Concord Women’s Chorus performs at Carnegie Hall

November 20, 2023

Concord Women’s Chorus, fostering the power of women’s voices in song, recently participated in a 23-ensemble performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City. 

The concert featured CWC’s singers in Vivaldi’s “Gloria,” led by Guest Conductor Nancy Menk, a work appearing on the chorus’s own winter concert program in December

“We were thrilled to be selected to join with so many other talented women for this extraordinary concert.” said s Elizabeth Hoermann, CWC’s president. “Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’ is one of the most beloved choral works. This may very well have been the premier performance of the work for treble voices in legendary Carnegie Hall.”

The NYC concert also served as the world premiere of Composer Ola Gjeilo’s “Twilight Mass.” The two-act performance was presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York as a Premiere Project commission concert.

Concord Women’s Chorus’s singers took the Perlman Stage in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium on November 13, opening the concert to perform Vivaldi’s “Gloria” together with 120 fellow singers from across the globe. The singers offered a rarely performed treble (women’s) voices arrangement, accompanied by the Distinguished Concerts Orchestra. Conductor 

“It is presumed that this work was originally written for a choir of young women’s voices, although it is now primarily performed by mixed choirs,” Menk said. “Gloria” also featured soloists Diana McVey, soprano and Emily Hughes, mezzo-soprano.

The concert’s second act featured Gjeilo’s world premiere commission, performed by hundreds of worldwide singers, also with orchestra, and Gjeilo himself on piano, led by DCINY Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Jonathan Griffith, which CWC members enjoyed from the audience.

Concord Women’s Chorus offers a local performance of Vivaldi’s signature “Gloria” accompanied by strings, organ, oboe, and soloists, in its upcoming concert “A Celebration of Glorias,” on Saturday, December 16, 4 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 81 Elm St., Concord, conducted by CWC Artistic Director Jane Ring Frank  The program includes a stunning and rhythmic “Festival Gloria” from composer Craig Courtney, and Gjeilo’s collection of luminous works for women’s voices, piano, and string quartet.

Tickets to “A Celebration of Glorias” are $30 adults, $25 seniors and students, $10 children ages 12 and under,  available at concordwomenschorus.org and at the door.  Trinity Episcopal Church is fully accessible.  For more information, or to join Concord Women’s Chorus, email manager@concordwomenschorus.org, visit concordwomenschorus.org, and follow Concord Women’s Chorus on Facebook and Instagram.