CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Bernstein Mass Project: A Choral Exploration

Zankel Hall
Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at 3:00 PM

Tickets are free and available to the public beginning at 12PM on the day of the performance.

Original choral anthems inspired by Bernstein’s Mass, composed and sung by New York City middle and high school students. The performance will also include specially chosen repertoire, including excerpts from the Bernstein Mass.

The Bernstein Mass Project is generously underwritten by Bob and Martha Lipp.

Major funding for Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds has been provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Alice Tully Foundation, American Express, Bob and Martha Lipp, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, Nash Family Foundation, and Mr. and Mrs. A. Alfred Taubman.

Additional funding provided by GWFF USA Inc., and Linda and Stuart Nelson.

Generous support has also been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Program Notes:

Through the Eyes of a Composer
James Blachly, Composer
Wadleigh High School

Bernstein’s Mass is a challenging work. It challenges our religious beliefs, it challenges our understanding of the appropriate parameters of theater, and it challenges our understanding of the boundaries between musical styles.

In the first class with my compositional collaborators at Wadleigh, I spoke about these aspects of the piece, played excerpts, discussed the texts, and facilitated a discussion about what they experienced in their lives and wanted to use as a source for the piece we would write together. The texts reflect the nature of the discussions: from the beginning, we were speaking about religion, sexuality, politics, racism, drugs, violence, and death.

There was never a lack of creative input from the students; once they began to create, it was as if the floodgates had opened. I wanted the piece to be not just reflective of their experiences, but to come entirely from them. I made sure that every note that was written was their own, and that every creative decision—from texts to formal structure—was one that they came to as a group. Focusing their ideas into one self-contained piece of music was the challenge, but we met that as a group as well, even taking votes when necessary.

The end result is one that we are all proud of. Like many creative projects, it came together in a rush of coalescing and decision-making, where all the weeks of fleshing out ideas crystallized into a short, dense piece of music.

Getting to know these talented and motivated young musicians was an inspiration. Their composition titled “Unknown Confusion” is about deciding who we are for ourselves and not simply accepting how others perceive us to be. With the confidence and talent that all these students have, I hope they continue to define their own lives, and I look forward to hearing more of their music in the future.