Click here to listen to audio clips

New York Times
Wall to Wall Bach - Symphony Space, May 17 2008

By 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.”

That was aptly illuminated during the Bachian feast on Saturday at Symphony Space in the Wall to Wall festival, an annual event featuring about 12 hours of performances exploring one composer or theme. It was the 30th anniversary of the inaugural Wall to Wall, which also celebrated Bach, in what was then the derelict Symphony movie theater. That first musical marathon was the catalyst for founding the multidisciplinary Symphony Space, said Isaiah Sheffer, the theater’s co-founder and artistic director.

This Wall to Wall featured many first-rate performances. There were lilting, lively renditions of several “Brandenburg” Concertos, including No. 5 in D with the Artemis Chamber Ensemble, featuring a virtuosic harpsichord solo from Bradley Brookshire that earned whoops from the audience.

There were several memorable solo performances during the afternoon session, including the cellist Timothy Eddy playing the Suite No. 2 in D minor and the violinist Daniel Phillips playing the Partita No. 2 in D minor. It takes enormous concentration and courage to perform major solo works of Bach from memory; the music is so intimate, it seems as if the performer, exposed and vulnerable, is delivering a public confession. Mr. Phillips looked slightly shell-shocked after his searing performance. The Chaconne from that partita was also played beautifully by the guitarist David Leisner, an example of how well Bach’s music translates to different instruments.

The event offered different approaches to the same instrument, like when Elaine Comparone played standing in front of a specially adjusted harpsichord, which she performed in several works with the Queen’s Chamber Band. Bach’s vast choral output was highlighted with cantatas, including a few well sung by the Melodia Women’s Choir of New York City, led by Cynthia Powell. The Artemis ensemble and the Purchase College Chorus, ably conducted by Matthew Oberstein, offered a polished, rousing rendition of the “Magnificat.” This Wall to Wall ended, as did the inaugural event, with Bach’s Mass in B minor. Leon Botstein conducted the American Symphony Orchestra, the Canticum Novum Singers and soloists of varying ability.

A major highlight of the enjoyable day came in a magical performance of the “Goldberg” Variations by the pianist Jeremy Denk. “We struck gold” with him, said Mr. Sheffer. It was indeed a performance to treasure, riveting from the first notes of the gorgeous Aria. Mr. Denk’s unmannered, profound playing, enriched by multihued dynamics and vibrantly contrasting moods, earned him universal approval from the rapturous audience.

 

The Record
Vivaldi's 'Gloria,' as first intended. Choir to sing work for female voices

By 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.

You may not exist, as far as society is concerned. You may have scars from smallpox on your face or deformities on your limbs. But if you have musical talent, you have one miracle to look forward to every year: performing the music of your teacher, Antonio Vivaldi, for an audience gathered from all over Europe. The catch is, you perform behind a metal screen.
No one will ever see your face.

Vivaldi's now-famous "Gloria in D Major, RV 589" was created for the girls and women of Ospedale della Pieta, said choir conductor Cynthia Powell of Englewood. Like those unfortunate souls, the true heritage of this piece was hidden away for centuries. Mixed choirs performed it, assuming it to have been a regular piece because it was written for SATB voices: soprano, alto, tenor and bass.

But this weekend the Melodia Women's Choir will be offering "Gloria" as it was originally performed. As the artistic director and conductor of Melodia, Powell said the discovery of this history behind the piece made it particularly interesting for the all-female choir to perform.

Read complete article here

World premiere of talented New York composer Becca Schack by Melodia Women's Choir of NYC opens ears to the world

by Cynthia L. Cooper for Vocal Area Network, November 14, 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.

Commissioned by Melodia, Schack wrote the classically-styled composition based on text drawn from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. The music reflects on the reeling emotions that the 27-year-old and her close-knit family experienced during her mother's diagnosis, treatment and recovery from breast cancer two and a half years ago. A few beats after the final note, the Juilliard grad looks at the singers, mostly generational peers. "If you hear someone crying in the audience, that would be me," Schack said.

Read complete article here

The Voice of Chorus America
Volume 31, Number 4, Summer 2008

The Melodia Women's Choir (pictured), 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)

...Sung in Spanish and conducted by Cynthia Powell, the text for Sniffin's stunning composition is based on poems by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a virtuoso poet, scholar, feminist and nun from 17th century Mexico. The work incorporates the 30 soprano and alto voices of Melodia, a narrator, chamber musicians and an ensemble using authentic Aztec instruments.

A performer with the Meredith Monk Ensemble and an independent composer, Sniffin responded enthusiastically when Jenny Clarke, founder and producer of Melodia, suggested Sor Juana's writing as the source for a new work. At the time, a painting of the so-called "Phoenix of Mexico" appeared in a portraiture show at The Hispanic Society. "I was so impressed by Sor Juana's intelligence, courage and impassioned pursuit of her art," said Clarke...

...At the conclusion, a series of dissonances are reconciled by sudden harmonic shift. "It's as if you throw a ball in the air and you keep throwing balls but before they come back down, the earth would come up to meet them," said Sniffin. "When I was writing the last movement, I got chills. It was almost a mystical moment for me," she said...

Read complete article here

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."

...Lisa Fredenburgh, national chair for women's choirs for the Oklahoma-based American Choral Directors Association, says she routinely receives notices of newly formed women's choirs. She says female choral groups in the United States, including high school groups, number in the tens of thousands. And she says they're raising their profiles along with their numbers.

