Music with a Message: Performing Concerts in New York and New Jersey

Deborah King, a visionary choral conductor and new music advocate for Ember Choral Arts joins the eMusician Podcast Show. They perform concerts in New York City and Northern NJ several times a year. Its unique programming features an eclectic mix of new music (largely by living composers) with socially relevant messages. Their concerts also stream live.Ember’s musical performances share vital, powerful messages which King feels resonate with existing fans and new audiences. The singers includes active professional musicians, young emerging professionals, and experienced avocational musicians. Singers come from both sides of the Hudson River, an exceptionally wide geographical radius. And they draw singers from eleven counties throughout New York and New Jersey.  Listen to host Eric Dye & guest Deborah King discuss the following:It is part of Ember’s mission to extend the role of art beyond that of its own intrinsic value, leveraging it to bring visibility and expansive thinking to issues of human significance. Can you explain this in more depth?Your two new performances in March 2022 were titled “Can We Talk?” Tell me about these performances and the powerful messages you wanted to emphasize to the audience?What criteria do you use for choosing repertoire? And how do you go about building a concert program?What other concerts do you have planned for the 2022 season?Tell us about your work in the national and internal music community.About Ember Choral ArtsEmber is the semi-professional performing ensemble of Ember Choral Arts.  Having taken a groundbreaking leadership position on new music advocacy with the creation of project: encore®, now in its second decade, Ember Choral Arts is broadening its already-unusual presentation style to include media companionship, seeking to nurture an ever-broadening virtual audience, even as it speaks to a new generation of live-performance devotees. To learn more about Ember Choral Arts and their goal of sharing “Music with a Message,” log onto EmberArts.org.About Dr. Deborah Simpkin King Deborah Simpkin King, Ph.D., is a visionary choral conductor, new music advocate, and master teacher. She plays an active role in the vibrant Manhattan choral scene and serves the national and international music community through her guest conducting and body of published work. Her leadership as a conductor is ongoing with not only her own choral ensembles, the semi-professional Ember of Schola Cantorum on Hudson and the choir of Trinity Episcopal Church in Asbury Park, NJ, but also within Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, MidAmerica Productions, and various guest conducting appearances.  Her commitment to nurturing the next generation in the arts is demonstrated through the growth of the Phoenix Initiative through Schola Cantorum on Hudson, along with her long-standing leadership of the NJ-ACDA High School Choral Festival. Through project: encore® (which she founded), Dr. King is at the leading edge of the new music industry, collaborating with composers in finding post-premiere performances, and performing many premieres herself. Website: https://emberarts.orgSocial Media Links:Instagram: https://instagram.com/emberensembleFacebook: https://facebook.com/EmberEnsembleThe views, ideas, thoughts and opinions expressed on any program are those ...