1,000 children celebrate the sounds of the city at Harlem’s Apollo Theater Thursday, May 17, at 10:45 a.m.


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1,000 children celebrate the sounds of the city at Harlem’s Apollo Theater Thursday, May 17, at 10:45 a.m.

Young People’s Chorus of New York City Presents  “Red Light, Green Light”



Young People’s Chorus of New York City



NEW YORK, NEW YORK (May 5, 2018) — Over 1,000 elementary and middle school children of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City’s (YPC) School Choruses music education and performance program will gather at Harlem’s world-famous Apollo Theater (253 West 125th St.) on Thursday, May 17, at 10:45 a.m. for an exciting musical showcase entitled “Red Light, Green Light.”  The children, who hail from neighborhood schools throughout the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, will take to the stage of Harlem’s historic landmark theater for a program that recalls the sounds familiar to every child who grows up in New York City:  the childhood chants, rhymes, and pop song mashups, together with the dance steps that go along.


A highlight of this program will be “Red Light, Green Light, the title song composed just for this occasion by Francisco J. Núñez, YPC artistic director and founder and Musical America’s 2018 Educator of the Year. Set to the pulse of the city, it fuses hip hop and Latin rhythms with vocal patter from songs like Miss Mary Mack; Pizza, Pizza; and Down, Down Baby, capturing the excitement that children feel when they are free to be themselves.

The concert, led by YPC conductors under the direction of YPC Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Núñez, will be enhanced with interludes by artists from The Classical Theatre of Harlem, the renowned 21st century theater company led by Ty Jones, and Elisa Monte Dance, led by Artistic Director Tiffany Rea-Fisher, which for 36 years has been bridging barriers through the universal language of dance.

All tickets are $15.  They are available now at the Apollo Theater box office or from:  http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0000549B91F42B43.

YPC School Choruses music education and performance program provides intensive music instruction, free of charge to 1,200 schoolchildren in 18 New York City schools in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. Under the direction of Elizabeth Núñez, six YPC conductors with advanced degrees and trained in The YPC Way, bring the curriculum (which exceeds national standards) into classrooms across the city.  Led by YPC conductors Caitlin Dobmeier, Gia Gan, Emma Hathaway, Maria Peña, Amber Salladin, and Sonny Willis, and accompanied by professional pianists, students perform two to ten times per year not only in school functions, but also in such major New York City venues as Carnegie Hall, Kaufmann Concert Hall at the 92nd Street Y, Symphony Space…and the Apollo Theater.  Click here for more about the YPC School Choruses program

The Young People’s Chorus of New York City, founded in 1988 by MacArthur Fellow Francisco J. Núñez on a mission of diversity and artistic excellence, harnesses the power of music to fulfill the potential of children musically, academically, and socially.  Over the past 30 years, the program has heightened an awareness of the ability of young people to rise to unforeseen levels of artistry.  Under the leadership of Mr. Núñez and Elizabeth Núñez, over 1,700 children from 8 to 18 participate in this internationally renowned program, which has been recognized with a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, America’s highest honor for youth programs.  www.ypc.org


Thursday, May 17, at 10:45 a.m.

Red Light, Green Light”

Apollo Theater, 253 West 125th St.

 

Elizabeth Núñez
YPC Associate Artistic Director/School Choruses Program Director

YPC Conductors:

Caitlin Dobmeier
Gia Gan
Emma Hathaway
Maria Peña
Amber Salladin
Sonny Willis

The Classical Theatre of Harlem
Ty Jones, Producing Artistic Director

Elisa Monte Dance
Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Artistic Director

Young People’s Chorus of New York City School Choruses

YPC School Choruses in the Bronx:
PS 69 Journey Prep, Clason Point
PS 304x – Throgs Neck
St. Ignatius School – Hunts Point

YPC School Choruses in Brooklyn
MS 2 Parkside Preparatory – Prospect-Leffert Gardens
PS 268 The Emma Lazarus School – Crown Heights
PS 770 The New American Academy – East Flatbush

YPC School Choruses in Queens
PS 64 The Joseph Addabbo School – Ozone Park
PS 90 Horace Mann School, Richmond
PS/IS 178 The Holliswood School – Jamaica Estates

YPC School Choruses in Manhattan
PS 1 Alfred E. Smith School – Chinatown
PS 75 Emily Dickinson School, Upper West Side
PS 130 The Hernando DeSoto School – Chinatown
PS/MS 149 the Sojourner Truth School – Harlem
PS 198 The Straus School – Upper East Side
M531 Repertory Company HS for Theatre Arts – Times Square
M541 Manhattan/Hunter Science High School – Upper West Side
M 670 Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change – Harlem
Special Music School – Upper West Side

Photo credit:  Stephanie Berger

Support for this program has been provided by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, the Pinkerton Foundation, PwC, the Barker Welfare Foundation, Bay & Paul Foundations, Javis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation, and Lanie & Ethel Foundation.

YPC’s programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and City Council Members Margaret Chin, Helen Rosenthal, and Eric Ulrich; the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development’s Council Discretionary Fund, and New York City Council Members Daniel R. Garodnick, Barry Grodenchik, Corey Johnson, Ben Kallos, Ydanis Rodriguez, Helen Rosenthal and Helen Rosenthal; the New York City Department of Education; the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.


PRESS CONTACT

Young People’s Chorus of New York City
Angela Duryea
aduryea@ypc.org
212.289.7779, Ext. 31
718.344-5140 (cell)