C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective

C4 Premieres I: Inhale

We are excited to announce our first C4 Premieres concert of the season - Inhale - on Saturday October 19th in The Church of St. Luke in the Fields.

C4 is devoted to growth within choral composition. Our Premieres concerts allow composers the opportunity to refine their pieces during the rehearsal process, with guidance and feedback from C4 singers, composers and conductors.

A second Premieres concert follows on Saturday, December 14.

TICKETS HERE

Spring 2024 Concert
Arthur Rimbaud: This Fugitive Soul

Thanks to everyone who attended our spring concert, Arthur Rimbaud: This Fugitive Soul, both live and via livestream. It was a great success, and pushed C4 in another new direction: semi-staged choral opera.

The poet Arthur Rimbaud burst upon the Paris literary scene at the age of 17, making a name for himself with his shocking, visionary poetry, and his equally shocking lifestyle. But he turned his back on poetry completely just a few years later. He traveled the world, and then lived in Ethiopia for several years before his early death at 37. During his time in remote obscurity, his reputation grew to the point that there were calls for a statue to be erected in his honor. But despite many rumors of his whereabouts, the first confirmed sighting was at his funeral in his hometown on the Belgian border.

Featuring:
Muir Ingliss as Rimbaud
Louis Barker, violin
Athos Maelstrom, cello
John Root, piano
Perry Townsend*, melodica

Compositions by:
Steven Gerber, Mario C. Gullo*, Brian Mountford*, Bettina Sheppard,
Martha Sullivan and Perry Townsend*
* indicates current C4 member

See more information about Rimbaud and about the concert.

Audition for C4

C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective holds regular auditions for all voice parts in Manhattan. The audition will consist of vocalizing for range and timbre, a prepared piece which will be e-mailed one week beforehand, rhythmic and melodic sight singing, and a blending exercise.

C4 is a semi-professional new music choir, directed and operated collectively by its singing members. It is both a presenting ensemble and a workshop chorus for the emerging composers and conductors at the core of the group. It is one of the few choral groups in the nation to focus exclusively on the music of our time, performing only music written in the last 25 years. The repertoire is challenging and requires members to have excellent musicianship skills and sight reading ability. Practice tracks are made available for both the audition and concert repertoire. Singers should have choral experience and a strong interest in contemporary music. C4 is looking for people of all ages, esp. college musicians and recent grads, and to further diversify the ensemble.

Rehearsals are on Thursday evenings from 7-10 PM. A small honorarium is paid to members.

If you are interested in setting up an audition slot, please email [email protected].
Visit c4ensemble.org/ and youtube.com/c/C4Ensemble/featured for more information about the group and performance samples.

Announcing c4net.work

The C4 Network is a loose federation of like-minded new music choruses around the country. We are proud to announce the launch of the Network's website, c4net.work. You can find out more about the Network and member choruses, but the most important feature is a database of new choral music performed by the member choruses and/or composed by members of the choruses. Searchable by mood, voicing, composer and more, we hope it can serve as a resource for choruses looking for new music to perform.

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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.

Rimbaud concert listed on Broadway World!

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

"All in all, this was one of the most enthralling operas I’ve ever seen. [Arthur Rimbaud: This Fugitive Soul] From the impressive skill of all the musicians to the intense logistics of the production, it was certainly a night to remember!"
~ Lili Tobias Oberon's Grove

"Arthur Rimbaud: This Fugitive Soul,...is one of the best things the group has ever done....The fact that you were able to agree upon some common harmonic materials from Steve’s [Gerber] cantata [Une Saison en Enfer], and, as I understand, a tone row supplied by Martha [Sullivan], enabled you to achieve a unified piece in a unified musical language that amplified Steve’s music and, I believe, enhanced its effect. It was as if Steve’s music had found its perfect context, like a gemstone placed in its ideal setting...Muir Ingliss was an excellent soloist...It was a great performance, an exciting new adventure, and a fascinating exploration of a new genre, the choral opera."
~ Hayes Biggs, composer