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What's New at Highbridge Voices?
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Highbridge Voices Completes Its 2009 Fall Semester
Photo courtesy of Jessica Diaz Highbridge Voices completed its 2009 Fall semester in grand style with a spectacular holiday performance in the sanctuary of Sacred Heart Church in the Bronx. The Highbridge Voices Concert Choir performed two works by Franz Schubert and selections from West Side Story before turning the stage over to the Chamber Choir. Highbridge Voices' Chamber Choir ushered the audience into the holidays with special renditions of 'Angels We Have Heard On High', 'Silent Night' in German, and 'Here Comes Santa Claus' before welcoming the Concert Choir back to the stage. All together once again, the full complement of Highbridge Voices backed up the incomparable Connie James in a rendition of Michael Ward's 'Innkeeper's Song'. After a standing ovation for their collaboration, the students of Highbridge Voices brought a joyous conclusion to the evening's event with rousing renditions of 'Sleigh Ride' and ''Til the Season'. Recorded for broadcast on Bronxnet, this concert was the perfect culmination of our students' hard work. With nearly 100 hours of rehearsal, 13 voice lessons, and 120 hours of classes during the semester, it was the dedication of each Highbridge Voices student that made such a wonderful performance possible.
With fifteen performances in 2009, Highbridge Voices is well on its way to making 2010 their best season yet. Please check our Performance Info link for upcoming performances and events.
Highbridge Voices Presents Its 2009 Winter Concert
Highbridge Voices will be celebrating the 2009 holiday season with their annual Winter Concert at Sacred Heart Church on December 18th at 6:30PM. A long time presence in the Highbridge community, Highbridge Voices is a children’s choir based in a music and academic after-school program in the South Bronx. Come feel the excitement as our Concert Choir gives its first public performance of the academic year and hear for yourself as the new Highbridge Voices Chamber Choir reprises the selections they performed at the Macy’s Holiday Window Unveiling in November. In this year’s concert, the choirs will be performing classical works by Bizet and Schubert, Broadway selections from West Side Story, as well as a number of traditional holiday favorites. This Highbridge Voices performance is free and open to the public, so come join us at Sacred Heart Church, 1253 Shakespeare Avenue, for this Bronx holiday tradition.
Highbridge Voices Opens the 2009 Holiday Season at the Macy's Holiday Window Unveiling!
On Thursday, November 19th, Highbridge Voices helped to usher in New York City's 2009 Holiday season by performing at the unveiling ceremony of Macy’s spectacular Holiday Windows at the flagship Herald Square location of the world-renowned department store. Joining guest host David Ogden Stiers, who is currently starring in Irving Berlin’s White Christmas on Broadway, Highbridge Voices began their performance with a rousing rendition of ‘Angels We Have Heard on High’ arranged by Bruno Casolari. Following their opening selection, the twenty-eight Chamber Choir members dressed in their signature maroon blazers and royal blue bow ties continued their performance with the classic Christmas song, ‘Sleigh Ride’. Not long after, having donned red Santa hats, the choir concluded their participation in this landmark holiday event with a performance of their own rendition of ‘Here Comes Santa Claus’. This event was a terrific chance for Highbridge Voices Chamber Choir members, both new and returning, to showcase a few of the musical selections that they have been working on during the current semester and a particular highlight for this group of young singers was to share the stage with such television personalities as Katharine McPhee, a past American Idol contestant, and Emily Osment from Hannah Montana. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience for us to help Macy's celebrate the beginning of the 2009 holiday season. Upcoming, the Highbridge Voices Chamber Choir will be performing at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Club, in a special performance at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, and also in their annual holiday concert in the Highbridge community of the South Bronx.
