Isabelle Provost

The Clarion Choir

One of the country’s leading professional vocal ensembles, The Clarion Choir has performed on some of the great stages of North America and Europe. In 2023, the Choir has performed and recorded Rachmaninoff's large-scale choral works in celebration of the composer's 150th birthday. The Choir performed Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil ('Vespers') at Carnegie Hall last May. And their recently-released recording of the work has been nominated for a GRAMMY® for Best Choral Performance. In 2019 and 2023, the Choir joined The English Concert and Harry Bicket for their annual Handel tour, performing in venues such as the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, the Barbican in London, Cal Performances in Berkeley, Théatre des Champs Elysée in Paris, LA Opera and Carnegie Hall, in performances of Handel's Semele and Solomon.

The Clarion Choir was initially formed in 2006 and made their Lincoln Center debut in 2011, performing Bach Chorales as part of the White Light Festival with organist Paul Jacobs. In 2014, the choir gave the New York premiere of a lost Russian masterwork from the 1920s, Passion Week by Maximilian Steinberg. In October of 2016, Clarion premiered the work in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and London. Their performance was featured on PBS, and their recording of it, the Choir's debut recording, received nominations for a GRAMMY® and for BBC Music Magazine's Choral Award. The choir has since performed and recorded other works from this period, such as Kastalsky's Memory Eternal, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Classical charts, and Kastalsky's Requiem, which received 'Editor's Choice' in Gramophone.

The Clarion Choir has performed regularly in recent years as part of the Live Arts series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; including presentations of large-scale Renaissance works by Victoria, Palestrina, Tavener, Josquin, and Guerrero in the Medieval Sculpture Hall and the Met Cloisters. The Choir has collaborated in recent years with The Knights and Eric Jacobsen, Susan Graham, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Isabel Leonard, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Leonard Slatkin, and Madonna at the 2018 Met Gala.


The Clarion Orchestra

The Clarion Orchestra was founded in 1957 by conductor and musicologist Newell Jenkins. Beginning on modern instruments, then switching to period instruments in the 1970s, Clarion became one of the first period ensembles with a concert series in the United States. Shortly after Jenkins’ tenure, the series had a nearly ten-year hiatus until its revival in 2006 by the Clarion Board of Directors and Steven Fox. Since its revival the Orchestra has received critical acclaim, being called ‘stellar’ and ‘polished’ by The New York Times, and ‘legendary’ by The New Yorker. Many of the ensemble members are acclaimed as solo and chamber musicians and serve on renowned music faculties at The Juilliard School, Bard College, SUNY Purchase, Mannes School of Music and Yale School of Music; other members of the Orchestra are recent graduates of such programs. The Orchestra has played on such prestigious stages as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Frick Collection in repertoire that has ranged from the early Baroque to the early Romantic. In 2009, The Clarion Orchestra was featured in Jonathan Miller’s iconic production of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at BAM. And in the spring of 2017, the Orchestra, in collaboration with Christodora, produced its first-ever staged opera production, Mozart’s Magic Flute. The sold-out performances received critical acclaim in The New York Times, Opera News, The New York Concert Review and London’s Opera magazine, which reported, 'the generously sized period orchestra played superbly.' In recent years, the Orchestra has been a recipient of three Art Works grants from the National Endowment for t he Arts.

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Vincent Soyez


Steven Fox

Steven Fox is Artistic Director of The Clarion Choir & The Clarion Orchestra in New York, and Music Director of Cathedral Choral Society at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. In the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons, he is a Cover Conductor at the New York Philharmonic for Jaap van Zweden. The 2022-2023 season saw his conducting debuts with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Atlanta Ballet. And in previous years, he has conducted the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Opéra de Québec, Chicago's Music of the Baroque, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, Juilliard415, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Cappella Romana, and Toronto's Theatre of Early Music. His performances have taken him to some of the most prestigious halls internationally, such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and David H. Koch Theatre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, London's Barbican Centre and Duke's Hall, St. Petersburg's Grand Philharmonic Hall and Hermitage Theater, Moscow's Rachmaninoff Hall, Paris's Theatre des Champs Elysée, and the Vatican.

Steven was named an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, London, in 2010 ‘for significant contributions to his field in music,’ and has received GRAMMY® nominations for his four recordings with The Clarion Choir: Steinberg's Passion Week, Kastalsky's Memory Eternal, and Kastalsky's Requiem, and Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil.

Steven Fox was Chorus Master for the GRAMMY®-award-winning recording of Ethel Smyth's The Prison, featuring Sarah Brailey, soprano, Dashon Burton, bass-baritone, and The Experiential Orchestra and Chorus conducted by James Blachly.

Steven has a distinguished background in liturgical music, having served as Acting Director of Music for the music program of Trinity Wall Street in 2009-2010, and, since 2004, as Cantorial Soloist for the High Holy Days at the majestic Temple Emanu-El in New York City.

Steven graduated as a Senior Fellow with High Honors in Music and Russian from Dartmouth College, and with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music. Steven founded Musica Antiqua St. Petersburg as Russia’s first period-instrument orchestra at the age of 21, and premiered several important Russian 18th-century symphonic and operatic works with the orchestra. From 2008 to 2013 he was an Associate Conductor at New York City Opera, and, in 2011, served as Assistant Conductor for the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Program and Juilliard Opera. He has given master classes and clinics at The Royal Academy of Music, Dartmouth College, The Juilliard School, and Yale University, where he served for two years as preparatory conductor of the Yale Schola Cantorum.

 

Fadi Kheir

‘an inspired interpretation. Mr. Fox revealed the drama of the score with vivid dynamic shadings. Intonation and pacing were exemplary throughout the performance.’ The New York Times

 ‘Never seen in 20 years, I swear. The 100 choristers were ready to follow their conductor to the end of the world, because the presence of Steven Fox made all the difference.' Le Soleil 

 'an esteemed director' The New Yorker


Administration & Boards

Administration

Steven Fox
Artistic Director
Lauren Ishida
Administrative Director
Paul Holmes
Operations Manager
David Enlow
Assistant Conductor and Repetiteur
Peter Hauge
Webmaster

Board of Directors

Christine Stonbely
Chairman
Gregory Stoskopf
President & Treasurer
Dr. Elma Hawkins
Vice President
Gordon Grieve
Kathy Linburn
Rasul Shariff
Robert E. Sweeney II, MD
Jane Stewart
Jedediah H. K. Turner
Missy VanBuren-Brown
Adair Keating Weiss

Past Board Members Laureate

Andrea Pampanini
President (2000-2008) †
John L. Squire
Vice President (2008-2015) †
Alfred Hubay
Member (2013-2018) †

Board of Advisors

David Andryc
Catherine Corman
Cynthia Curran
Mary Deissler
Mariko Dozono
Peter Faber
Basil Hero
Antoinette Geyelin Hoar
Michael Leavitt
Daniel S. Levien
Barbara Mouk
Former Administrative Director (Ret'd)
John Santoleri
Kent Tritle
Ransom Wilson