Central City Chorus, directed by Bryan Zaros, is delighted to announce its first concert of the 2024-2025 season, "Christmas in Venice," featuring works by Gabrieli, Monteverdi and the masters of polychoral music. The concert will be held at St. Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church on West 87th Street between Broadway and West End Avenue in Manhattan on Sunday, December 15 at 4:00 PM.

The polychoral techniques of Venetian music employed by Gabrieli and Monteverdi involved the use of multiple choirs positioned in different parts of a large space, such as St. Mark's Basilica, creating a spatial, antiphonal effect. Gabrieli emphasized grandeur with brass and vocal combinations, while Monteverdi expanded the expressive potential of polychoral writing, blending it with his evolving Baroque style. Choirs would alternate or respond to each other, producing dynamic contrasts and immersive sonic textures. The Central City Chorus will apply some of these beautiful techniques during their performance of "Christmas in Venice."

Join us on December 15 for a joyful and truly unique Venetian Christmas! Tickets for "Christmas in Venice" are $35 ($25 student/seniors) at the door and $30 in advance. For more information, please visit www.centralcitychorus.org.

Central City Chorus, one of the premier mid-sized choruses in New York City, is now in its 44th season. Hailed by The New York Times as one of the city's "valuable choir[s]," the Chorus performs a variety of music spanning a wide range of periods, geography and genres, from a cappella works by Byrd, Howells, Mäntyjärvi, Palestrina, Poulenc, Victoria and Whitacre to choral-orchestral masterpieces like Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem, Mozart's Mass in C Minor and Requiem, J. S. Bach's Messe in h-moll, Händel's Dixit Dominus, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, as well as rarely-performed works like Delius's Requiem and Britten's The Company of Heaven.

Bryan Zaros is a young American conductor recognized for his "strong musical imagination" and "deep sense of musicality and communication." Bryan is the Associate Director of Music & Choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine where he leads the Cathedral Choirs, Orchestra and Brass in liturgical as well as concert performances in the grand space of the world's largest Gothic cathedral. He is also the Music Director of Central City Chorus, Music Director of The Pro Arte Chorale and a frequent guest lecturer at the Manhattan School of Music and at music conferences throughout the USA.

A native New Yorker, Bryan began his professional musical training as a member of the Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus and as a boy chorister at The Church of the Transfiguration, NYC. He earned his Bachelor of Music in Sacred Music from Westminster Choir College, a Master of Music in Conducting from the University of Michigan, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting from the Manhattan School of Music. Recent conducting engagements have included invitations with choirs and orchestras throughout the USA, Europe and South America. Most notably he has conducted ensembles at David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, at American Choral Director's Association Conferences, on the film set at Warner Bros. Studios and at various cathedrals in England including Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral-London and Canterbury Cathedral. He is a recipient of several conducting awards and fellowships including an American Prize award in Conducting. For more information about Bryan, visit www.bryanzaros.com.