W83 Newsletter Feature February 2019

"Light At The End of The Tunnel"
Ensemble NYC

“I need to do something,” conductor Ronnie Oliver told himself.  “Stop waiting around, and do something.”

Over the past few years, Oliver, Associate Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music, had suffered the loss of his brother to suicide, and almost immediately seen his mother begin to slide into dementia.

But instead of losing hope himself, he decided to try to find a way to help others, by starting EnsembleNYC. The new choral group is dedicated to bringing hope to New Yorkers through the healing power of music, and giving practical aid by donating 10% of the gross of every concert to other non-profits.

Joining Oliver are a group of several dozen vocal musicians who run the gamut from established opera and Broadway singers to dedicated amateurs from both community and church chorales, including conductors and composers, an architectural engineer, a microbiologist, and even a scientist with NASA. What they all have in common, according to Oliver: a generosity of spirit in the way they approach both their lives and their art.

EnsembleNYC’s second concert is personal for Oliver.  It’s a rare chamber version of Brahms’ great Requiem, featuring a four-handed piano accompaniment written by Brahms himself.  And the donated proceeds will benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
 
Oliver searched to find just the right picture to pair with the event: a figure raising their arms in celebration as light pours into the darkness around them. For Oliver, it encapsulates what EnsembleNYC is all about: pointing toward the beauty of the light at the end of the tunnel.