Please Join Us for Our  2012 Annual Spring Concert Tuesday Evening, May 15, 7:30 pm

Location: Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, 30 West 68th Street (between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West) Guest artist: Narine Ojakhyan, soprano Admission is free. click here for details

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.   .

2012 Annual Spring Concert
(second performance of 146th season)

Date: Tuesday evening, May 15; 7:30 pm
Location: Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, 30 West 68th Street (between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West)
Guest artist: Narine Ojakhyan, soprano
Admission: free
details TBA

Program highlights

From a haunting song about spectral cowboys and herds and a satirical sea chantey to a lusty drinking song and a spirited tune from a picaresque operetta, the MGC program will be typically varied in musical genre and feeling. Most of the 13 pieces are being performed for the first time by the Club. Composed by Stan Jones, “Ghost Riders in the Sky” – a crossover pop hit in 1949 and a piece recorded by some fifty different performers – has a melody and harmonies very akin to the classic “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.”

The Club will also sing Henry Clay Work’s “My Grandfather’s Clock,” composed in 1876, sometimes considered a children’s song but also a standard favored by both British brass bands and bluegrass musicians. (The song, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, also popularized the term grandfather clock for the upright longcase clock.) In a comic vein – perfectly clear from its mocking title – “Sick of the Songs of the Sea” was composed by C. Bennett as a sea chantey to end all sea chanteys.

The men of Mendelssohn will also present Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Drinking Song,” adapted from the composer’s opera Sir John in Love; and, from Rudolf Friml’s 1925 operetta The Vagabond King – based on the adventurous life of French poet and thief François Villon – MGC will join voices in a lively arrangement of the well-known “Song of the Vagabonds.” The program will also include both an Irish and a Scottish air, a spiritual, and a Jerome Kern composition that has become a
 treasure of the American Songbook.

The guest artist, soprano Narine Ojakhyan, will perform arias from Puccini's Le Villi (an opera-ballet), Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, and Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden as well as "Meine Lippen" from Franz Lehar's operetta Giuditta. She will also sing three Armenian songs by A. Doluxanyan, H. Berberyan, and A. Ayivazyan.

About the guest artist

Soprano Narine Ojakhyan received her bachelor's degree and a post-graduate diploma in Armenia at Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory while studying with Marianna Harutyunyan. After three years in the opera program at the Royal Academy of Music in London, she earned her master's degree and a Royal Academy honorary diploma.
 
She participated in the Young Artist summer programs at Solti Te Kanawa Accademia di Bel Canto in Tuscany and in the Samling Program in London, and has taken master classes given by such renowned opera singers as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Frederica Von Stade, Barbara Bonney, and Dennis O’Neill.
 
Ms. Ojakhyan’s operatic roles include Mimi (La Bohème) for the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) under the baton of Sir Colin Davis, Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor) for Iford Arts in England, Rosina (Il Barbiere Siviglia), Lusya (Paradise Moskow)and Brigitta (Iolanta).
 
She has also performed in the United States with the Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival, Torrance Symphony, Marina del Rey Summer Symphony, and Los Angeles Performing Arts Orchestra.
 
Ms. Ojakhyan is the winner of several competitions, including the Opera Rara Patric Schmid Bel Canto prize (London), Ludmilla Andrew Russian song prize (London), and Hennings-Fischer Burbank Philharmonic Young Artists’ Competition 2010 (Los Angeles). A Loren Zachary National Vocal Competition finalist, she recently was awarded third place at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Western region). She also received the Opera Buffs award (Los Angeles) and Solti Foundation 2009 award (London).

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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