How Low Can We Go?
C4 Goes Low Latency


​We performed another live remote choral concert! After the success of our first (and THE first) such concert and fielding many great questions from our audience about working with the lag of live online performing, we focused this performance on experimenting with low latency. While the first concert featured entirely asynchronous music, embracing the latency inherent in online performance platforms, this concert contrasted that aesthetic with experiments in synchronous remote music making.

Joined by guests from two C4 Network ensembles (Inversion Ensemble and C3LA: Contemporary Choral Collective of Los Angeles), this concert featured the world premiere of C4 composer Brian Mountford’s “The Next Child Waits,” C4 composer Bettina Sheppard’s “Love Is Anterior to Life,” and Sarah Rimkus’s “Oh God, thy sea is so great…” a piece chosen for its aleatoric form. We had a great Q&A session with the composers and ensemble immediately following the performance - thank you for sending in so many good questions in the live chat!

This livestream performance was free to attend, and you can catch the recording on our YouTube channel. Virtual tips are accepted through C4’s Venmo account: @c4ensmble. Tips can also be made via credit card through our website, as well as through PayPal at info@c4ensemble.org. Thank you for supporting the choral arts in this difficult time!

C4 performs first-ever
​live remote choral concert!

"Thank you for breaking the choral silence that has descended upon the world. As always, C4 is finding ways to make music that many of us have not imagined." - David Hurd

"Thank you for breaking the tech ceiling in our new normal!"
​- Lauren Fowler-Calisto 
We are happy to report that our first live remote concert was a great success! We had a fantastic virtual turn-out, and it was so much fun interacting with our audience via live chat and during our Q&A session. We're already planning our next live-stream concert, so make sure you join our e-mail list to stay in the loop. Thanks to all who participated in this first-of-its-kind performance!
​ 
This concert featured two pieces: Karen Siegel's newly composed "Here I Am," as well as Arvo Pärt's "The Beatitudes," which was adapted for remote singing. The score for "Here I Am" is available for free download - check it out here.

Over the past few weeks, C4 has been working hard to figure out the best way for multiple singers to perform together live while each residing in a different place - something other choirs have not yet done in this age of social distancing. Luckily, we're a choir full of composers who are writing new works specifically for this medium, using the technical limitations and glitches inherent in live, remote singing as an intentional aesthetic.

As you can imagine, we went through hours of experimentation to determine the technological needs for this type of live remote music-making. We've documented our findings and instructions on our process in this document, which you are welcome to use for your own live remote projects.

C4 performs at Queensborough Community College

C4 travelled to Queensborough Community College for a noontime performance for music students and community members. We performed some works from our latest concert cycle, a couple past favorites, and a new piece by QCC faculty member André Brégégère. To engage the students directly, we included a couple pieces with sections that we could teach to the audience. In this video, Daniel Andor-Ardó teaches the audience to sing along with the round melody in Brian Mountford's Lest We Be Scattered.

2019 Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming

We are thrilled to announce that C4 has won the 2019 Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. This is the second time C4 has won this prestigious award, the first time being in 2014. 

The Chorus America/ASCAP Adventurous Programming Awards recognize choruses that demonstrate a sustained commitment to adventurous programming through performances of choral music written in the last 25 years. 

About C4

The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective is a unique ensemble of singers, composers and conductors, performing pieces written within the last 25 years, premiering and commissioning new choral works, and mentoring emerging singers, composers, and conductors of today's choral music.
In a city teeming with exceptional vocal ensembles of every kind, C4 is a standout, not just because of their fine programming and unique collaborative structure, but also for their consistently beautiful and balanced sound, excellent precision, warmth, and energy.
~ Lauren Alfano, I Care If You Listen
A highlight was Niimi’s Concerto for Chorus (Bios)...which was given a scintillating account by 18 singers in the ensemble C4, with Timothy Brown conducting...[T]his nine-minute a cappella work for mixed chorus featured much divisi writing and complex polyrhythms that Brown and the singers transformed into exhilarating vocal pyrotechnics.
~ John Fleming, Classical Voice North America
Their subtly attuned awareness of each others' musical movements makes their technical virtuosity seem near effortless.
~ Jean Ballard Terepka, Theatre Scene
They seem to revel in the challenges other choirs avoid like the plague. ... The group's dynamic is a lesson in exceeding expectations.
~ Christian Carey, Sequenza 21
(photos by Keith Goldstein unless otherwise noted)