New York Choral Society to Present ‘God is Seen’ Short Film

By Logan Martell

On Feb. 23, 2021, the New York Choral Society will present the third installment of its virtual season, “Our Voices,” with the premiere of Alice Parker’s famous arrangement of the shape note hymn “God is Seen.”

Shot in Irondale Theater, this short film will see the chorus joined by dancers Larissa Gerszke of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and Chalvar Monteiro of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; they will perform a ballet pas de deux performed by award-winning choreographer Claudia Schreier.

Music directed by David Hayes, the chorus will include 40 of the company’s 150 singers, the rest of which will be featured in their upcoming works “Mother to Son” in March, and “Invitation to Love” in May.

“The tenets of a strong partnership and human connection, like the one we have created through movement, reflects further proof of the divine,” Schreier stated in a press release. “I was drawn to the idea of two beautiful, strong dancers of color moving together in an urban space in the middle of Brooklyn–Irondale Center, a location that has history as a place of worship and is now a place for artists to convene— performing to music that was forged in the rural areas of the Early Republic, set alight by Ms. Parker in the middle of the 20 century, and now created and performed under the most unusual and uniquely current of circumstances.”

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