Holiday Modulations with the Young New Yorkers' Chorus
The Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Times Square is a long room. I mean really long. The kind of space where you're constantly recalculating your position because getting a clean angle on the performers takes some work. It was my first time shooting there, and the layout kept me on my toes all night.
I was there to photograph Holiday Modulations, the winter concert from the Young New Yorkers' Chorus. YNYC runs two ensembles, a Mixed Ensemble and a Treble Ensemble, and this concert featured both along with various configurations in between. The sopranos and altos from the Mixed Ensemble performed together at one point. Later, the tenors and basses took the spotlight for Franz Biebl's Ave Maria, complete with a semi-chorus of eight singers stepping forward for the antiphonal sections.
That constant shifting kept things visually interesting. One moment you're photographing over 100 singers filling the chancel, and the next you're focused on a small group or a soloist. The program moved through a wide range of repertoire, from Eric Whitacre's Glow to Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, with a world premiere tucked in the middle. Ben Bram's arrangement of Winter Song by Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles got its first performance that evening.
What struck me about the programming was how intentional it felt. Artistic Director Alex Canovas wrote in his program notes about exploring different relationships with light, and the music followed that thread. Some pieces leaned into darkness and melancholy. Others were bright and celebratory. Morten Lauridsen's Lament for Pasiphaë sat alongside traditional carols like Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.
The Treble Ensemble's portion of the concert had its own character. Dale Trumbore's January painted a stark winter landscape, while Eriks Esenvalds' Stars featured tuned wine glasses creating a shimmering texture underneath the voices. That's one of those details you don't fully appreciate until you see it live.
YNYC specifically asked me to focus on close-ups of the singers, which meant working around the venue's depth. St. Mary the Virgin is a beautiful space, but its length made getting tight shots a challenge. Some positions just didn't offer good sightlines to certain sections, so I spent a lot of the concert repositioning to make sure I could deliver what they needed.
For choirs and vocal ensembles, professional concert photography serves a practical purpose. These images end up in grant applications, on websites, in marketing materials for future seasons. They document what an organization actually looks like in performance, which matters when you're telling your story to funders, potential members, or audiences who haven't seen you live yet.
If you're running a choir in the NYC area and thinking about documentation for your concerts, I'd be happy to talk through what that might look like. You can see more of my choral work at danwrightphotography.com.
