About
Our first season
Though he specifically founded this choir for the October 2018 Mile Long Opera, Mr Lévy plans to continue working with CantaNYC after this event. The principal project, along with shorter pieces, will be to perform the US premiere of Human Rights, a choral piece with a jazz-like quartet accompaniment (piano, clarinets, percussion, double bass), which was commissioned for his former student Antoine Miannay by La Cantarela and premiered in a series of concerts in France (first number is https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X_bsVHzJq-w )
From the Composer
It is to Claude Lévy, my former high school music teacher, now friend and colleague, that I owe one of my most interesting (and without a doubt the most difficult) experiences as a composer.
As early as 2008 Claude spoke to me about his idea for a musical project based on the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, a subject that has always impassioned him. It was in the same year that the UDHR celebrated its sixtieth anniversary. On that occasion, at his request, I completed a small work for chorus and recorded soundtrack entitled “All Human Beings,” my initial attempt at setting to music the first article of the Declaration. That could have been the end of the story, but…
I undertook this without considering Claude’s vision, which went much further. In 2011 he offered me a commission,which would result in the creation of Human Rights, a work for chorus and instrumental quartet, based on excerpts of the text of the UDHR. The genre of the work is not easily classifiable. It is neither a true oratorio, as it is essentially secular, nor completely secular, as it upholds certain universal values; nor is it entirely political. From the start the work has proved to be difficult to comprehend, to grasp.
Why do I say that for me this composition was the most difficult to undertake? Out of humility for the subject. These human rights, put forth shortly after a murderous world war, remain, alas, a lofty ideal. What is a composer to do when faced with this reality? Should one dare to treat such a subject, so profoundly grave and fundamental for humanity, with a creative esthetic? What can art bring to human rights, and what would it imply? All these questions assailed me long before I wrote the first note, and I am still questioning it more than six years after the first performance of Human Rights.
In writing this preface I would like to dedicate Human Rights to all those who have suffered, and are still suffering, violations of their human rights, everywhere in the world, regardless of their origins, their beliefs, their ideas. Alas, I do not think that music alone can change anything. Nevertheless, if it can serve to sensitize us, to make it so we don’t forget, so that we don’t take anything for granted, whatever the fragility and lack of force of the undertaking, then our work is not in vain.
I give heartfelt thanks to my friend Claude Lévy, for having given me the confidence to set to music this difficult subject, and for having brought the project to fruition in 2012. I use the word “difficult” as it leads us to the fundamental question: “What can we do make this world a better place, and to insure that human rights are respected?”
In the following pages you will find my musical proposal, the result of my reflections on the subject presented here.
In conclusion, I sincerely hope that we can forward look to a time when works such as Human Rights will no longer be necessary.
- Antoine Miannay
November 23, 2018
(translated from the French by Lauren Taylor)
Conductor’s biography
Claude Lévy, choral conductor and former "agrégé" music teacher, founded La Cantarela, an award-winning chorus, in his hometown of Béziers, France. A versatile conductor, he chose a repertoire ranging from the Renaissance chanson to 21st century premieres, focusing on such major oratorio works like Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven's Mass in C or Rossini's Stabat Mater.
Making New York his home since 2013, Mr Lévy has sung with / been an assistant conductor for / led sectionals of / accompanied / subbed for / conducted
His interest in 21st century music encouraged him to sign up for the 2016 world premiere of David Lang’s "the public domain", commissioned by the Mostly Mozart Festival, where he became one of Dr. Deborah Simpkin King’s “Group Leaders.” This led her to choose him as her Associate Conductor for “In The Name of The Earth,” the 2018 Mostly Mozart commission by composer John Luther Adams, to be premiered on August 11, 2018
https://inthenameoftheearth.org .
His familiarity with David Lang’s choral music naturally led to his interest in taking part in another David Lang world premiere, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/arts/music/high-line-mile-long-opera-david-lang.html, a project for which he created his own CantaNYC, a tribute to both La Cantarela and the hospitality and musicianship of New York City.
Mr Lévy was initially trained as a pianist by a former student of Alfred Cortot, and also enjoys playing various instruments, such as the recorder and the cello.