Highbridge Voices' Chamber Choir Honors Bronx Veterans with a Special Veterans' Day Concert
The Highbridge Voices Chamber Choir will be honoring the veterans of The James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx with a Veterans' Day concert in the Medical Center chapel on November 11, 2009 at 2:00PM. Many Highbridge Voices students have had either relatives or friends that have served in the United States Armed Forces in recent years and they are very excited to be singing for the soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Bronx on Veterans' Day. As always, the Chamber Choir will perform a wide variety of musical selections that are certain to please every taste. From German Lieder to a few Latin American Folksongs, and of course, American favorites for Veterans' Day, the performance program has been planned to ensure that the audience at our local VA Medical Center enjoys this special holiday. For more information about this performance or other upcoming Highbridge Voices engagements, please feel free to call us at 718-293-8759.
The Fall 2009 Semester Has Begun!
Featuring the Return of Private Voice Lessons and an Exciting New Staff & Faculty
Fall 2009 is here and its arrival ushers
in a particularly exciting semester for the Perhaps the most exciting change at Highbridge Voices is the return of private voice lessons for every student. Again this semester, there will be five professional voice teachers on the music faculty. They come with a wide range of professional performing and teaching experience and are exceptionally qualified to guide the students of our program in the wide variety of musical styles that they will be performing in the coming year.
Emily Duncan-Brown joins the
faculty with a degree from Mannes College having toured for two years
with Cirque du Soleil and having recently received a
In continuing our commitment to excellence, Highbridge Voices has redoubled its efforts to support the academic success of its participants. Denise Cotton joins the staff as academic instructor after studies in English, arts, and literature at the University of Wisconsin, The New School, and Stanford University. Ms. Cotton also brings extensive classroom teaching experience to the program including work at the Harlem Children's Zone and the South Bronx Classical Charter School. Also in support of Highbridge Voices' tutoring and academic component are Erin Kaufman and Rochelle Moyd who will work as Vista volunteers with both Highbridge Voices and Highbridge Community Life.
Finally, Highbridge Voices is
thrilled to announce the addition of Jessica Rawlins Highbridge Voices is excited to share these new additions to the program with its students. To learn more about Highbridge Voices' new staff and faculty, please visit our faculty and staff page which is located here.
A Summer of Fun: studying at home and in the city
Highbridge Voices is using the summer of
2009 to share with its students a whole
A number of the Highbridge Voices’ summer
2009 trips have already been completed. To date, students have enjoyed
the Bronx Zoological Garden, The American Museum of Natural History, the
Hayden Planetarium, Bear Mountain State Park, and The Metropolitan
Museum of Art. These trips have been incredibly well received by the
students and have produced some amazing reactions. Pablo Quezada, while
being interviewed by the Hayden Planetarium staff, expressed a keen
interest in something that was new to him; dark matter. Four Highbridge
Voices students showed incredible goal-oriented commitment while pushing
their physical limits on a seven mile hike to the top of Bear
But summer at
Highbridge Voices doesn’t end there; three of our older students are
also spending a significant
The 2009 Highbridge Voices Benefit Concert: A Glimpse into the Future
On Thursday, May 21st, 2009, the famed Bronx children's choir, Highbridge Voices, gave their audience a glimpse into the musical and academic future of its youth through their performance in the 2009 Highbridge Voices Benefit Concert at the Dicapo Opera Theatre on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Fresh off a successful concert that morning at the inauguration ceremonies of the new Bronx Borough President, Ruben Diaz, Jr., Highbridge Voices was thrilled to travel to Manhattan to perform for their many supporters in this annual event. Certainly, the choir's performance brought back memories of old with their precise musicianship and powerful stage presence, but it was the glimpse into the choir's future that had the near capacity audience abuzz. The youth of the 2009 Highbridge Voices displayed a new-found warmth in their collective sound and a joy in their performance that can only signal amazing things to come for this choir from the Highbridge section of the South Bronx.
