News and Reviews
"The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, a superb ensemble of bright singers, consistently demonstrates a polish and commitment well beyond its years...It is hard to think of this group as anything but a polished ensemble of miniature professionals." - The New York Times
"If the Brooklyn Youth Chorus is any indication of the future of Kings County, we can all rest assured that we're at no risk of depreciating creativity or inspiration" - Flavorpill
"Among New York's choral groups, BYC STANDS ALONE." - New York Magazine
"During its 20 years, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus has steadily GROWN INTO A POWERHOUSE." - Brooklyn Daily Eagle
"Brooklyn Youth Chorus shows again why IT IS THE “IT” CHOIR." - New York Post
“BROOKLYN YOUTH CHORUS IS AS FINE AS IT GETS, in demand with the greatest orchestras and the most important composers.” —Brooklyn Rail
"In case you haven’t seen them, director Dianne Berkun Menaker has shaped the Brooklyn Youth Chorus into a MAGNIFICENT, METICULOUS POWERHOUSE OF AN ENSEMBLE. These works [performed] were sophisticated, employed all kinds of intricate counterpoint, required considerable amounts of what an instrumentalist would call extended technique, and the group rose to meet those demands efficiently and expertly: they schooled the old people in the house.” - New York Music Daily
Waiting for the Barbarians (2023) / Cavafy Festival
“ “Waiting for the Barbarians” was also the starting point for an even more spectacular musical interpretation by the multidisciplinary artist Laurie Anderson, in a program Tuesday night at St. Thomas Church, copresented with Death of Classical. The performances featured the sensitive Knights orchestra, conducted by Eric Jacobsen; and the exemplary Brooklyn Youth Chorus, led by Dianne Berkun Menaker.” —The New York Times
““Cavafy Ghost,” composed by Helga Davis & Petros Klampanis, was performed next and featured Davis and Klampanis alongside The Knights and the incredibly talented Brooklyn Youth Chorus. A story was developing and just as percussionist Ian Sullivan gracefully played, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus whispered and mouthed text into the atmosphere. A young voice, Josie Shehadi, sang a solo from within the chorus and Helga Davis masterfully conducted the ethereal developments.” — Opera Wire
“In her beautifully crafted piece, Prestini captured the poignant recollections of beloved voices from childhood that were the first poetry of one’s life. The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, without accompaniment or amplification to cloud their sound, expressed those sentiments beautifully.” — Seen and Heard
“After Eleni Calenos’s voice serves as the operatic vehicle for new music by Dimitris Papadimitriou & Nathan Thatcher (‘The Return’) and Nico Muhly (‘Far Away Songs’), the brilliant young artists of Brooklyn Youth Chorus return to deliver ‘Voices’. Their voices (and indeed hands) reaching up towards the faint light spilling though smoky stained-glass panels above. Heads bob, trance-like, and hands are used creatively once more to create a muted effect for Paola Prestini’s piece. In this creative crescendo, it’s only fitting that the evening is brought to a head with chorus and orchestra swirling alongside Laurie Anderson for her interpretations of ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ and ‘Ithaka’.” — The Prickle
Euphoria
“Don’t forget to wander Central Market Hall and pay attention to the members of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. There they are, in their clothes; The guy with his arm in a sling, the tall girl, the little dancing girl, the guy in the wheelchair, all shapes and sizes and as varied as Brooklyn itself. Right at the age when spending two hours in front of the camera on a fairly elusive art project can be called a challenge and the search for an attitude has its own stresses. When they start singing and you feel the collective power of that choir, something magical happens, and you (finally) feel something that resembles rapture. — playcrazygame.com
“The Brooklyn Youth Chorus and five jazz drummers provide live accompaniment throughout Euphoria’s duration. Projected in life-size on the surrounding screens, eye-to-eye with the audience, the young choir members are a constant presence – when they’re not singing, they stand and stare. The film loop ends with the tiger singing the words ‘we are civilised, we laugh with joy’, joined by the phenomenal voices of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.” — Artshub
Silent Voices
“Since its founding 25 years ago by its indefatigable artistic director, Dianne Berkun Menaker, it has given voice to children and young adults from a wide range of backgrounds. Musically, too, it fosters diversity with a targeted training program that teaches choristers to sing in a variety of styles and sounds. Typical members of the chorus’s professional-level concert ensemble know how to shade their voices to sound idiomatically pop, classical or gospel. [of Caroline Shaw’s ‘So Quietly’]…Using novel vocal techniques, including sharp, rhythmic breathwork, the music…(also demonstrated the enormous versatility and polish of these young singers.)” —The New York Times
“Right out of the gate, in Shaw’s “so quietly,” the seven-stage musicianship program required for the BYC singers paid off as they conquered extremely complex rhythms with accuracy, not to mention perfect intonation. Even the microtonal slides and widely changing vocal timbres – including audible breathing – typical of Shaw were child’s play to these teens.”…“Everybody’s been really transformed.” She was referring to the choristers who created Silent Voices. But it was true of the audience who heard the piece as well.” —Classical Voice North America
Silent Voices Album
“The truth of Silent Voices is that the Brooklyn Youth Chorus displays tremendous musicianship, stylistic sensitivity, and vocal flexibility while powerfully demanding that listeners confront hard truths about racism, gender roles and discrimination, ageism, the social responsibilities of politics, and displaced populations. Period.”
