Melodia Women’s Choir at the New York Philharmonic, on WQXR, in The Wall Street Journal, in Vocal Area Network and much more…
Melodia Women’s Choir On WQXR
by Matthew Schlecht, April 15, 2017
Melodia Women’s In The New York Philharmonic New World Initiative.
by Teri Duerr, May 9, 2016
Melodia Women’s Choir features Rutter premiere in “Awakening the Spirit”
by Matthew Schlecht, April 15, 2017
Let’s face it, although temperatures were relatively mild, it was a bleak winter for many of us in the United States. But this spring, Melodia Women’s Choir is focused on hope and renewal—and, of course, music. Melodia’s spring 2017 concert, “Awakening the Spirit,” takes place on April 29 and 30 and will feature the U.S. premiere performance of English composer John Rutter’s latest work, Visions, for solo violin, choir and strings; Grace Williams’s The Dancers; and Gustav Holst’s Choral Hymns From the Rig Veda.
“To say that I’m excited about this music would be an understatement,” says Cynthia Powell, Melodia’s founding conductor and artistic director. Click here to keep reading…
Melodia Women’s Choir premieres Hilary Purrington’s Cassandra in an evening celebrating women’s stories heard and unheard
by Teri Duerr, May 9, 2016
Melodia Women’s Choir, led by Artistic Director Cynthia Powell (also the director of the Stonewall Chorale), is excited to introduce composer Hilary Purrington’s Cassandra to choral audiences this May when the choir performs the world premiere piece about the prophetess, princess and priestess Cassandra of Greek mythology. The contemporary choral work for women’s voices, percussion and piano is the fruit of a collaboration between the choir and Purrington, who was awarded Melodia’s 2015 Commission for Women Composers. Click here to keep reading…
Melodia Women’s Choir offers a little bit of Latin and a whole lot of “¡Alegría! (Joy)”
by Teri Duerr, November 20, 2015
“I’ve loved Latin American music since I was a child,” said Cynthia Powell, Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC’s Artistic Director and Conductor who will lead Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC in “¡Alegría! (Joy!)”, a program devoted entirely to Latin and Latin American-inspired music on November 21 and 22.
Performed entirely in Spanish, the program is anchored by Conrad Susa’s popular Carols and Lullabies, Christmas in the Southwest. Though the pieces for voice, harp and marimba are uniquely of Southwest America, they draw on musical traditions from Puerto Rico to Mexico, Catalonia to Andalusia, and are at turns sweet and lively. Click here to keep reading…
By women, for women: Melodia Women’s Choir competition targets women composers
by Amanda MacBlane, April 7, 2015
Women in classical music have made enormous strides since 1839, when a disenchanted Clara Schumann confided in her diary that “I once thought that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose.”
While it is no longer shocking to see women in the role of commanding soloist or orchestral musician, they are still woefully underrepresented as composers. Click here to keep reading…
Singing Sisters Smashing Success
by Damian Fowler, Summer, 2014
Melodia celebrates the Bard’s 450th with “The Poet’s Song”
by Matthew Schlecht for Vocal Area Network, April , 2014
Whether or not you accept that the Stratford-upon-Avon Englishman named William Shakespeare was responsible for some particularly good work in the form of plays and sonnets around the turn of the 17th century, Melodia Women’s Choir is ready to make you a believer. In celebration of the 450th anniversary of the Bard’s birth, Melodia presents “The Poet’s Song,” a spring concert that promises “great poetry set to great music.” Click here to keep reading…
Melodia offers “Visions of Peace”
by Matthew Schlecht for Vocal Area Network, November 19, 2013
For Melodia Women’s Choir, preparations for last year’s mid-November concert program, “Questions About Angels,” were more nerve-wracking than usual. Hurricane Sandy hit the New York and New Jersey on October 29, and thousands lost their homes, the New York City Marathon was cancelled, and many in the area still did not have their electricity back. But both performances were nearly sold out, and those who attended can attest to the healing power of music during times of crisis. Click here to keep reading…
by Matthew Schlecht for Vocal Area Network April 10, 2013
Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC is closing out its 10th anniversary season this spring with an intriguing celebration, titled “A Breath of Spring.” The choir will mark this fourth month of the year with a world premiere commission, From the Four Winds by Nina Siniakova, which also features an ensemble of four French horns, courtesy of the formidable Genghis Barbie. Click here to keep reading…
Spring 2013
BIG VOICES IN THE BIG APPLE
Jenny Clarke & Cynthia Powell & Melodia
Music for the Eyes and Oars
One Lake, 48 Rowboats, 144 Chorale Singers—What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
By Corinne Ramey June 25, 2013
On Friday afternoon, the helicopters, birds, car horns and other ambient sounds swirling around the Central Park Lake will have some competition: 144 choral singers, many of them in rowboats. Click here to keep reading…
Women At The Helm 2010
December 17, 2010
Cynthia Powell
Artistic Director, Stonewall Chorale and Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC
As the leader of Stonewall Chorale, the nation’s first LGBT chorus, and the Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC, Cynthia Powell has conducted performances for discerning New York audiences at prestigious venues like Merkin Concert Hall, BAM and Symphony Space. Powell also serves as music director and organist of West End Collegiate Church on the Upper West Side. Click here to keep reading…
