New World Chorale (NWC) is holding auditions for new members in all voice parts on Saturday, September 26, starting at 3:00 pm, in the Assembly Room on the lower level of Wellesley Hills Congregational Church, 207 Washington St, Wellesley Hills, MA 02481.

Bring a summary of your singing experience, and be prepared to range test, sing a prepared piece (please bring two extra copies), and sight read. Language facility will also be requested.

NWC’s 2026-27 season includes performances of Giya Kancheli’s “Styx”, Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms”, Bach’s Cantata 80 “Ein Feste Burg,” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, with the possibility of some additional works.

Contact Holly Krafka, NWC’s Artistic Director, at holly.krafka@newworldchorale.org, for a time slot.

New World Chorale joins the Lexington Symphony, under the direction of Jonathan McPhee, in a concert titled “Vivid Images.” Three brilliant depictions that fire the imagination: Richard Strauss’s tone poem about prankster Till Eulenspiegel, Debussy’s stunning portrayal of the sea, and a passage to the land of the dead across the River Styx in Giya Kancheli’s Styx, featuring Lexington Symphony’s Principal Violist, Emily Rideout, and the New World Chorale.

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is one of music’s great declarations of human aspiration. Completed in 1824, when Beethoven was almost completely deaf, it expands the symphony into a vast journey from darkness toward joy. The first movement emerges from mystery and struggle; the scherzo drives forward with fierce rhythmic energy; and the slow movemnet offers luminous serenity. In the finale, voices enter a symphony for the first time on this scale, proclaiming Schiller’s “Ode to Joy.” Beethoven does not present joy as simple happiness, but as fellowship wrested from suffering, doubt, and chaos through courage, art, and shared humanity.

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is one of music’s great declarations of human aspiration. Completed in 1824, when Beethoven was almost completely deaf, it expands the symphony into a vast journey from darkness toward joy. The first movement emerges from mystery and struggle; the scherzo drives forward with fierce rhythmic energy; and the slow movemnet offers luminous serenity. In the finale, voices enter a symphony for the first time on this scale, proclaiming Schiller’s “Ode to Joy.” Beethoven does not present joy as simple happiness, but as fellowship wrested from suffering, doubt, and chaos through courage, art, and shared humanity.