New Amsterdam Singers proudly performs music not often heard in New York City—or anywhere, for that matter. We focus our efforts on lesser-known works by preeminent composers and on new works by living composers.
Clara Longstreth is “one of the more imaginative programmers around.” – The New Yorker
In this section of the site you can read more about how Clara chooses music, review a list of premieres and commissions, listen to recordings of NAS in concert, and much more.
When I choose music for NAS, one criterion stands above all others: will our singers love it? I find that if the chorus loves the music, they will convince the audience to love it as well. And if a program looks interesting to the New York Times or to fellow conductors, that’s a great bonus, but the singers’ stimulation and pleasure come first.
Our repertoire is also determined by our size. At 60-70 voices, we are the right group for most double chorus works, for many Renaissance and Baroque works, and for much contemporary work. We are not the group for Beethoven’s Ninth or the Verdi Requiem. We also avoid other very familiar works, however worthy, that are often done in the major halls, in favor of repertoire somewhat off the beaten track. Beyond size considerations is the issue of funding orchestras. We use freelance professional players every year or two for a concert, but the majority of our repertoire is a cappella.
When one does a lot of contemporary music, one is rewarded by having a great deal of new music sent unbidden. This can be exciting, but it is always difficult to find time to look at everything that comes in. I find that I sometimes have to look first at the composers I already know because the style of their new works will likely be right for NAS. The composers I most admire are ones whose tenth work does not seem a replica of their first. NAS has enjoyed doing many works by Ron Perera, Matthew Harris, and Paul Alan Levi over the past fifteen years. I am now finding that the works of Abbie Betinis, Dale Trumbore, Mark Kilstofte, Rob Paterson and Ben Moore, just to name a few, reward close study. I look forward to more such discoveries. And we will always return to Bach and Brahms, because every choral singer ought to have sung their great works.
An important step in the selection process is a balancing act: the music needs to be challenging enough to interest our most experienced singers, yet not so difficult that the process of learning is unrewardingly slow. Within a season I also balance periods, styles, languages, sacred/secular, and familiar/new, and within a given concert I balance kinds of learning required, types of rhythmic challenges, degrees of dissonance, amounts of divisi, and issues of unfamiliar languages. I look for good opening and closing pieces, for some fast, some slow, some loud, some soft. And if I find that I have come up with four great works, each of which ends pianissimo, I often add a short brilliant one to send the audience off on an upbeat note.
We have a pretty good record of including music by women composers, but only a fair record of including composers of color. Starting in June 2020 with the Black Lives Matter movement, I embarked on a project to find many more works of Black composers, and have found a wealth of great new pieces. These will enrich our programs for years to come.
Thematic programs are the most fun to choose, but not every program needs to fit a tight theme. A theme is only good if every piece is a winner, not included just because it serves the theme. It helps to have on one’s shelves or in one’s memory bank a huge amount of music to choose from, and having done program building for many years, I do. Sometimes I think the choosing of a year’s repertoire is the best part of the whole season, but when I get to the first rehearsal in September, I realize, no, it’s the people of NAS that are the most fun of all.
Throughout its 50+ years New Amsterdam Singers has been acclaimed for its imaginative programming. Our repertoire spans seven centuries, and we have a continuing commitment to commissioning and performing new choral works.
New Amsterdam Singers Commissions — World Premieres | ||