A musical journey, modern and timeless:
Melodia Women’s Choir presents world premiere alongside beloved classics
Rebecca Jones for Vocal Area Network, November 2010
Later this month, when the singers of Melodia Women’s Choir present the world premiere of an a cappella composition for nine parts, they will be giving voice to the latest chapter in an extraordinarily long musical journey. It began in 1741 with the insomnia of a German count, reached its zenith at the piano of an eccentric Canadian prodigy two centuries later, and, more recently still, found its way to the pages of a gifted North Carolina teenager’s diary. Click here to keep reading…
Vivienne Schweitzer, May 22, 2008
The phrase “universal composer” is justifiably applied to Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. But the universality of Bach’s music is distinct in that many of his works can be effectively performed on different instruments, in a way that Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata can’t. Bach “cannot die,” the pianist and harpsichordist Rosalyn Tureck said in 1961. “An instrument can die, but Bach can never die.” Click here to keep reading
Evelyn Shih, Staff Writer, November 16, 2007
Imagine you are a woman at the Ospedale della Pieta, a hospital and orphanage near Venice in the 18th century. You are either the abandoned daughter of poor parents who could not afford to keep you, or the illegitimate child of a nobleman who could not afford to have your existence tarnish his name…
Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC opens ears to the world
Cynthia L. Cooper for Vocal Area Network, November 2007
Becca Schack is dressed in cargo pants and sitting on the edge of the stage with her eyes closed as Melodia Women’s Choir of New York City rehearses In My End Is My Beginning. The newly-composed work by Schack will be performed in “Sweet Interlude,” two concerts by Melodia that will be conducted by Cynthia Powell on November 17-18, 2007. Click here to keep reading
The Melodia Women’s Choir, conducted by Cynthia Powell, was chosen to perform at the New York City Department of the Comptroller’s Women of Achievement Awards in March.
Melodia Women’s Choir premieres New York composer Allison Sniffin in a concert of Latin American reflections
Cynthia L. Cooper for Vocal Area Network, November 2006
Journeys across time, geography and cultures converge when Melodia Women’s Choir premieres its new commissioned work by composer Allison Sniffin, Óyeme con los ojos (Hear Me with Your Eyes), at Merkin Hall in New York City on November 18, 2006 at 8 PM. Click here to keep reading…
This 32 woman choir performed “Shout Sister Shout” at St Peter’s in Manhattan on May 5, 2007 and was featured that morning on News Channel Four – Time Out New York. Click HERE to watch the video.
Azeri Love Song Debuts in New York
Spring 2007
The Melodia Women’s Choir of New York City performed Tofig Guliyev’s soulful love song, “Your Beauty Won’t Last Forever” [Sana Da Galmaz] in a program of song entitled “Shout Sister Shout!” at St. Peters Church, 346 West 20th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenue, in Manhattan on Saturday, May 5, 2007. Sopranist Naila Aziz arranged the piece for choir and was featured as soloist. Both Naila and the choir, as well, performed the song in Azeri. This was the U.S. premiere for this song as performed by an all-women’s choir and as a song performed by English speakers in Azeri. Click here to keep reading…
Innovation leads Melodia Women’s Choir to international exchange
Cynthia L. Cooper for Vocal Area Network, August 2005
Assembling fine singers, compiling repertoire, digging into the music are all essential steps on the path to getting an outstanding choral season rolling. But in addition to the usual, Melodia Women’s Choir of New York City is breaking out with a daring leap of innovation, kicking off its third season with an intensive three-day workshop with one of Europe’s leading choral conductors. Click here to keep reading…
Melodia Women’s Choir raises soprano and alto voices in New York City
Cynthia L. Cooper for Vocal Area Network, January 2004
Sitting as an observer in the audience of a concert during a choral convention in New York City last year, Jennifer Clarke found herself mesmerized by a group of singers that performed exquisitely with soprano and alto voices. A dedicated choral singer since childhood, Clarke appreciated the richness of classical works. But her opportunities to sing music written for treble voices were rare, usually limited to a single selection in a concert or two. And, unfortunately, joining the choral group onstage, Elektra, seemed highly unlikely: the choir is located in western Canada, and Clarke lives in New York. But the vision of a women’s choir soon resulted in Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC, a choral group that Clarke founded as a nonprofit organization in late summer 2003 to perform classical music for women’s voices to a high standard of excellence. Click here to keep reading…
Women’s Choral Groups Raise Their Voices
Ann Farmer, Women’s eNews correspondent, May 2004
As the numbers of women’s choral groups increase, many are jettisoning the old pattern of playing second fiddle to mixed-voices choirs. Instead, they’re opting to sing music by and for women.
Just in New York City alone, three new women’s choral groups sprang up in the last year, says Jennifer Clarke, founder and president of Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC, a 20-member ensemble that makes its debut performance on May 17 at the landmark St. Peter’s Church in Manhattan. Clarke says women’s choral groups are burgeoning across the United States and “reinvigorating an age-old tradition where people from all walks of life come together to sing and to explore something they love.” Click here to keep reading…