New Year’s Eve Toast with Rachmaninoff’s Vespers
(New York, NY)—On December 31 at 6:00 PM EST, The Clarion Choir will ring in the new year by hosting a virtual New Year’s Eve Toast with selections from Rachmaninoff’s Vespers. Clarion’s annual performances of Russian sacred music have garnered critical praise and also become a fixture for Classical music lovers on New Year’s Eve and Day. While we cannot celebrate together in person this year, we invite music lovers to join Clarion for a short online event featuring filmed performances from The Clarion Choir’s recording sessions of Rachmaninoff’s Vespers in January of 2020, and to toast the New Year with us!
Clarion’s New Year’s Eve Toast and Rachmaninoff Vespers Preview will be streamed on our website here.
One of the country’s leading professional vocal ensembles, The Clarion Choir has performed on some of the greatest stages of North America and Europe. Their recent recording of Kastalsky’s Requiem reached #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Charts, and has been nominated for a 2021 GRAMMY for Best Choral Performance. The Clarion Choir made their Lincoln Center debut in 2011, performing Bach Chorales as part of the White Light Festival with organist Paul Jacobs. In 2014, the choir gave the New York premiere of Passion Week by Maximilian Steinberg, and, in October of 2016, premiered this same work in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and London. Their performance of the work was featured on PBS, and their recording of it, the Choir’s debut recording, received a GRAMMY nomination, as well as a nomination for BBC Music Magazine’s Choral Award. The Choir’s second recording, the world premiere recording of Alexander Kastalsky’s Memory Eternal to the Fallen Heroes, also was nominated for a GRAMMY for Best Choral Performance. The Clarion Choir has performed regularly in recent years as part of the MetLiveArts series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; including performances of large-scale Renaissance works by Victoria, Palestrina, Tavener and Guerrero in the Medieval Sculpture Hall and the Met Cloisters. The Choir, and artistic director Steven Fox, have collaborated in recent years with renowned artists such as Harry Bicket and The English Concert, Eric Jacobsen and The Knights, Susan Graham, Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Madonna at the 2018 Met Gala.
