Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/2513252182056436

Restoring the Opera Aria and the Hymn – a concert of newly written hymns presented together with opera arias new and old, will be presented at St. Jean Baptiste Church, E. 76th St., Manhattan on November 16th at 7:30 pm, admission by donation, with some of the most promising free-lance opera singers in New York, including Costa Tsourakis, Cheryl Warfield, Madison McIntosh, Ulla Westlund, and others, accompanied by Tristan Cano at the piano.

The concert is funded and presented by Webster Young (composer member and founder of this blog site), former candidate for Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA , US government)  and composer of 170 works of music including six operas. 50% of the net proceeds of this concert will go to Restore the Arts, Inc.

The concert will celebrate the publication of “15 Hymns on Psalms or Gospels”, new hymns written in the melodic traditions of the Anglican Hymnal and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The new hymns are intended to make a permanent contribution to all Christian music. The first half of the program will be a performance of the hymns by the cast of opera singers, and the second half will include

G. F. Handel (Thus Saith the Lord, Rejoice Greatly, Ombra Mai Fu)

W. A. Young (two arias from Orpheus and As You Like It),

J. Massenet (En Fermant les Yeux),

L. Refice (Por Amor di Gesu from Cecilia),

P. Mascagni (Ave Maria),

G. Puccini (Senza Mamma), and

Felix Mendelsson (Lord God of Abraham from Elijah)

(with encores prepared).

There will be a “post view” or “postlude event” of the concert in Manhattan, at which Young will speak about Restore the Arts, and arias will be sung by some of the singers from the concert. (see the event Facebook Page: “Restore the Arts Events”)

Restore the Arts, Inc. is affiliated in mission with the 3 year old blog site at RestoretheArts.net and is dedicated to a restoration of all the fine arts under the banner of neoclassicism and beauty, which it seeks to define in an ongoing process with its academy of artists who have been brought together in a think tank for the arts. One of its innovative concerns is that the debate on the NEA in the US could be positively influenced by the model of French support of the arts. The academy is mostly French-American and includes 5 composers, 4 poets and writers, 2 ballet choreographers, a publisher, film maker, and philanthropist. One of the poets involved, Phillipe Delaveau, was asked to be Poet Laureate of France, and some new translations are at the blog site. It also represents two artists posthumously, including Kenneth Frantz, an unknown painter of the California Bay Area Renaissance who was the best friend of the American poet Brother Antoninus (William Everson).  

Webster Young has been an arts administrator and is a neoclassical composer. He directed the Long Island Opera for 7 years, and before that, helped found Ballet in the Park in Ashland, Oregon, where he became the most prolific American composer for ballet before Martins-Torke. His family is related to Otto Harbach, the essential Broadway lyricist who wrote “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and many other Broadway shows and lyrics.  Young’s preview talk with music will be announced at the Facebook Page (recordings included) “Restore the Arts Events”,  and at RestoretheArts.net.  For news, interviews, and photos contact: Operacompany@Onebox.com