gone...)

Posted by Gabriela Lena Frank, composer

Radio Radiance!

2009-06-02T17:56:00.003-05:00

Radio Radiance is so much fun! We're meeting people like Gabriela Lena Frank and Eve Beglarian, and we're having a a great time singing their pieces. What a great experience, and the pieces sound great. The new WNYC studios are gorgeous! This is going to be one fantastic concert, and I can't wait to hear it on the radio!

Posted by Will Cabaniss, Concert Chorus

Short break, then we go live

2009-06-02T17:51:00.001-05:00

We are taking a short break (the choristers need to get some food!!) and will be back soon. Our Satellite School children will be coming in to watch the live performance. Stay tuned, the real show is about to begin.

Two Mountain Songs

2009-06-02T17:44:00.004-05:00

Francisco has the kids practicing their Spanish before getting into the song, to make sure enunciation is perfect. We're singing the first of the two songs now. They've actually performed this live at our gala, so this one should be a cinch for the chorus. Even so, knowing what a perfectionist F. is... :-)

Gabriela Lena Frank in the house

2009-06-02T17:37:00.003-05:00

We are now rehearsing Gabriela Lena Frank's Two Mountain Songs, and Gaby is in the house! This work has our choristers breathing the way pan pipe players of the Andes do, and it's a beautiful, lyrical song based on the region's poetry.

Remember, we are also live on the WNYC webstream. Stay tuned, all 4 works will be performed in a while, with John Schaefer chatting with the composers.

Still live from WNYC

2009-06-02T17:27:00.005-05:00

We are live blogging Radio Radiance from WNYC. Meredith's Three Heavens and Hells is still in rehearsal, and yes, we're behind schedule (for the actual live performance with John Schaefer).

You can see how this piece is shaping up by going to www.wnyc.org/thegreenespace.

Stay with us, there's much more to come.

Meredith's 3 Heavens and Hells in rehearsal

2009-06-02T17:12:00.002-05:00

If you've been following our live webcast, you can see how complex and challenging the music we're performing is. This is what makes YPC unique -- no easy pieces here. YPC commissions some of the most cutting edge music on the planet, more so because they're music for young people's voices.

We scheduled our rehearsals so we'd be moving from extremely difficult to relatively easy. But the degrees of difficulty are a little subtle, no?

Meredith's piece has our choristers using her now famous extended vocal technique. It's really pushing our voices to their extreme possibilities.

Live performance of all 4 works coming in 15 minutes. Stay tuned.

Meredith Monk is in the house

2009-06-02T17:02:00.002-05:00

And she's in a blazing red sweater and looks so absolutely cool. She's going to be performing with our choristers (the way she did at our gala concert at Alice Tully). She looks like one of our children! (Oops. Don't know if she'll like that...)

Stay tuned. We are blogging live from WNYC.

Meredith Monk is next

2009-06-02T17:00:00.001-05:00

Crosstown M42 went perfectly! We are now assembling to practice Meredith Monk's Three Heavens and Hell.

Stay tuned. Live webcast will continue in a moment: www.wnyc.org/thegreenespace

Robert Kapilow and Fred Newman in the house!

2009-06-02T16:41:00.005-05:00

Robert and Fred have joined us and we're doing double conducting. Robert's conducting the foley group with Fred adding more guidance. Francisco is conducting the other groups.

Robert's a live wire! And Fred is doing a cameo, filling in for one of our boys who couldn't make it (swine flu? hope not...)

We're 2 hours behind schedule, F. reminds everyone, so we better get this right, right now.