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Gregg Smith Singers
42 Custer Avenue
Yonkers, NY 10701
or call: (914) 376-8899
email: greggroz1@aol.com
Dear Friends,
Our season is different this year. The Gregg Smith Singers have received from the National Endowment for the Arts one of the prestigious American Masterpieces awards. Only six of these awards were given this year and I am proud that the Gregg Smith Singers, due to our history of performances of American music, has been one of the chosen. It is a great honor for us – and enables us to create a unique festival of concerts.
We have subtitled our festival “The Gregg Smith Singers Legacy.” After all, the enormous amount of American music we have commissioned, recorded and performed is our true legacy. Not only the high quality of performance and recording, but also the quality of the repertoire and the composers themselves, is the hallmark of our performance history of American music, 1955 to the present. You will have a chance during the festival – scheduled for April 2008 – to hear some of the great compositions and composers of our time: Charles Ives, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, William Schuman, Samuel Barber, William Dawson, Libby Larson, Leonard Bernstein, H.T. Burleigh, Irving Fine and Stephen Paulus. Of course our specialty over the years has been the introduction of new music and we have some exciting premieres for you too.
Five choruses are involved in our festival, each representing a different important aspect of the choral world. They are the Gregg Smith Singers, an all-professional chorus of 18; Cantori New York, a semi-professional group of about 40 that specializes in new music; the Long Island Symphonic Choral Association, a fine community chorus performing very select choral music (i.e. Monteverdi Vespers 1610 and James MacMillan’s Mass); the Saint Peter’s Choir, one of the most respected church choirs in NYC; and finally the Syracuse Children’s Chorus, which tours nationally and internationally. Capping the festival will be a work of my own, Mass in Space. Although it was written over fifteen years ago, and GSS has toured it in both the U.S. and Europe, I have made a revised version for this celebration which will employ all four adult choruses. As you might guess, this mass in “space” will be heard from all corners of St. Peter’s Church.
All of this will cost a great deal of money. We have been given our largest ever grant from the NEA, and are extraordinarily grateful for the honor. But with it goes the responsibility of matching the grant. This festival represents a celebration of American Masterpieces as well as a passing of the torch. To bring you this festival, we need funding. If we can raise $70,000 in funds the NEA grant will match it dollar for dollar. If we do not raise $70,000, only the amount contributed or earned will be matched. So every dollar counts. Please be generous. It is a season of great expectations and we need your help in all ways.
Yours truly,
Gregg Smith