The concert began with a rousing rendition of Sing Jubilate Deo that made full use of the choir's strength in tight, three-part harmonies. Following the opening number, the choir showed off their ability to sing in various foreign languages with two impeccably interpreted German selections; Du bist die Ruh and Heidenröslein. And next, to round out the first half of the program, the Concert Choir performed a set of three Caribbean songs. The three featured songs were a wonderful mix of national traditions and musical variation, but what was most impressive was that the choir seemed equally at home in each of the song's musical styles; the long lines of La Borinqueña, the reggae rhythms of One Love, and the rhythmic fireworks of Palo Bonito. After those numbers, the Concert Choir was given a well-deserved break while the audience was treated to an intimate Chamber Choir performance of four Haitian Folk Songs which they performed in Creole French. With their range of dynamics and their nuanced phrasing of these pieces, it is no wonder that Highbridge Voices' Chamber Choir has been heard at so many high profile events. If these four songs are any indication, the new Highbridge Voices Chamber Choir is ready to make a serious musical impression in New York City.
After again returning to the very tight harmonies that have become a trademark of Bruno Casolari's arrangements, Blackbird proved to be the perfect transition from the Chamber Choir's solo turn to the reentry of the Concert Choir. The entire choir, together on stage again, joined in a joyous telling of the Lennon & McCartney story-in-song; Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da to finish this pair of Beatles hits. And finally, there could only be one way to end such a well-performed program by Highbridge Voices and that would be with their signature piece, I Believe I Can Fly. Originally debuted in 1998, last Thursday night's performance of this musical embodiment of the Highbridge Voices mission could not have been better or more well received. It was the perfect ending to a concert that celebrated the beginning of Highbridge Voices’ second decade serving the children of the Highbridge community. Most probably, the majority of performers that had worked so hard to perfect their performance for Thursday night will not go on to have careers in the arts. However, the hallmark of Highbridge Voices is that each one of them will now have had an experience of excellence, as achieved through their own hard work, and can now apply that experience to other aspects of their lives; namely, their academic performance and personal choices.
The 2009 HIGHBRIDGE VOICES Valentine's Day Party
Of the more than seventy students who attended the party, many said that the holiday events at Highbridge Voices were some of the best activities to attend. “It is so great to get to spend Valentine’s Day with my friends,” said Diomarys Mendez, “I don’t know where else I would be able to do that.”
There was also something interesting that revealed itself at the party. We found The 2009 Highbridge Voices Valentine’s Day Party was a big success and we were thrilled to see so many of our students celebrating Valentine’s Day with us. Yes, it’s back to school for them on Monday, but before that, two movie days and the Chamber Choir’s first two rehearsals should keep them all in good spirits and pretty busy.
HIGHBRIDGE VOICES STUDENT RECEIVES 2009 YANKEE LEADERSHIP AWARD
Highbridge Voices is very proud to announce that one of its students, Robert Cortijo, has been named a 2009 Yankee Leadership Award recipient. As such, Robert has been awarded $500 from the New York Yankees Community Council and can use that money to help with his school expenses or to continue his work in the community. Robert joined Highbridge Voices in 2001 as a member of the Training Choir. Since then, Robert has distinguished himself as a leader within the organization. Blessed with great talent, Robert’s singing is just the beginning of Robert Cortijo (center) with his family at the Awards Ceremony what he gives to Highbridge Voices. Robert has consistently taken leadership roles within the organization; mentoring some of its younger members, regularly assisting the staff in class and in the office, and serving as an ambassador for the program when performing with the Chamber Choir. A sophomore at the Renaissance High School for Musical Theater, Robert has been awarded the Inventor’s Convention Award for his work in science and was recently seen as the Prince in his school’s performance of Into the Woods. Also a big fan of baseball, Robert cheers for his neighborhood team, the New York Yankees, and is proud to be the starting catcher for the Brooklyn Bombers, a Babe Ruth League Traveling Team. In an effort to acknowledge young people who are providing a positive service to their community, the New York Yankees work in conjunction with the 12 community boards of the Bronx to identify five area youth in each district that are making a difference. These youth make up The New York Yankees Community Council Leadership Corporation. Highbridge Voices congratulates Robert on his 2009 Yankee Leadership Award and the fine work he does in his community, at school, and at Highbridge Voices.
