New Choral Society Begins 31st Season

The New Choral Society opens their 31st season with a sold-out performance of Mozart and Bach. (Photo credit: Tony Allen Photography)Complete Success! Those two words most accurately describe the performances of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ‘s Solemn Vespers, K. 339 and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Magnificat, BWV 243 as the New Choral Society (NCS) of Scarsdale opened its 31st consecutive season on a beautiful fall afternoon last Sunday in the sanctuary of the Hitchcock Presbyterian Church on Greenacres Avenue.

One could only imagine hearing the same well-coordinated and melodious music-making in Carnegie Hall or the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. But it wasn’t. It was Scarsdale after all.

It was indeed another special NCS event all around beginning with an introduction and warm welcome by Erica Westcott Kelly, executive director, who is also an alto among the NCS singers, and well-known local photographer Tony Allen quietly snapping photos behind every pillar in the sanctuary and on the balcony.

King the Maestro

As usual, the most energetic maestro, Dr. John T. King, artistic director and conductor, who founded NCS in 1994, was leading with his baton the all-auditioned, volunteer chorus of 48 singers from Westchester County and surrounding areas, 20 members of the orchestra in different configurations for the two pieces, and four youthful-looking and strong-performing soloists.

Three of them were appearing by permission of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program of the Metropolitan Opera. All soloists had excellent and strong voices that could easily be heard throughout the sanctuary, including the balcony, as they performed in quartets, threesomes, twosomes and solo.

Attending and watching her three singers at the concert was Dr. Frayda Lindemann, who greeted them backstage following the concert. She is a trustee of Brown University, president emeritus of the Metropolitan Opera and a past chairman of Opera America. Together with her husband, the late George Lindemann, she established the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera.

Jazmine Saunders, soprano, seemed to draw a little more applause from the audience, but from the smiling faces in the audience, it was obvious that the three others were much appreciated and well received as well. They were Lindsay Martin, mezzo-soprano, Ben Reisinger, tenor, and Wm. Clay Thompson, bass.

The young lady and young man, children of one of the NCS singers, Soprano Emera LaSalle, who delivered the bouquet of flowers of appreciation to them at the end of the performance, didn’t discriminate. In a real family affair, husband John ushers for the concerts and their daughter Eleanora was the youth soloist in a previous concert.

Saunders, a soprano from Rochester, NY, currently is in her first year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. During the Met’s 2024-25 season, she will make her company debut as Barbarina in Le Nozzle di Figaro. Martin, mezzo soprano, from California, also is currently in the Lindemann program, where she will make her Met debut as the Countess Ceprano in Bartlett Sher’s production of Rigoletto.

Reisinger, a tenor also from Rochester, NY, is the third soloist from Lindemann. During the Met’s 2024-25 season he will cover the Seatwarmer in the company premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s new opera Grounded. Thompson, bass, a native of Lexington, KY, has been praised by Opera News for his “mahogany timbred voice.” During his tenure as a Ryan Opera Center artist at Lyric Opera of Chicago, he sang the roles of Zuniga in Carmen and the King in Aida.

Dr. John T. King and Dr. Frayda Lindemann backstage with soloists Wm. Clay Thompson, Lindsay Martin, Jazmine Saunders, and Ben Reisinger.

Messiah Coming in December

As always, NCS, as part of its 2024-2025 season, will usher in the holiday season with its annual performance of Handel’s Messiah, Part I on Friday, December 6 and Sunday, December 8. An evening of Chamber Music will showcase its orchestra and an all-instrumental program on Saturday, February 8, followed by the season finale of Handel’s Israel in Egypt on Sunday, May 4.

In her note to the music lovers in the event’s program, Betsy Hills Bush, the NCS President of the Board, made notice of the previously unannounced “Partners in Music” program NCS launched with a presentation at The Osborn (in Rye), when NCS screened the live HD recording of the organization’s 2022 performance of Mozart’s Requiem. She said, “’The Partners in Music’ program is our way of bringing our high-quality musical offerings to those in senior residential facilities. Anyone interested in bringing the New Choral Society’s ‘Partners in Music’ to their residential facility at no cost is encouraged to contact our office for more information.”