The NYCC sponsors the Community Encores Series, an outreach initiative bringing contemporary classical music of the 20th and 21st centuries to populations that may not readily have access or exposure to it. In effect, the NYCC is bringing the recital hall to audiences in non-concert institutional venues around New York City, such as schools and senior centers. These community outreach recitals provide a performance showcase for both our composers and performers, and offer the NYCC an opportunity to establish a more far-reaching presence in the community, while furthering the cause of new music as a vital cultural experience.

On February 24, 2009, at the Hebrew Home for Aged in Riverdale (the NYCC's first music presentation outside Manhattan), and again on May 1, 2009, at the West Side Senior Center of the Jewish Association for Services to the Aged (JASA), our Executive Director, John de Clef Piñeiro, presented NYCC Composer Member Nataliya Medvedovskaya in a one-hour piano recital of works by NYCC composers and by acclaimed 20th century masters. These recitals were enthusiastically received by audiences composed mostly of senior citizens and some center staff.

On January 6, 2010, the NYCC gave two back-to-back recitals, each lasting a full school period, to nearly 200 students and their music faculty at the Bronx High School of Science (the NYCC's first Community Encores recital in a school venue to teenagers). In a survey of art songs spanning the last 100 years, soprano Sofia Dimitrova and pianist Catherine Miller, with introductions and commentary by our Executive Director, John de Clef Piñeiro, presented samples of the new music vocal repertoire of Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Gian Carlo Menotti, as well as music by current and former NYCC member composers. Notably, Composer Member Richard Russell was on hand to introduce and comment on the composition of his Three Elegies, and to answer questions from the audience. Both presentations were very well received and the NYCC was invited back by the faculty to give other future recitals. This first outreach recital of 2010 is part of an expanded series of outreach programs that the NYCC will present during the spring.

To learn more about how the NYCC can reach out to your organization, contact John de Clef Piñeiro at dir@composerscircle.org.