BROOKLYN YOUTH CHORUS’s Grammy Award-winning ensemble, led byFounder & Artistic Director Dianne Berkun Menaker, has collaborated with animpressive range of organizations and artists including the New YorkPhilharmonic, The National, David Byrne, Wye Oak, Bon Iver, Shara Nova,International Contemporary Ensemble, William Brittelle, London Symphony Orchestra, Barbra Streisand, Arcade Fire, Sir Elton John, and Grizzly Bear.
Recordings of the Chorus have been featured in major motion pictures,commercials, and live events, including several tracks in The National’s newconcept album I Am Easy To Find, a new work by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke forrag & bone’s Spring 2016 collection, Chanel Paris’s 2019 Capsule campaignfeaturing Pharrell Williams, and Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s OTR II World Tour. As abold commissioner and producer of new music, the Chorus has introduced intothe repertoire more than 120 original works and world premieres bycontemporary composers, including collaborations with Pulitzer Prize-winnerCaroline Shaw, Blues and R&B powerhouse Toshi Reagon, iconic British DJBishi, The National’s Bryce Dessner, and ubiquitous indie-classical superstar Nico Muhly.
Brooklyn Youth Chorus has garnered a strong reputation as an arts producer.This past season Silent Voices: Lovestate premiered Off-Broadway at The NewVictory Theater. Previous productions include the first two installments of theinclusive, social justice-oriented Silent Voices series (BAM 2017; NationalSawdust 2018); Black Mountain Songs (BAM Next Wave Festival 2014); and Tellthe Way (St. Ann’s Warehouse 2011). The Chorus has released two albumsthrough New Amsterdam Records—Silent Voices (2018) and Black MountainSongs (2017)—and has appeared at important contemporary music festivalsincluding the Ecstatic Music Festival, MusicNOW, 21c Liederabend, Barbican Mountain and Waves Festival, and the PROTOTYPE Festival.
Founded in 1992, Brooklyn Youth Chorus has served nearly 6,000 students overthe course of its history, currently involving more than 700 students in its coreafter-school and public-school outreach programs. The Chorus’s professionalfaculty teach a wide range of repertoire and styles using founding artisticdirector Dianne Berkun Menaker’s proven Cross-Choral Training® method,emphasizing healthy and versatile vocal technique, music theory, sight-singingand ear training. Classes take place at their Cobble Hill headquarters andneighborhood locations in Bay Ridge, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Brooklyn Heights, Crown Heights, Red Hook, and Sunset Park, Brooklyn.