Top 10 Contemporary Classical Music Albums of 2018 “Silent Voices not only gives voice to those who have been historically marginalized, but also gives the members of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus agency over their message and their music making, allowing them to act as catalysts for change. The young choristers not only demonstrate a mature comprehension of the subject matter, but also exhibit an impressive command of vocal styles ranging from hip hop to gospel to contemporary techniques to bel canto singing.” —I Care if You Listen
Black Mountain Songs at BAM
“Black Mountain Songs,” an exhilarating 90-minute staged choral work with readings, videos, dancers and, at its core, the singing of the impressive Brooklyn Youth Chorus … The choral songs at the heart of this work are performed with confidence, energy and tenderness (and from memory) by the 50 skilled singers of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus … The sheer beauty of their singing was captivating … Ms. Berkun-Menaker is a remarkable choral director … It was heartening to see them basking in the standing ovation that “Black Mountain Songs” won from the audience that filled the theater.” —The New York Times
Black Mountain Songs Album
“Originally staged as a choreographed pageant at bam’s Harvey Theatre, in 2014 (the late Harvey Lichtenstein, bam’s dynamic director, was a Black Mountain alumnus), “Black Mountain Songs” earned a rave review in the Times—and when you hear the astonishingly secure performance of the young singers, who have been tasked with executing some formidably complex choral textures, you immediately understand why.” —The New Yorker
It may also be – again, in part – the forces they have written for this time around. The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, under Dianne Berkun Menaker, sings each of these numbers with the light, rounded sound of young voices, warmed with gentle vibrato and brightened by idiomatic American diction. - WQXR
Though all involved can be proud of Black Mountain Songs for being an ambitious project superbly realized, perhaps Dessner and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus (along with its conductor Dianne Berkun Menaker, who founded the group in 1992) have reason to be most proud, given how instrumental they were in its creation. As Dessner himself astutely notes, “While we set out to create a work inspired by the College, ultimately what we have made is something entirely new and our own.” - Textura
New York Premiere of James MacMillan’s St. Luke Passion with the New York Choral Society
“The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, prepared by its artistic director Dianne Berkun Menaker, proved equal to its prominent role and then some. By the choice of a children’s choir, MacMillan evidently intended to give Christ’s words an otherworldly sheen, and this chorus delivered with pure unisons, finely tuned polyphony and secure high entrances, and gave its elders some lessons in diction as well.” —New York Classical Review
Aging Magician at the New Victory Theater
“The score is vividly performed by the impressive members of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus(Dianne Berkun Menaker, conductor), who become a kind of Greek chorus, and the fine string players of the Attacca Quartet. Some of the choral writing is ethereal, unfolding in long-spun lines and chantlike phrases. Yet there are complex stretches of cluster chords that the choristers sing with precision (and from memory)…During some frenetic, ha-ha-ha outbursts, the young singers draw upon their inner demons to chilling effect.” —The New York Times
New York Philharmonic Biennial
“The text of Mary Kouyoumdjian’s “Become Who I Am” was based on interviews with members of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, who offered thoughts on gender roles and gender inequality as well as on the importance of music in their lives. “I want to become who I am,” they sang, and the urgency of the sound seemed the fulfillment of the wish.” - The New Yorker
Joan of Arc at the Stake with Marion Cotillard and the New York Philharmonic
“The members of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus (Dianne Berkun-Menaker, director), models as always of musical and dramatic confidence, appear as sheep, little beasts, they’re called, to cheer on the trial.” —The New York Times