HIDE AND SEEK

Choral Chameleon is joined by our friends at CONTEMPORANEOUS, New York's leading Contemporary Chamber Orchestra under the direction of David Bloom.

The evening's program centers around the WORLD PREMIERE of Zachary Ritter's new work, HEAPS based on the song Hide and Seek by the wonderful composer, Imogen Heap. The program also includes shorter performance sets for both Choral Chameleon Chorus and Contemporaneous.

Choral Chameleon Chorus will perform:

Sandra Garner's Brooklyn Bridge at Sunset (World Premiere)
Will Healy's New York Revisited with piano quartet
Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi arranged by The Podd Brothers
Arnoldus de Bruck's In Civitate Domini, and
Imogen Heap's The Moment I Said It arranged by Jennifer MacMillan

The Space at Irondale Center for the Performing Arts

Choral Chameleon is a next-gen choral music company championing new music and embracing immersive performance with visual art, movement, taste, texture, and more. Its interdisciplinary artistic collaborations invite all to take part and experience the shared human connections of music. Composed of a professional ensemble, a chorus of avocational and professional singers, and an Institute for composers and conductors of choral music, Choral Chameleon is on a mission to reinvent and broaden the boundaries of choral music to create new possibilities with the artistic community at large. Since its inception, Choral Chameleon has premiered 250+ original compositions and arrangements.

ENSEMBLE
The core of Choral Chameleon, the Ensemble, currently comprises of twelve professional singers, representing the best combination of musicianship and diversity of musical backgrounds in NYC. They are fearless pioneers in the world of new choral music, having premiered more than 180 new choral works to date, and are respected for their adventurous programming, bringing Choral Chameleon’s signature experience to audiences beyond NYC.

CHORUS
Our semi-professional Chorus of 50+ voices meets weekly in Manhattan, with the Ensemble at its core, and it is changing the way people experience the art of choral singing in their everyday lives. It brings the joy and adventure of the Choral Chameleon way of music-making to a wider array of talented singers and expands the possibilities of how choral music is presented in NYC.

INSTITUTE
The Institute is our educational arm, which includes workshops, school appearances and mentorship, residencies, and an Annual Institute for Composers and Conductors of choral music - an unprecedented experience that offers students the chance to explore the world of choral music-making in a loving environment surrounded by some of the most respected professionals on the music scene today.

Contemporaneous is an ensemble of 25 musicians whose mission is to bring to life the most transformative music by living composers through performances, commissions, recordings, and educational programs. Described as "exact and detailed, but also lively and openly dancing" (The New York Times) and "leading new music towards its better self" (I Care If You Listen), Contemporaneous particularly champions the creation of large-scale works and “dream projects,” which composers might not otherwise have opportunities to realize due to scale.

Based in New York City and active throughout the United States, Contemporaneous has premiered over 200 new works, and has been presented by such institutions as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Park Avenue Armory, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall, PROTOTYPE Festival, Merkin Concert Hall, MATA Festival, St. Ann’s Warehouse, and Bang on a Can and has worked with such artists as David Byrne, Donnacha Dennehy, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Dawn Upshaw, and Julia Wolfe. Contemporaneous' programming has also received acclaim from community members, artists, and press of all kinds, with the ensemble’s recent performance of Stranger Love being listed as one of 2023’s “best classical music performances” by the New York Times.

Contemporaneous also leads participatory programs for public school students in the communities where the ensemble performs. These workshops are designed to instill a passion for new music and to convey the power of careful listening and meaningful expression through music. The ensemble has held residencies at such institutions as Colgate University, Hamilton College, City University of New York, the University of New Orleans, Williams College, and Bard College, where the group was founded in 2010. Contemporaneous is a federally tax-exempt not-for-profit organization, supported by a dedicated community of listeners.

The mission of Contemporaneous is:

To present music by living composers with the capacity to offer a transformative experience to the audience.
To center new voices in classical music, presenting composers whose names are not yet familiar to the audience, and/or who have not yet had the opportunity to write for a large ensemble of orchestral instruments.
To empower composers — through commissions without restrictions — to take risks, challenge themselves and their audiences, and focus on large-scale passion projects without restraints on creative imagination. We believe the most meaningful art is created when artists have free reign to pursue what they most want to create.
To bring educational and outreach programs to communities in need, especially those that would not otherwise have access to new music.