The New World Chorale was founded in 1999 by Holly MacEwen Krafka and John Zielinski with the mission of performing the best choral music and the goal of performing with many of the finest orchestras in New England. NWC is engaged by local orchestras and other ensembles to provide needed choral forces for works that require a strong and experienced symphonic chorus. NWC’s members include some of the Boston area’s most experienced choral singers and soloists who have performed both locally and internationally with the world’s major orchestras, especially with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Most orchestras cannot manage to maintain a dedicated chorus of their own, so NWC makes it possible for these fine groups to perform the most ambitious orchestral-choral repertoire with assurance of maintaining the highest artistic standards.
Having reached our 25th anniversary in the fall of 2024, we look back on over 100 performances with 20 local orchestras and ensembles. Some of the highlights are listed below:
- Symphonic Anime, a touring concert series showcasing orchestral music from Japanese animation (September 2024)
- The world premiere of Black Athena ~ Power, by Ray Angry, a work commissioned by the Lexington Symphony (November 2022)
- The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, a touring multimedia production presenting over 30 years of music from The Legend of Zelda™ video game franchise by Nintendo® (October 2017)
- Boston Ballet’s production of Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler: A Ballet by John Neumeier, which was the first production of this ballet by a North American company since Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet made it a signature work in 1975 (October 2015)
- Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the Lexington Symphony (October 2014)
- Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms with the Boston Ballet (March 2013)
- A free concert, sponsored by a grant from the Free for All Concert Fund, at the Mission Church in Boston, MA (October 23, 2011)
- The opening concert of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra’s 2011 summer season at the Hatch Shell, featuring Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor (July 13, 2011)
- Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major (“Symphony of a Thousand”) with the Lexington Symphony and Symphony NH Orchestra and Chorus (November 2010)
- The first classical music concert ever performed at Fenway Park, featuring an abridged version of the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra (July 2010)
- The East Coast premiere of Giya Kancheli’s Styx with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra and featuring violist Roger Tapping (December 2009)
- Our Tenth Anniversary Concert in October 2009, featuring a selection of pieces previously performed by NWC in concerts from 1999 to 2009
Showcasing its versatility, the New World Chorale performed The Music Man, The Pirates of Penzance, and South Pacific in Concert, all with the Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra. In each production, NWC provided the leads and moving choruses from its own membership.
NWC has performed world premieres encompassing a wide range of musical styles. Pieces commissioned and performed include: Opening Day, written for NWC by local composer Tom Hojnacki to texts about baseball by Bill Littlefield, host of the National Public Radio program “Only A Game”; How Sweet the Sound, an arrangement of hymns and spirituals for chorus and organ by John Zielinski; Mass by Gregory Short for chorus, percussion, and audience participation; and Infelix Ego for organ, percussion, brass quartet, and chorus, also by Mr. Zielinski.