Music Written for Women: One explanation for the trend is that in many places, especially colleges, an overwhelming number of women would turn out for auditions for the mixed-gender choral group. Unable to join these limited-entry mixed-voice groups, singers would not give up. Instead they began forming all-female groups. The all-female choral movement is also traced to the 1970s, when many women--including many lesbians--were gathering to give voice to liberating ideals...

Read complete article here

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.

In December, the board of Melodia, with Clarke as its president, appointed Cynthia Powell as Choral Director. Powell has a powerful and wide-ranging choral resume. She is currently the Music Director and Organist of Christ Church in Ridgewood, the Organist/Choirmaster of Temple Sinai in Tenafly and Artistic Director of the Stonewall Chorale in New York City. A graduate of Westminster Choir College, Powell served on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College, directing its choral program, and has also performed extensively with composer/director Meredith Monk.

This month, on January 22 and 24, Powell will lead Melodia's auditions in order to assemble a group of 20 experienced nonprofessional singers. The group will begin rehearsals soon afterward, meeting weekly on Monday evenings at St. Peter's Church in Chelsea to prepare for a spring concert. Critical to Melodia's approach is fostering a rehearsal atmosphere that emphasizes congeniality and respect, say Powell and Clarke.

In founding Melodia Women's Choir, Clarke blended two central aspects of her life: her deep love of music and her talent as a management consultant to arts organizations. Clarke has a master's degree in arts management from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University, as well as an extensive background working with dozens of respected non-profit arts organizations in New York and London. She has a keen sense of successful strategies for building a distinctive arts organization.

But passion for the music is what fueled Clarke's drive to form a women's choir. "I love the experience of many voices creating one beautiful sound," she says, "and of bringing the delight of music to audiences." Clarke, who holds music and English degrees from Leeds University in England, says that specialized women's choral singing largely faded from the non-professional choral world in the late 20th century, despite a strong women's choral movement in colleges and universities. Now, she says, the trend is shifting, and women's choral singing is re-emerging with a new energy. "Choirs of women's voices are again coming to the fore in cities across the U.S., Canada and Europe," says Clarke.

Melodia's musical intention is to explore the wealth of secular women's choral music from the 19th century to the present. Works by Holst, Bartok, Debussy and Brahms will appear alongside rarely performed choral treasures by lesser-known composers and women composers. Melodia's concerts will demonstrate the breadth, vitality and variety of women's choral music.

The first concert of Melodia Women's Choir of NYC is scheduled for May 17 at St. Peter's Church in Chelsea.

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.

Melodia, founded in 2003 by Jennifer Clarke (who also serves as producer), is conducted by Cynthia Powell, known for her extensive conducting experience in the New York region. From September 24 to 26, Melodia will reach across the seas in a unique cultural exchange, hosting Norway's Maria Gamborg Helbekkmo, the conductor of Voci Nobili, a highly-acclaimed women's choir based in Bergen. Founded by Helbekkmo in 1989, Voci Nobili has won over a dozen awards in international competitions. In New York, Helbekkmo will share some of the techniques she has used in conducting a woman's choir for the past 16 years with the much-newer Melodia.

Already recognized for a bold and beautiful sound, Melodia features 32 highly-accomplished soprano and alto voices who perform the classical repertoire and richly musical contemporary compositions. "Our singers come from a wide diversity of background and training, but are united in their love of the music," said Clarke, who also sings in the ensemble. The singers hail from colleges and communities throughout the U.S., according to Clarke, and from around the globe, including Chile, Hong Kong and Britain.

As a women's choir, a special character arises, said Powell. "The resonance of women's voices, by nature of their range and timbre, is different from that of men's voices," said Powell, who also conducts Stonewall Chorale. "There is a different 'vibe' with an all-women's group," she said. "A woman conductor can develop an especially strong bond with a women's ensemble," said Powell.

The idea of inviting Helbekkmo to lead a workshop arose when Voci Nobili performed at New York's Merkin Hall in January 2005. Clarke and Powell, who work in partnership to plan the choir's direction, had been tossing around new ideas to contemporize and enliven the choral experience, while still maintaining the traditions that make it so powerful. Building on a wave of interest in women's choral music, they envision a choir of exceptional quality and musical style, and were instantly impressed with the dynamic expressiveness of Voci Nobili. "There was a group feel that radiated total confidence," said Powell. "I loved the clarity of their sound. It was dead-on in tuning, diction and musicality."

Even though guest clinicians are a rare sight on the New York choral scene, both Powell and Clarke thought Helbekkmo -- if willing -- could offer an energizing perspective from which Melodia could reap long-term benefits. Helbekkmo agreed.

In an additional twist, instead of choosing samples for the sessions, Helbekkmo will work with Melodia on selections for its upcoming fall concert, "Twilight in the Garden of Dreams." The concert of mystical and mythological tales, which Powell will conduct, includes compositions by Gustav Holst, Meredith Monk, and a featured bicentennial recognition of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel. The program will be performed on Saturday November 19 at 8 PM at St. Peter's, 346 West 20th Street in Chelsea.

"As we grow and develop, it's a special honor to have one of the leading international conductors share her experience and artistry with us," said Clarke of the upcoming exchange with Helbekkmo. The Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York is providing underwriting for the workshop, Clarke said.