After 57 Seasons, New Amsterdam Singers founder and Music Director Clara Longstreth announced her retirement.

Longstreth founded the chorus in 1968 and has led the group for nearly six decades. During her tenure, she has commissioned 16 new choral works, presented another 92 world, American, and New York premieres, led the chorus in 17 overseas tours, developed a reputation for innovative programming, released two CDs, and established New Amsterdam Singers as a successful avocational choruses in New York City.

Many of Longstreth’s concerts introduced New York audiences to emerging composers and seldom-heard works, having presented premieres by Matthew Harris, Abbie Betinis, Steven Stucky, Steven Sametz, Mark Kilstofte, and Adolphus Hailstork, among others. In 2016, New Amsterdam Singers performed Frank Martin’s oratorio “Golgotha” with orchestra and soloists as guests of Trinity Church Wall Street, the first time the work had been heard in New York City in more than 60 years. In 2000, Longstreth guest-conducted singers from the chorus and the Mannes College Orchestra in a semi-staged performance of the folk opera “Down in the Valley” at Wall-to-Wall Kurt Weill at Symphony Space.

Former New York Times chief classical music critic Anthony Tommasini wrote, “This impressive ensemble has won a loyal following for inventive programs, devised by Clara Longstreth, the group’s longtime conductor, that combine new and old music and unusual works in fresh ways.”

At the end of the current concert season Ben Arendsen will succeed Longstreth in the position. Arendsen is an Associate Professor and Director of Choral Activities at Nassau Community College and has served as music director of the Great Neck Choral Society, the Forest Hills Choir, and the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company of Long Island. He has degrees in music education and conducting from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, City University of New York, where he studied with Maurice Peress.

On hearing the news of Arendsen’s selection, Longstreth said, “Bravo! I think Ben is a great fit for New Amsterdam Singers and its skilled, dedicated singers. I am enormously grateful for the thorough process that led to Ben’s selection, and I am very pleased with the outcome.”