The Episcopal Church St. Michael in New York City has five choirs : The Angel Choir (the youngest set of training) ; The Saint Cecilia Choir (children of the Middle School) ; The High School Choir ; Professional Octet (a select group of highly qualified professional singers) ; and semi-professional adult choir St. Michael (adult mixed voice choir).

A rich tradition of choral music, covering over a millennium and multiple cultures is explored in St. Michael, including a wide variety of American music art forms. Choral music is heard every Sunday at Mass and Compline on Wednesday night.

Our concert tour has four of the five sets of St. Michael. They will perform together as a group and in individual sets. The message that we share on this tour is that of religious tolerance, peace and love for each other. The program will mainly before American composers.

The choir accompanied on the organ by John Edward Cantrell, choirmaster and organist at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. Student Thomas Murray, Jean Martin, Melvin Dickinson, he holds a Master of Music from Yale University, and has performed in the United States, England, Ireland, Holland, Germany, Sweden, and France, as a soloist, accompanist, conductor.

The choir is under the direction of Jonathan De Vries, who is the music director of the three youth choirs at St. Michael church.

In November 2014, Mr De Vries directed Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, incorporating students talented soloists, professional singers and a professional chamber orchestra drawn from the best musicians in New York.

He also directed The Little Prince (Rachel Portman), Alice in Wonderland (Robert Chauls), and Noye Fludde (Benjamin Britten). In 2013, he collaborated with the folk singer and composer Peter Galperin to record basic tracks for her single Travlin ‘Home.

Sets of Mr. De Vries also occurred at Carnegie Hall, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, to the church of the Heavenly Rest, on tour in Washington DC, at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford – Great Britain.

Mr. De Vries is the conductor of the Canterbury Choral Society in New York.

Born in Chartres, at the age of 8 Nicolas LHOSTE began singing in the choir of the Cathedral of Chartres and studying piano and clarinet at the Conservatory of Chartres. He continued his training in other choirs such as the Maîtrise of Hauts-de-Seine or the Opera Children’s Choir of Paris and participating in major operas (La Bohème, Pagliacci, Othello, Turandot) and meeting figures of music (Jon Vickers, Luciano Pavarotti, Michel Plasson). He is formed for the song by Francis Bardot and Roger Thirot.

Past male voice he continues to sing in various formations (Choir of the French Army, Choir or French Opera), and creates in 1991 the Ensemble Fulbert (male choir specializing in early music).

Today he sings in sets variable workforce as “Christopher Simpson Consort” or “Musica Sacra” for the Baroque repertoire or “The Maurache” for the medieval repertoire. He is regularly hired as extra in the opera houses of France (Montpellier Opera, Opera de Strasbourg) and working with big names in music (F.-R. Duchable, R. Alagna, T. Koopman, J.-C. Casadessus, L. Foster, A. Altinoglu…).

Holder of the professional card cantor, in 2006 the Rector of the Cathedral of Chartres gave him the post of cantor and musical coordinator.

He regularly participates in official ceremonies and commemorative of the city of Chartres. Nicolas Lhoste was promoted Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in February 2015.

After his beginnings in the semi-professional choir of High-Brittany directed by Jean-Michel Noël, Olivier MICHEL joined the chorus of the opera of Rennes.

Graduate of musicology, he continues his vocal formation with Catherine Cardin and enriches his technique with Patrick Vilet, of which he attends masterclass.

In parallel, this baritone impassions himself for the hymn, supports maîtrisiens projects, raises voices of adult and voices of children, as a craftsman of the breath. Its class of song is open since 2010, mainly in the shade of arrows of the cathedral of Chartres.

Having begun the oboe with Hervé Lenoble then with Catherine Coquet in CRD of Chartres, Guillaume DAVID intends himself for scientific studies in engineering school in Belfort.

But he returns then to the music and so obtains its DEM in Chartres. He integrates the Upper Music pole of Lille where he studies at present with Baptiste Gibier, oboe soloist of the ONL.

The French baritone Jean-Louis SERRE, began his career at an early age in the boys’ choir at his school. He later studied at the Tûbingen and Heidelberg Universities, Germany, but was soon drawn back by his love for music and studied singing at the Paris Conservatoire, (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris), where he studied with Jane Berbié, Rémy Corazza and Marie Claire Cottin ; after which he very quickly joined the musical profession.

