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’s membership comprises 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.
Notable NWC performances include:
- The world premiere of Black Athena ~ Power, by Ray Angry, with the Lexington Symphony (November 2022)
- 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 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 has performed The Music Man (2009), The Pirates of Penzance (2008), and South Pacific in Concert (2007), 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.