GCHS Chamber Choir To Sing At Lincoln Center

The Garden City High School Chamber Choir, led by Robert Ludwig, will be joining the choirs from three other Long Island high schools in a performance of Beethoven's masterful Ninth Symphony at Lincoln Center on June 10th at 5 PM.

On Sunday, June 10, at 5 PM, The Garden City High School Chamber Choir will perform with three other Long Island high school choirs and the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York in a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The Garden City ensemble will be joined by choirs from Glen Cove, Herricks and North Shore high schools, as well as the Young New Yorkers' Chorus of Manhattan. The groups have rehearsed together for several weeks in preparation for the concert event. Also on the program will be the world premiere performance of the Second Symphony by Long Island composer, Jerome Shedd.

The Garden City High School Chamber Choir is an auditioned ensemble that is one of four curricular choirs at the school. The choir is conducted by Robert Ludwig, and Student Director of 2006-2007 is senior Ryan Torino. The choir's broad repertoire ranges from European motets and madrigals to folksongs sung in Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and various African languages. They also regularly sing American and European art music composed within the last decade and have presented programs of staged opera scenes. In 2002, they commissioned and presented the premiere performance of "Spirit," by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Paul Moravec. The 20 minute work for chorus, tenor soloist, two pianos and orchestra tells the story of the flight of the Spirit of St. Louis through the words of Charles Lindbergh. The GCHS Chamber Choir has presented concerts in a number of prestigious venues, including Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal; Bruton Parish Church, Williamsburg; Walt Disney World; and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Garden City High School has experienced a more than 400% growth in participation in music ensembles over the past decade, including a 650% growth in the choral ensembles. It has been selected at a Grammy Signature School Finalist for the past three years, and was chosen in 2005 by American Music Conference as one of the 100 best communities in the U.S. for music education. The district Coordinator for Music and the Arts is Mr. James P. McCrann, Principal is Dr. Frank Banta, and Superintendent of Schools is Dr. Robert Feirsen.

Robert Ludwig

Robert Ludwig, conductor of the Garden City High School Chamber Choir, served as a full-time organist and choirmaster for twenty-three years at Lexington Kentucky's Christ Church Cathedral and Garden City New York's Cathedral of the Incarnation before becoming a full-time teacher in 2000. He holds degrees in music from Davidson College and Yale University and served on the Fulbright Screening Committee for Organ and Harpsichord. He has served as Professor of Church Music at Mercer School of Theology and has been a member of the Board of the New York American Choral Directors Association since 2000. He is currently head of vocal music and music theory programs at Garden City High School and is Minister of Music at Garden City Community Church where he conducts five choirs. Mr. Ludwig has conducted choirs in notable liturgical venues includingWashingtonNational Cathedral, St. Thomas Church (NYC), Christ Church Cathedral (Montreal), Wells Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral andSt. Paul's Cathedral (London). He has collaborated with world-renowned classical singers and instrumentalists and has also made a specialty of performing the music of American song writers such as Porter, Gershwin, Kern, Loewe, Sondheim, and Rodgers.

For ticket information call CenterCharge at 212-721-6500 or online at www.lincolncenter.org. Auditions for the youth orchestra and choirs take place in this month for next year's ensembles. For audition information and applications go online to www.myo.org.