Of all the singing repertoire, it is on the operatic stage that Jean-Louis Serre demonstrates his wonderful singing and acting talents and his captivating stage presence.
He makes regular appearances at the Paris concert halls (Le Châtelet, Les Champs Élysées, l’Opéra Comique) and also in Nancy, Toulouse, Tours, Avignon, Angers, St Étienne and the “Grand Théâtre” Geneva, where his unique vocal timbre and strong stage presence are always highly praised.

His approach to Oratorio is highly enthusiastic and intensely personal ; his early experience in the boys’ choir giving him great insight into this repertoire.
He sings with both well known professional and amateur orchestras alike, including: Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre National de Lille, Choeur de Radio France, etc…. Among works he has performed are : Brahms’s German Requiem, Duruflé’s and Fauré’s Requiems; the Cantatas, Passions and Masses by Johann Sebastian Bach, Rossini and Mendelssohn…

Jean-Louis SERRE has worked with Marc Minkowski, Christophe Rousset, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Hervé Niquet, Philippe Herreweghe…

He has starred as Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen, and as the Count in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro”. He has formerly appeared in Verdi’s Don Carlo at the Orange Music Festival, Puccini’s Mme Butterfly at Avignon ; also at the Avignon Festival in the musical comedy Titanic by Yeston, and in Nantes in Viva la Mamma by Donizetti. He made his stage début in Geneva’s Grand Théâtre as Aeneas in “Dido and Aeneas” by Purcell, conducted by Hervé Niquet. He has also taken part in a Moscow production based on the La Fontaine Tales by Lecoq, Offenbach and d’Ormesson. As well as these engagements he has frequently performed sacred music.

He is singing teacher certified to the CRD of the Val Maubuée and a professor of opera in the CRM of Levallois.

The choir “El Orfeón Valdeorrés” was created in 1979 at the initiative of the Culture Department of the City of O Barco de Valdeorras (Orense) in Spain.

The Choral Society has participated in numerous competitions, including the National Contest of San Vicente de la Barquera (Cantabria), where it won the award for best performance or the International Habaneras and Polyphony Competition in Torrevieja (Alicante).

The Charlottesville High School Orchestra has won top prizes in music festivals in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Williamsburg, Orlando, Dallas, Myrtle Beach, and London, England, and has performed by invitation at five VMEA conferences.
The CHSO String Ensemble performed in the Florence International Youth Festival in June 2011, and also presented concerts in Tarquinia and Poggio a Caiano, Italy. The Orchestra earned a standing ovation for its performance at the opening concert of the 1994 Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago.
Traveling for 10 days in Europe in 1998, the Orchestra placed second in the 27th Annual Youth and Music Festival in Vienna, Austria, and presented concerts in Hallstatt, Vienna, and Prague, Czech Republic.  In June of 2014, the CHSO String Ensemble performed for a standing room only crowd in Charlottesville’s Sister City of Besançon, France, as well as at Chartres Cathedral and the American Cathedral in Paris.
The CHS Orchestra program consists of the String Ensemble and Concert Orchestra. In addition, the CHS Symphony Orchestra is created for one concert each year by combining the top members of the CHS Wind Ensemble with the CHS Strings.
Comprised of 52 10th–12th grade string players, the String Ensemble is the more advanced of the two. The larger Concert Orchestra is made up of all ninth grade string players with at least two years of experience, as well as many upperclassmen.

Founded by Alexander Minchenko in 2004, the ensemble of soloists “Cyrillique” is a sextet consisting of opera singers, all from the National Conservatory of St. Petersburg, with extensive experience recitals in concert halls and on stages opera.

The group consisting of soloists, it allows him to interpret soprano solos, mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass, accompanied by singing of the group.

In 2008 the whole “Cyrillique” won the International Competition “The world singing” St Petersburg, obtaining the 1st prize and the prize for the best performance of sacred works.

Aiming to bring across Europe Russian musical culture, the whole “Cyrillique” sings a capella, continuing the Russian traditions of group singing.

It includes in its most beautiful works of Russian sacred music repertoire, works by contemporary composers of St. Petersburg, as well as original arrangements of tunes and popular songs that are part of Russian folk heritage.

Since its creation “Cyrillique” thus occurs regularly in France.

http://cyrillique-ensemble.com/