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Michael Dellaira | Arctic Explorations | 2024 |
Dale Trumbore | Charting the World | 2023 |
Robert Paterson | I Go Among Trees | 2021 |
Ben Moore | The Wave Rises | 2018 |
Lisa Bielawa | Walks of Life | 2018 |
Carol Barnett | The Darkling Thrush | 2017 |
Matthew Harris | Shakespeare Songs, Book Seven | 2017 |
Paul Alan Levi | Dateless Calendar | 2011 |
Ronald Perera | Why I Wake Early | 2008 |
Paul Alan Levi | Acts of Love | 2002 |
Ronald Perera | The Golden Door | 1999 |
Behzad Ranjbaran | Open Secret | 1999 |
Paul Alan Levi | Journeys & Secrets | 1994 |
Thomas Beveridge | General William Booth | 1987 |
Francis Heilbut | Caliban’s Song | 1974 |
World Premieres | ||
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Ben Moore | Two Yeats Songs (choral version) | 2017 |
Robert Paterson | Choral Suite from A New Earth | 2016 |
Donald Grantham | A Valediction | 2015 |
Elizabeth Lim | Tempest | 2013 |
Alexander Dmitriev | Two Songs | 2005 |
Alexander Dmitriev | The Ancient Mariner | 2004 |
Katherine Hoover | Echo | 2003 |
Alla Borzova | The Ballad of Barnaby | 2002 |
Jacob Avshalomov | His Fluid Aria | 2001 |
Charles Fussell | Mists | 1998 |
Dennis Riley | Chansons Funèbres | 1998 |
Paul Alan Levi | In the Beginning | 1998 |
Jack Gallagher | To One Who Died | 1986 |
Hale Smith | Two Kids | 1972 |
Vally Weigl | A Shelter for All | 1970 |
American Premieres | ||
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Per Gunnar Petersson | De Profundis | 2018 |
Einojuhani Rautavaara | Unsere Liebe | 2013 |
Matthew Harris | Three Plums | 2013 |
Richard Rodney Bennett | I Saw Three Ships | 2008 |
Richard Rodney Bennett | Nonsense | 2008 |
Eleanor Daley | Missa Brevis | 2002 |
Geoffrey Burgon | Sleep | 1996 |
Petr Eben | Bitter Earth | 1992 |
Daniel Catan | Cantata | 1987 |
New York and NYC Premieres | ||
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Mark Kilstofte | Everyone’s Voice | 2023 |
Judith Shatin | La Frontera | 2023 |
Carol Barnett | Most Holy Night | 2023 |
Philip Lasser | The Dream Keeper | 2022 |
Karen Siegel | We Will Stand Up | 2021 |
Abbie Betinis | At a Window | 2017 |
Robert Paterson | Life is but a dream | 2017 |
Ronald Perera | When Music Sounds | 2017 |
Abbie Betinis | The Mirthful Heart | 2016 |
Abbie Betinis | Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight | 2016 |
Mark Kilstofte | This Amazing Day | 2016 |
Kirke Mechem | Green Music | 2016 |
Kirke Mechem | Daybreak in Alabama | 2016 |
Ronald Perera | Bring Me the Sunset in a Cup | 2016 |
Michael Dellaira | Nobody | 2015 |
Donald Grantham | Let Evening Come | 2015 |
Matthew Harris | If Music and Sweet Poetry Agree | 2015 |
Ben Moore | The Lake Isle of Innisfree | 2015 |
Ben Moore | Dear Theo (letters from Van Gogh) | 2015 |
Abbie Betinis | And the Song Am I | 2014 |
Matthew Harris | Fantasy on La Bamba | 2013 |
Ronald Perera | The Star in the Pail | 2013 |
Alex Weiser | Travellers | 2013 |
Sheena Phillips | Two Carols | 2012 |
Judith Shatin | The God of Glory | 2012 |
Steven Stucky | Skylarks | 2012 |
Stephen Sametz | Niño de Rosas | 2011 |
Kitty Brazelton | O Joy! | 2011 |
Clare Maclean | Leise rieselt der Schnee | 2010 |
Kirke Mechem | Suite for Chorus | 2010 |
Ronald Perera | earthsongs | 2010 |
Kirke Mechem | The World is Too Much With Us | 2009 |
Rihards Dubra | Rorando Coeli | 2009 |
Abbie Betinis | Cedit, Hyems | 2009 |
Michael Dellaira | The Masters at the Movies | 2008 |
Matthew Harris | Innocence and Experience | 2008 |
Kirke Mechem | Peace Motets | 2007 |
Luna Pearl Woolf | Après moi, le déluge | 2007 |
David Brunner | I Am in Need of Music | 2007 |
Paul Crabtree | Four Folk Songs | 2007 |
Howard Skempton | The Flight of Song | 2007 |
Richard Wilson | In Schrafft’s | 2007 |
Ruth Watson Henderson | Make Me a World | 2007 |
Kirke Mechem | American Trio | 2005 |
Ronald Perera | Three Love Lyrics | 2005 |
Daniel Pinkham | Christmas Jubilations | 2004 |
Kirke Mechem | Missa Brevis | 2004 |
Adolphus Hailstork | Seven Songs of the Rubaiyat | 2003 |
Adolphus Hailstork | The God of Glory Thunders | 2002 |
Judith Shatin | Songs of War and Peace | 2002 |
Kirke Mechem | Winging Wildly | 2001 |
Paul Alan Levi | Unpoem | 2000 |
Matthew Harris | Shakespeare Songs, Book IV | 1998 |
