City Bar Chorus Celebrates 20 Years – Gala Performance Set for November 15th

The New York City Bar Chorus is celebrating its 20th year of serving the community, and will mark that milestone with a gala performance at the City Bar on November 15th. Since 1993, New York’s only “all-legal” chorus, acting as a goodwill ambassador for the New York City Bar Association, has put on more than 200 concerts at senior residences, homeless shelters, AIDS and cancer patient residences, and pediatric and rehab facilities around the city. The Chorus, directed by Kathryn E. Schneider and accompanied by Matthew V. Grieco, has also sung for luminaries of the bench and bar and appeared on local and national television. Over the years, while providing “musical pro bono” and giving a kinder face and a more harmonious voice to the legal profession, the Chorus has grown into an 80-voice, multi-part group with a professional sound and a wide repertoire.  “Our outreach audience members have ranged in age from single to triple digits, so we assemble an especially diverse repertoire to appeal to everyone,” said musical director Kathryn Schneider (who is Associate General Counsel of ACE Group). “A typical show will mix Broadway numbers from ‘South Pacific,’ ‘West Side Story,’ ‘Pippin,’ ‘Rent’ or ‘Wicked’ with jazz, gospel, rock and pop songs.  Imagine the wall of sound when dozens of legal professionals sing Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ with electric guitars blazing.” Added Heather L. Kalachman, Chair of the New York City Bar Chorus Committee, “I always enter every outreach show ready to win over our audiences, yet time and time again I find it is the audiences who win me over with their deep appreciation and gratitude for what the Chorus does for them. Our members really enjoy engaging with these audiences.” “I am so proud of how the Chorus has blossomed and of all the good cheer it has brought to its audiences,” said former City Bar President John D. Feerick, who founded the Chorus. Current City Bar President Carey R. Dunne said, “I think they sound more like singers who practice law than lawyers who sing. The multiple talents of our members never cease to impress me.” The City Bar Chorus will celebrate its 20th Anniversary with a gala performance at the New York City Bar Association, 42 West 44th Street in Manhattan, on Friday evening, November 15, 2013.   For more information and to watch a video, please visit the Chorus’s website: www.citybarchorus.org, or Facebook page: www.facebook.com/citybarchorus, or email the Chorus.