Please Join Us...  for Our 2013 Annual Spring Concert, Tuesday evening, May 7, 7:30 pm

Location: Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, 30 West 68th Street (between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West) admission is free; ticket not required click here for details, including program highlights

Men Who Sing  Documentary Featuring MGC click on image to view trailer

Men Who Sing: The 56-minute documentary showcases MGC's rich history since its founding in 1866 and recent resurgence. The film follows the Club from rehearsals through performances over two years, providing glimpses of the singers and conductor at work and at play, and features interviews with both members and others connected to the chorus. Click here to learn more about the DVD and to place an order. It's hoped that the documentary will inspire other men who love to sing to come forth and let their voices be heard. If you would like to audition for the Club, please contact conductor Gene Wisoff at GeneWisoff@aol.com or phone 212-362-8550.

The Mendelssohn Glee Club of New York City was founded in 1866. Named for composer Felix Mendelssohn, the Club has offered for the enjoyment of our members and friends at least two concerts in every year of our existence. The nonprofit organization is the oldest men’s chorus in the country and the second oldest independent musical organization (after the New York Philharmonic).

Repertoire

We are always adding to our eclectic library of over 1,600 male choral pieces. Our repertoire includes art songs, ballads, spirituals, hymns, seasonal works, operatic choruses, lieder, barbershop songs, and selections from musical theater. Recent performances.

Historic highlights

The glee club received accolades from Sir Arthur Sullivan and Arturo Toscanini and sang at the dedication of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1888.  Its conductors have included Joseph Mosenthal, Edward MacDowell, Frank Damrosch, Cesare Sodero, Emerson Buckley, and John Royer Bogue. Guest soloists have included Victor Herbert, Helen Traubel, Aprile Millo, and Emily Pulley.  Detailed history. 

MGC on NPR

Listen to Lars Hoel's feature about MGC on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday (December 23, 2007). Click here.

The Club gives two major performances a year, in the spring and winter.   .

2013 Annual Spring Concert
(second performance of 147th season)

Date: May 7; 7:30 pm
Location: Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, 30 West 68th Street
Guest artist: Eleni Calenos, soprano

admission is free; ticket not required

program highlights

Along with its usual interesting variety of music, the spring concert will feature a world premiere: a piece by Mendelssohn’s vice president Jon Pohlmann. “Men Who Sing” was composed (with a twinkle in Jon’s eye) expressly for the club. Jon not only has a band called the Hoi Polloi, he is a talented composer who has written music for theater, TV, documentaries, silent movies, big band, concert piano, ballet, cabaret, and chorus. 

The rest of the program – for the most part a spirited, upbeat one – will range from a powerful chorus from the opera Nabucco, which work confirmed Giuseppi Verdi as a major composer, to numbers from three Broadway shows. It will include a paean in Latin to the pleasures and excitements of singing, a piece based on a Robert Frost poem, a Kentucky folk song that dates back to the mid-19^th century, and a Calypso work song that will be quite familiar to most members of the audience. 

Greg Gilpin’s rhythmic “Jubilate!,” as its title says in a simple word, is a lively exhortation to the joys of song. “The Pasture,” composed by Randall Thompson as part of Frostiana on the occasion of the 1959 Amherst, Massachusetts, bicentennial, is based on a Robert Frost poem. In a Hibernian vein, the Club will sing Rolf Løvland and Brendan Graham’s “You Raise Me Up” – in whose melody you will hear more than a few echoes of “Londonderry Air” or, if you prefer, “Danny Boy.” 

From the Broadway show (based on the screenplay for a 1965 movie of the same name) Shenandoah – a showstopper that packs a punch, one might say – is the rousing “Next to Lovin’ (I like Fightin’ Best),” by Gary Geld (music) and Peter Udell (lyrics).

From Verdi’s Nabucco, “Va, pensiero,” also known in English as the "Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves," tells the story of Jewish exiles from Judea following the loss of the First Temple in Jerusalem. MGC will also perform the poignant “Bring Him Home" from Les Misérables, the long-running Broadway show and also a critically acclaimed motion picture; and the song that, recorded in 1955, made Harry Belafonte: "The Banana Boat Song.”

To round things off, the Club will sing a medley – music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charnin – from another show from the Great White Way, Annie. The original 1977 production ran for almost six years, and the show is now enjoying a Broadway revival. The medley will include a reprise number with lyrics written for and in tribute to MGC by Mr. Charnin (who will be present for the festivities): “Whose horn should we toot? The Mendelssohn Glee Club./ Who’s old but still cute? The Mendelssohn Glee Club…”

about the guest artist

Greek soprano Eleni Calenos’s United States and European engagements in recent seasons include Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly, Mimi in La Bohème, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, and Donna Elvira and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. Of her 2008 role debut in Madame Butterfly, the Houston Press said, “The phenomenon was the Cio-Cio-San of Eleni Calenos, whose nuanced characterization was a true wonder to hear. She sailed through her dramatic arias as if buoyed by the stirring music.” As a concert soloist Ms. Calenos’s performances include the title role in Handel’s oratorio Theodora and the soprano solos in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Verdi’s Requiem. She participated in the Meyerbeer Retrospective concert with Eve Queler. In 2009 she appeared as the principal soloist with Greek composer A. Paraskevas at Weil Recital Hall.   Ms. Calenos won the Gerda Lissner Foundation award (2010) and the Judges award from the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition (2009). She also won the Audience Favorite award at the Irma Cooper Competition in Columbus, Ohio (2008) and the Schyler Foundation Career Bridges award (2006-2008), and was a finalist at the Renata Tebaldi International Vocal Competition in San Marino (2009).  Her upcoming engagements include Gilda in Rigoletto with the Sarasota Opera; as soprano soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Queens College Choral Society in New York; Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro with the Austin Lyric Opera; and Nedda in I Pagliacci with the Shreveport Opera.

Past performances

For details about other performances, click here.

About Felix Mendelssohn

The year 2009 marked Felix Mendelssohn's 200th birthday. He was born on February 3, 1809, in Hamburg, Germany. His best-known works include A Midsummer Night's Dream (with the famous "Wedding March"); his four symphonies (especially the "Italian" and the "Scottish"); a violin concerto; piano pieces entitled Songs Without Words; and the oratorio Elias (a large-scale work for chorus, orchestra, and soloists).

Mendelssohn inspired the creation of many choral clubs -- amateur and professional -- including the Mendelssohn Glee Club of New York City, founded in 1866.

The Mendelssohn name was adopted in recognition of the composer's important role, historically, in choral music. Not the least of his contributions to European and world culture was his crusade to bring attention to the choral works, genius, and deserved preeminence of Johann Sebastian Bach.       

 

We hope that our audiences have enjoyed our performances as much as we have enjoyed singing. Please keep in mind that the ability of the Club to continue depends on financial support from friends like you. Donations.

Benefit recitals and special performances

The Club serves the community by performing at local hospitals and senior centers and singing at special events. 

Click here to read about benefit recitals.

We welcome the opportunity to share our joy of singing. If you would be interested in having the Club perform for your organization, please contact us.

To make an appointment for an audition, please contact the conductor at 212-362-8550 or send email to GeneWisoff@aol.com. 

For general questions about the Club or for additional information, please contact the President, John Memmolo: jamskier@aol.com.  

The Mendelssohn Glee Club would like to thank radio station WQXR for its generous support.

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