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Robert De Cormier
Director
Belmont
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Robert De Cormier was the acclaimed music director of the New York Choral
Society for 17 years. Under his leadership the group became renowned for its
high standard of excellence in choral singing and unique variety of programming.
As Music Director Emeritus, he guest conducted a performance of the Verdi
Requiem in 1990, the Berlioz Requiem at St. Paul's Cathedral, New York
City in 1992 and the premiere of a commissioned work, the Missa Iona in 1993
at St. Bartholomew's in New York City. During the 1995-96 season he conducted
the operas, Brundibar and The Emperor of Atlantis in Vermont, New
Hampshire, Massachusetts and at Merkin Concert Hall in New York.
Recently he conducted the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in performances
of the Mozart C Minor Mass, Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915
and PDQ Bach's Bluegrass Cantata. In March of 2000 he conducted the Buffalo
Philharmonic and chorus in Arthur Honegger's King David.
A graduate of the Julliard School of Music, Mr. De Cormier's conducting engagements
have taken him from Broadway and opera to the Berkshire Choral Institute,
the Zimriya World Assembly of Choirs in Israel and numerous concert tours
nationally and internationally with his own professional group, the Robert
De Cormier Singers.
He spent many years as conductor and arranger for Harry Belafonte and has
been music director for the popular folk trio, Peter, Paul and Mary for the
past 20 years.
In 1993, he was contacted in an effort to establish and develop the Vermont
Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Chorus. As their director, he
both prepares and conducts performances with the symphony.
He has written several works ranging from choral to ballet to Broadway scores.
His cantata, The Jolly Beggars, based on the poetry of Robert Burns, premiered
in New York to critical acclaim. His ballet score, Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder,
is in the active repertoire of the Alvin Alley Dance Theater. His choral works,
Legacy, Four Sonnets to Orpheus, Shout for Joy and Under a Greenwood
Tree
were premiered at Carnegie Hall by the New York Choral Society. Spiritual
Suite,
commissioned by the West Village Chorale, premiered in New York in
1991.
Mr. De Cormier has also arranged extensively, from African-American spirituals
to American and international folk songs.
Mr. De Cormier's recordings include three Christmas albums on the Arabesque
label with the De Cormier Singers; the Kodaly Missa Brevis and Vaughan Williams's
Mass in G Minor on Vox Turnabout with the New York Choral Society; Songs
of Liberty
for Book-of-the-Month Club with the Choral Society and the De
Cormier Singers; Carmina Burana for Newport Classics; Paul Alan Levi's Mark
Twain Suite,
De Cormier's Legacy and Four Sonnets to Orpheus for Centaur,
and Christmastide with Jessye Norman for Philips.
A recording of John Dowland's music Awake, Sweet Love, with Julianne Baird
and the De Cormier Singers, was released by Arabesque in 1992 and Noel We
Sing
with the Choral Society was a Musical Heritage release in 1994. Recent
Arabesque releases include: Oh, You Beautiful Doll, early 20th century
popular American songs, Children, Go Where I Send Thee, international
Christmas songs, two operas from the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia;
Brundibar, a children's opera by Hans Krasa and The Emperor of Atlantis,
composed by Viktor Ullmann. The Jolly Beggars, De Cormier's settings of
Robert Burns poetry, was released by Arabesque in May 1998. Mr. De Cormier's
television credits include a three-part series of Choral Folk Songs for the
BBC and an Emmy award winning special with Harry Belafonte.
More recently, for Thames TV, he conducted Christmastide with Jessye Norman
and for PBS, with Peter, Paul and Mary -- A Holiday Concert, Peter, Paul and
Mommy Too,
and Lifelines. Mr. De Cormier was the choral director for a combined
concert, PBS television special and recording starring Jessye Norman and Kathleen
Battle, conducted by James Levine. He is also credited as choral director
for the PBS Special, Christmas at Carnegie with Kathleen Battle and Frederica
Von Stade, conducted by Andre Previn. Mr. De Cormier has served on the New
York State Council for the Arts, been a member of the Choral Panel
of the National Endowment for the Arts, and recently received the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts.
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