This group is the best! The New York Holiday Choristers are New York City’s most fun & musical professional holiday carolers! I made an audition last year, and they invited me to be part of the group! I couldn’t be happier! Now I am in my second season singing with them, and having the opportunity to sing Christmas songs in this time of the year is just a blessing!

The New York Holiday Choristers are the only Christmas caroling group built to make booking your holiday and Christmas party entertainment as hassle-free as possible, combining fresh versions of cherished standards & truly contemporary music in a single acapella group with an innovative online booking system and unprecedented flexibility.

If I were you, I would definitely invite them to make your Christmas event MAGICAL!

http://www.newyorkholidaychoristers.com/

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I couldn’t be happier! Bubbles just got an awesome review by Jean Ballard Terepka! She is an archivist and intellectual historian from New York City!
Last week C4 (www.c4ensemble.org) premiered my piece Bubbles on the first two concerts of their 2014-2015 season. Ms Terepka was in the audience. Take a look at what she wrote:

“Bubbles proved to be a perfect way to end the evening. The text, as C4 composer and Bubbles poet Bill Heigen, noted, is “an attempt to compare life with a bubble.” Bubbles shimmer, float and fly; they bump into other bubbles (and things), and then, with a pop we imagine we hear, they’re gone. Though bubbles contains a familiar carpe diem message, the music’s exploration of particular moments of life–a bubble’s and our own–by means of distinct, though often overlapping singing by choir sections, subsections, and choir divisions by gender as well as by constant CHANGES of dynamics, rhythms, tones and keys makes the old dictum feel quite original.

The music alternates passages of intimacy and expansiveness, endearing silliness and stealth gravitas, memorable loveliness and shiny, transparent evanescence and loss. Conducting the lovely music with evident happiness, Siadat also made exuberant cascades of bubbles with a bright blue bubble gun (as did dancer Anastasia Wiebe, perched like a quiet, good girl on a chair by Siadat, while some audience members blew bubbles, too). The piece – about bubbles! – ended with a great swell of choral glory.”

Here you can read the whole review that also talks about the other pieces on C4’s concert:

http://www.theaterscene.net/music/c-4-1-on-1/jean-ballard-terepka/

Here you can listen to the audio from the dress rehearsal:

Two months ago I was invited by Mr. Joao Macdowell (Artistic Director of iBoc) to write three choral pieces for the Iboc Singers in collaboration with the awesome Brazilian writer Marcos Bassini. After some fruitful meetings, the choral song cycle “Nights Cariocas” was born! I can’t wait to hear those pieces being performed by those singers under the direction of their conductor Neviton Barros!

This cycle is a poetic picture of how some people in Rio de Janeiro have fun, fall in love, and enjoy the night. Each song explores elements from very distinctive rhythms such as funk, bossa-nova, and samba. The words are full of Brazilian slangs, and the text is full of excellent poetry. Mr. Bassini knows well how to use the Portuguese language!

I am thrilled for being part of this! The iBoc is an amazing organization that brings to the world the new face of the contemporary opera. Many thanks to Mr. Macdowell for making this work an achievable dream.

If you wanna have more information about this company, here is a brief description:

“The International Brazilian Opera Company (iBoc) is a New York based non-profit organization that supports the creation and development of new operatic repertoire that combines ideas from both Brazilian and international artists.”

More: http://brazilianopera.com/

Hey guys, check this out! 2 really cool concerts next week!

C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective Presents

1 on 1: Music for Solo Instruments and Choir
First Concerts of 2014-15 Season on November 13 in Brooklyn and November 15 in Manhattan

What: 1 on 1: Music for Solo Instruments and Choir
When: Thursday, November 13 and Saturday, November 15 – 8:00 PM each evening
Where: November 13 at Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main Street in Brooklyn
November 15 at Church of St. Luke in the Fields, 487 Hudson Street in Manhattan
URL: http://www.c4ensemble.org/november-2014-concerts.html

1 on 1: Music for Solo Instruments and Choir will feature performances of really cool pieces from live composers, and also C4 will premiere my piece called “Bubbles”! I am so excited! “Bubbles” is written for choir a cappella SSAATTBB plus bubble machine! It is a piece for your ears and for your eyes. Come on, everybody likes to play with bubbles right? Don’t miss the opportunity to see and hear this piece! C4 is doing a great job!

Tickets for the November 13 and 15 concerts are $20 in advance, $25 day of performance, with 10 $4 “Rush” admissions 30 minutes advance at the door. A reception will follow the Saturday evening performance (it means FREE FOOD!!!). Tickets can be ordered at http://www.c4ensemble.org/november-2014-concerts.html.

For more concert information, call 516-586-3433 or email jamesarts@att.net. All C4 concerts are ADA accessible.