Colin Britt

Well, as they say, it’s been a minute!

Greetings from Long Beach, where our dog and I are spending most of the summer with my wife as she performs for two months in Frozen at Disney. This “vacation” is giving me long overdue time to get caught up on sleep, emails, and some ongoing projects, some of which I’ll be detailing below!

Since my last update, a number of very exciting things have happened. The first was a pair of concerts given jointly by the West Village Chorale and Sky-Pony in March, one at Judson Memorial Church and one at Grace Church Van Vorst as part of their Cathedral Arts Live series. This concert, “Crossing Over,” was an incredibly memorable and compelling performance and I’m very proud of what we created together. You can find video of the complete Jersey City performance, masterfully edited by That Russian Guy, at this link:

And for a sample of the New York performance, check out “Action Movie” (video edited by Tyler Bertram):

Definitely one of the coolest and most exciting performances in recent memory!

Then, in April, I was honored to attend the premiere of my newest work for treble voices, “Imagination,” at CARNEGIE HALL. This piece was commissioned and premiered by the Rutgers University Voorhees Choir, under the superb direction of Dr. Brandon Williams. Ji Hea Hwang is the pianist and Yu Ouyang soars on the violin part.

The piece is a setting of a poem by Phillis Wheatley, the first African-American woman to be published, and it was featured in a concert of musical settings of female poets. This is an excerpt from the sound check:

I kept pinching myself to make sure I was really there, listening to my music in that sacred venue! Thank you to Brandon and the Voorhees Choir for an incredible premiere.

Finally, in June the West Village Chorale joined forces with C4: The Choral Composer-Conductor Collective for a performance of new choral works, including pieces by Bassi, Betinis, Monk, O’Regan, Runestad, Trumbore, and world premieres by Biggs, Sullivan, and yours truly. Karen Siegel conducted the premiere of my newest work for double choir, “Belief,” which tackles the subject of believing survivors of sexual violence and harassment, and incorporated quotes from the Kavanaugh and Thomas hearings, along with high-profile court cases. A fully produced video of the piece is in the works, but you can see the live-streamed video here:

Because of the highly sensitive nature of this piece, I’m including a link to the text and program notes on a separate page: http://www.c4ensemble.org/june-2019-cycle-3.html

There were plenty of other wonderful things that happened this spring, but I’m even more excited to share plans for next year! I’ve just finished the first draft of my piece for the 2020 ACDA High School Honor Choir, which will be premiered in March at the Eastern Regional conference in Rochester. I’m also going to be writing a piece for the 100th anniversary of the Hartt School (and the 70th anniversary of the New Haven Chorale).

Stay tuned for more updates later this month…