Charles Fussell | Specimen Days | 1998 |
William Hawley | Six Madrigals on Texts by Torquato Tasso | 1997 |
Petr Eben | Zauberspruch, den Liebsten zu beschwören | 1996 |
Daniel Pinkham | Advent Cantata | 1995 |
Marga Richter | Into My Heart | 1995 |
Ronald Perera | The Outermost House | 1994 |
Matthew Harris | Shakespeare Songs, Book III | 1993 |
Ronald Perera | Earth Songs | 1993 |
Petr Eben | Cantico delle Creature | 1991 |
Petr Eben | Salve Regina | 1991 |
Daniel Pinkham | The Saints Preserve Us! | 1991 |
Paul Siskind | On Aging | 1989 |
Thomas Beveridge | Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun | 1987 |
Tomas Svoboda | Chorale Without Words | 1986 |
Edwin Fissinger | Lux Aeterna | 1984 |
New Amsterdam Singers Repertoire: 1967 – Present
15th – 18th Centuries, European & American
Allegri • Araujo • J.C. Bach • J.C.F. Bach • J.S. Bach • Banchieri • Billings • Blow • Buxtehude • Byrd • Carissimi • Charpentier • Costeley • Couperin • de la Lande • de la Rue • Dering • Donato • Dufay • Farmer • Fernandes • Gabrieli • Gesualdo • Gibbons • Gluck • Gombert • Guerrero • Hammerschmidt • Handel • Handl • Hassler • Haydn • Heiler • Homilius • Isaac • Janequin • Josquin • Lassus • Lienas • Monteverdi • Morago • Morales • Morley • Mozart • Ockeghem • C.T. Pachelbel • Palestrina • Passereau • Pilkington • Purcell • Pygott • Regnard • Rossi • Schein • Schütz • Senfl • Stölzel • Sweelinck • Tallis • Tessier • Tomkins • Vecchi • Viadana • Victoria • Vivaldi • Walther • Weelkes • Wesley • White • Wilbye • Zielenski
19th – 20th Centuries, European & World
Aston • Avni • Bárdos • Bartók • Becker • Beethoven • Ben-Haim • R.R. Bennett • Berlioz • Biebl • Bizet • Boito • Boulanger • Brahms • Britten • Bruch • Bruckner • Burgon • Casals • Chesnokov • Chilcott • Coleridge-Taylor • Cornelius • Dallapiccola • Debussy • Distler • Dubra Dvořák • Eben • Elgar • Ešenwalds • Farkas • Fauré • Finzi • Gjeilo • Gounod • Górecki • Grantham • Grechaninov • Hensel • Hindemith • Holst • Howells • Hrusovsky • Jánacek • Jeppeson • Karai • Kodály • Kverno • La Cour • Laburda • Liszt • Maclean • MacMillan • Mahler • Mäntyjärvi • Martin • Martinů • Mawby • Mayr • McDowall • Mendelssohn • Messiaen • Miškinis • Moeran • Musgrave • Mussorgsky • Nielsen • Nunes Garcia • Orbán • Parry • Pärt • Penderecki • Petersson • Pizzetti • Poulenc • Rachmaninoff • Ragnarsson • Rautavaara • Ravel • Rawthorne • Reger • Rheinberger • Rossini • Rubbra • Rütti • Schoenberg • Schubert • Schumann • Shostakovich • Sibelius • Sisask • Skempton • Stanford • Sullivan • Svoboda • Taneyev • Tavener • Tchaikovsky • Tormis • Tučapský • Willcocks • Vaughan Williams • Verdi • Walton • Warlock • Washburn • Weber • Wolf • Yaichkov • Zimmerman
20th Century – Present, The Americas
Aguiar • Alwood • Argento • Avshalomov • P.D.Q. Bach • Baksa • Barber • Barnett • Bassi • Benjamin • Bernstein • Betinis • Beveridge • Bielawa • Biggs • Borzova • Brandt • Brant • Brazelton • Brett • Brown • Brunner • Burnett • Carter • Castelnuovo-Tedesco • Catan • Chávez • Chen Yi • Chihara • Chorbajian • Cohen • Cooman • Copland • Corigliano • Crabtree • Crawford • Daley • Dellaira • Dennis • Dmitriev • Effinger • Erb • Felciano • Fennimore • Fine • Fissinger • Foss • Fussell • Gallagher • Gershwin • Ginastera • Gordon • Gould • Hailstork • Harbison • Harris • Hatfield • Hawley • Healey • Heath • Heilbut • Hellerman • Henderson • Hogan • Hoover • Hovhaness • Ives • Jans • Jeffers • Johnson • Joplin • Kay • Kernis • Kilstofte • Kirchner • Lang • Lasser • Lauridsen • Levi • Levine • Lewin • Lim • Loesser • Loos • Luening • Mack • MacIntyre • MacMillan • McCullough • Marshall • Mauldin • Mechem • Menotti • Milhaud • Moore • Niles • Nin • O’Regan • Palmeri • Parker • Paterson • Paulus • Perera • Persichetti • Phillips • Piazolla • Pinkham • Piston • Powell • Raminsh • Ranjbaran • Rhodes • Richter • Riegger • Riley • Rindfleisch • Robles • Rorem • Sametz • Santoro • Schudel • Schuman • Shatin • Shaw • Siegel • Siskin • Smith • Somary • Spencer • Stevens • Still • Stravinsky • Stucky • Swingle • Susa • Talma • Thompson • Thomson • Toch • Trumbore • Wallach • Washburn • Weigl • Weiser • Wertsch • Whitacre • White • Wilberg • Wilson • Woolf • Work