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Last updated on 22 January 2010
students of Highbridge
Voices. The coming semester will feature the return of private
voice lessons, a new Music Theory instructor teaching a revised
curriculum, a brand new Music Styles and Literature curriculum aimed at
using music history to reinforce the skills laid out in the New York
State standards for English language arts, and an additional day of
programming where every Highbridge Voices student will be able to
work with a New York State certified teacher and academic tutors to
improve their understanding and success in mathematics. As always,
our students will continue to have homework assistance and two full
choir rehearsals each week.
grant from the
George London Foundation. Claire Kuttler has extensive
concert experience and recently returned from a summer at Central City
Opera and also performed for President Obama on the morning of his
inauguration. Nora Plutzik is a recent graduate of the
University of the Pacific and has toured in Europe with productions of
both Sondheim's Assassins and A Little Night Music.
Brittney Redler, a graduate of NYU and Ithaca College, was seen
most recently in Chelsea Opera's production of Puccini's Suar
Angelica and in two musical theater cabarets in NYC.
Amaranta Viera is a specialist in the performance of early and
Baroque music and holds degrees in both English Literature and Music
from Williams College and studied historical performance at Mannes
College, and returning as vocal faculty chair is James Bobick who
has performance credits including Seattle Opera, New York City Opera,
Opera Omaha, and concerts with the Prague Symphony, San Jose Symphony
(Costa Rica) and the Orchestra Pasdeloup in Paris. Teaching Music
Theory, William Janiszewski joins Highbridge Voices having
graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in Music
Education and recently returned from Cape Town, South Africa where he
served as an instructor of music theory, guitar, voice, and advisor of
songwriting and performance.
to the staff
as Administrative Coordinator. Ms. Rawlins is a graduate of
Dartmouth College and comes to the program not only with significant
experience in arts administration, but also with performance experience
including featured solos with the Dartmouth Gospel Choir at the New
Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and New York City's Jazz at Lincoln
Center.
new world of learning by
reinforcing the idea that learning can be fun. Throughout the summer,
current Highbridge Voices students will join the Highbridge Voices staff
on various field trips throughout New York City. 
Mountain.
Richard Camacho, surveying the Arms and Armor section of the Met museum, noted that all the exhibits
were arranged in chronological order. “I really like seeing the armor in
chronological order,” he said, “because it helps me understand how the
people got better at protecting themselves throughout history”. And
perhaps most inspiring, Sadia Perez and Shanet White had a rather
lengthy conversation over lunch about the ethical implications of
gathering animals from their natural habitat in order to populate
zoological parks. It is those observations and discussions that make
these trips not only great fun for
our students, but experiences that
can better shape the way they see their city and themselves. And who
knows what great revelations lie ahead on our outings to The Statue of
Liberty, Ellis Island and Harriman State Park? We can hardly wait.
Thursday night began with
the supporters of Highbridge Voices joining for a pre-concert cocktail
reception catered by Sonnier & Castle. Highbridge Voices greatly
appreciates the support it has been shown by its patrons and Thursday's
performance could not have been possible if it weren't for the hard work
and dedication of the Event Co-Chairs. They were Mary Corigliano
Carbone, Frank Corigliano, Eileen M. Dillon, Mark Mazzella, Ann
Thivierge, and Vito Verni. Highbridge Voices is truly
appreciative for their past and ongoing support of its programs.
The party started at 3:30PM with some music, chips, and soda
and it wasn’t very long before Stephanie Espinal suggested a game of
musical chairs. Everyone helped with the set up 
that Highbridge Voices boys were more interested in playing video games at the party and our girls were more
interested in dancing. However, there were a couple of boys who were equally at home doing both. “Food, video games, and that
dance circle… That was my favorite part. I got to dance in front of everybody!” exclaimed Rafael Morales. It was terrific to see everybody having so
much fun.
