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On Monday, 81 YPC choristers returned from a spectacular 10-day tour in Spain. It was highlighted by two performances at the world-famous Palau de la Música Catalana and competitions and performances conducted by Francisco Núñez and Elizabeth Núñez at the Festival Internacional de Música de Cantonigròs. The tour culminated with a first-place win in the Children’s Choir competition and two second-place awards in the Female Choirs and Folk Song competitions.
At the invitation of famed choral conductor Simon Halsey, the tour began with two performances in the Palau de la Música Catalana, the world famous modernistic concert hall, home to the Orfeó Català and the Orfeó Català’s Youth Choir. YPC was able to meet with the resident choir and their conductor Esteve Nabona and share an afternoon of singing Catalonian and American music. The exquisite architecture provided a stunning backdrop to the choristers’ performances, which were received by enthusiastic audiences. In addition to rehearsals and performances, the choristers and staff happily found time to take in the sights of the city.
YPC is grateful to Tommy Hilfiger, the chorus’s official tour outfitter, for generously contributing a touring wardrobe for each chorister traveling on tour this summer.
The second leg of YPC’s journey took them to the Festival Internacional de Música de Cantonigròs in Vic, where the YPC travelers stayed in a beautiful historic seminary, performed for live and television audiences, and was the only choir from America invited among 25 other extraordinary groups from all over the world. The YPC choristers had the opportunity to meet the singers from those countries, share their music, and learn about their traditions and customs. Having made new friends, they all encouraged each other and applauded one another’s performances during the rigorous week. The YPC singers returned to New York exhausted but inspired, with new knowledge of the world around them, and ready to take on their next summer challenge: their Mostly Mozart Festival debut.
Photo by David Fajula
Without any sign of slowing down, the singers have jumped right into rehearsals for the July 25 and 26 opening program of this year’s Mostly Mozart Festival, “The Singing Heart,” which includes the world premiere of a new piece by YPC Artistic Director Francisco J. Núñez. The first evening will be hosted by Broadway great Bernadette Peters, and the second, by Mr. Núñez. These performances mark the first time in Mostly Mozart’s 51-year history that a children’s chorus has opened the festival with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and Mostly Mozart Music Director Louis Langrée at David Geffen Hall.
Tickets are still available by phone at CenterCharge at 212.721.6500, in person by visiting the David Geffen Hall or Alice Tully Hall Box Offices, and online at www.mostlymozart.org.
Photo by Stephanie Berger