Though he specifically founded this choir for the October 2018 Mile Long Opera, Mr Lévy plans to continue working with CantaNYC after this event. The principal project, along with shorter pieces, will be to perform the US premiere of Human Rights, a choral piece with a jazz-like quartet accompaniment (piano, clarinets, percussion, double bass), which was commissioned for his former student Antoine Miannay by La Cantarela and premiered in a series of concerts in France (first number is https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X_bsVHzJq-w )
From the Composer
It is to Claude Lévy, my former high school music teacher, now friend and colleague, that I owe one of my most interesting (and without a doubt the most difficult) experiences as a composer.
As early as 2008 Claude spoke to me about his idea for a musical project based on the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, a subject that has always impassioned him. It was in the same year that the UDHR celebrated its sixtieth anniversary. On that occasion, at his request, I completed a small work for chorus and recorded soundtrack entitled “All Human Beings,” my initial attempt at setting to music the first article of the Declaration. That could have been the end of the story, but…
I undertook this without considering Claude’s vision, which went much further. In 2011 he offered me a commission,which would result in the creation of Human Rights, a work for chorus and instrumental quartet, based on excerpts of the text of the UDHR. The genre of the work is not easily classifiable. It is neither a true oratorio, as it is essentially secular, nor completely secular, as it upholds certain universal values; nor is it entirely political. From the start the work has proved to be difficult to comprehend, to grasp.
Why do I say that for me this composition was the most difficult to undertake? Out of humility for the subject. These human rights, put forth shortly after a murderous world war, remain, alas, a lofty ideal. What is a composer to do when faced with this reality? Should one dare to treat such a subject, so profoundly grave and fundamental for humanity, with a creative esthetic? What can art bring to human rights, and what would it imply? All these questions assailed me long before I wrote the first note, and I am still questioning it more than six years after the first performance of Human Rights.
In writing this preface I would like to dedicate Human Rights to all those who have suffered, and are still suffering, violations of their human rights, everywhere in the world, regardless of their origins, their beliefs, their ideas. Alas, I do not think that music alone can change anything. Nevertheless, if it can serve to sensitize us, to make it so we don’t forget, so that we don’t take anything for granted, whatever the fragility and lack of force of the undertaking, then our work is not in vain.
I give heartfelt thanks to my friend Claude Lévy, for having given me the confidence to set to music this difficult subject, and for having brought the project to fruition in 2012. I use the word “difficult” as it leads us to the fundamental question: “What can we do make this world a better place, and to insure that human rights are respected?”
In the following pages you will find my musical proposal, the result of my reflections on the subject presented here.
In conclusion, I sincerely hope that we can forward look to a time when works such as Human Rights will no longer be necessary.
- Antoine Miannay
November 23, 2018
(translated from the French by Lauren Taylor)
Conductor’s biography
Claude Lévy, choral conductor and former "agrégé" music teacher, founded La Cantarela, an award-winning chorus, in his hometown of Béziers, France. A versatile conductor, he chose a repertoire ranging from the Renaissance chanson to 21st century premieres, focusing on such major oratorio works like Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven's Mass in C or Rossini's Stabat Mater.
Making New York his home since 2013, Mr Lévy has sung with / been an assistant conductor for / led sectionals of / accompanied / subbed for / conducted
- The Canby Singers
- Essential Voices USA
- The Cecilia Chorus of New York
- The Friday Night Sight Singing Group
- The Barnard-Columbia Chorus
- The Renaissance Street Singers
His interest in 21st century music encouraged him to sign up for the 2016 world premiere of David Lang’s "the public domain", commissioned by the Mostly Mozart Festival, where he became one of Dr. Deborah Simpkin King’s “Group Leaders.” This led her to choose him as her Associate Conductor for “In The Name of The Earth,” the 2018 Mostly Mozart commission by composer John Luther Adams, to be premiered on August 11, 2018
https://inthenameoftheearth.org .
His familiarity with David Lang’s choral music naturally led to his interest in taking part in another David Lang world premiere, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/arts/music/high-line-mile-long-opera-david-lang.html, a project for which he created his own CantaNYC, a tribute to both La Cantarela and the hospitality and musicianship of New York City.
Mr Lévy was initially trained as a pianist by a former student of Alfred Cortot, and also enjoys playing various instruments, such as the recorder and the cello.