Dec. 13: World Premiere of The Star by Robert and Victoria Sirota – Performed by ESSENTIAL VOICES USA Conducted by Music Director Judith Clurman
Photo by Ryuhei Shindo available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/robert-sirota
Composer Robert Sirota: World Premiere of The Star
A New Work for Chorus, Piano, and String Quartet
Music by Robert Sirota and Text by Victoria Sirota
Presented as part of
Sing Christmas! - A Holiday Concert and Sing-Along
Performed by ESSENTIAL VOICES USA
Conducted by Music Director Judith Clurman
Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 7:30pm
St. Malachy’s - The Actors’ Chapel
239 West 49th Street | New York, NY
Free and Open to the Public | $20.00 Suggested Donation
More Information
“[Sirota’s] compositional voice has a distinctive tartness and rhythmic bite.” – The New York Times
New York, NY – On Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 7:30pm, in St. Malachy’s - The Actors’ Chapel (239 West 49th Street), ESSENTIAL VOICES USA will present the world premiere performance of The Star – a new work for chorus, piano, and string quartet with music by composer Robert Sirota and text by Victoria Sirota.
The performance is part of Essential Voices USA’s Holiday Concert and Sing-Along, Sing Christmas, which is presented through EVUSA’s Community Project – a program that brings concerts and sing-alongs free of charge to the New York City community. The performance features the Essential Voices chorus conducted by Music Director Judith Clurman, accompanied by the Essential Strings. There is a $20 suggested donation but the performance is free and open to the public.
Robert and Victoria Sirota share a multilayered and intertwined life as spouses, musicians, educators, people of faith, and more. The pair have collaborated countless times, performing and writing together, leading to some truly beautiful artistry. Their complementary creative gifts come together again in the making of The Star, a piece written specifically for this joyous performance and gathering of the community for the holidays.
“The great choral conductor, composer, guru Judith Clurman asked Vicki [Sirota] and me to create a new holiday song for her wonderful choir, Essential Voices USA – a song with a refrain that the whole audience could sing.” says Robert Sirota. “Vicki produced a text which is eloquent, simple, and eminently singable, and I have done my best to write something which does justice to her words.”
Gather us up and bring us home,
Dear Angels from on high.
Restore our dreams. Restore our faith,
In Hope that does not die
Gather us up and bring us home,
Dear Angels from above.
Show us the path of Truth and Light,
Blessed by Eternal Love.
"In The Star, I imagine the light of a single star heralding an angelic choir,” says Victoria Sirota. “Their sweet song mystically carries us to a place of perfect love, love that nurtures, inspires and empowers us to be the fullness of who we have been created to be."
The program will also include performances of Christmas Joy, a collection of holiday favorites arranged by Joshua Clayton and Judith Clurman for chorus and string quartet; the world premiere of a new arrangement of The Wexford Carol, for percussion, cello, and keyboard; and Listen to the World (music by Judith Clurman, lyrics by William Schermerhorn) – a work that encourages greater understanding and inspires hope for a better world. The audience will also be invited to participate in several traditional carol arrangements, accompanied by string quartet arrangements by Jeremy Robin Lyons, as well as holiday classics by Jerry Herman and Irving Berlin. As part of the evening’s sing-along, audience members will also be invited to join the Essential Voices chorus in singing the refrain from The Star.
About Robert Sirota: Over five decades, composer Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work – whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: “Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.”
Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe; ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; the Chiara, American, Telegraph, and Blair String Quartets; the Neave, Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios; and at festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown music festivals; Bowdoin Gamper and Bowdoin International Music Festival; and Mizzou International Composers Festival. Recent commissions include the Neave Trio, Judith Clurman/Essential Voices USA, Jeffrey Kahane and the Sarasota Music Festival, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Palladium Musicum, American Guild of Organists, the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the Naumburg Foundation, yMusic, and arrangements for Paul Simon. Commissions for Sirota@70 in honor of his 70th birthday include works for Thomas Pellaton, Carol Wincenc, Linda Chesis & the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival, and Sierra Chamber Society.
Recipient of grants from the Guggenheim and Watson Foundations, United States Information Agency, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center, Sirota’s works are recorded on Navona Records, Legacy Recordings, National Sawdust Tracks, and the Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels. His music is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Hal Leonard, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore.
Before becoming Director of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in 1995, Sirota served as Chairman of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at New York University and Director of Boston University's School of Music. From 2005-2012, he was the President of Manhattan School of Music, where he was also a member of the School’s composition faculty.
A native New Yorker, Sirota studied at Juilliard, Oberlin, and Harvard and divides his time between New York and Searsmont, Maine with his wife, Episcopal priest and organist Victoria Sirota. They frequently collaborate on new works, with Victoria as librettist and performer, at times also working with their children, Jonah and Nadia, both world-class violists.
For complete information, visit www.robertsirota.com.
About Victoria R. Sirota: Victoria Sirota, organist, Episcopal priest and author, holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Boston University and Harvard Divinity School. She has studied organ with Andre Marchal in Paris and Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam and has performed organ recitals in the United States, France and Germany. The Rev. Dr. Sirota has taught at Boston University, Yale Divinity School and Institute of Sacred Music, and The Ecumenical Institute of Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary and University. Former National Chaplain for the American Guild of Organists and The Association of Anglican Musicians, she is the author of articles, reviews and texts for hymns, cantatas and song cycles. Her book Preaching to the Choir: Claiming the Role of Sacred Musician is available from Church Publishing, and, in addition to recordings on Northeastern and Gasparo labels, her recording of organ works by Robert Sirota Celestial Wind is available from Albany Records.
About ESSENTIAL VOICES USA: Judith Clurman’s Essential Voices USA (EVUSA) is recognized as one of New York’s most distinguished choral ensembles. Comprised of acclaimed professionals and select auditioned volunteers, the ensemble shapes its sound to reflect the unique spirit and character of each project it undertakes. EVUSA has appeared on many of the nation’s most celebrated stages, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting, and the Washington National Cathedral. The group has recorded more than twenty CDs. Through The Community Project, EVUSA presents free concerts and sing-alongs across New York City’s five boroughs, while its Composer Speaks series, at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, celebrates and champions new American works. A Grammy nominee and two-time Emmy Award nominee, conductor Judith Clurman has collaborated with many of the world’s leading orchestras at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and beyond. A passionate advocate for new music, she has commissioned and premiered works by more than seventy composers. Judith has served as Director of Choral Activities at The Juilliard School, as vocal specialist for the National Endowment for the Arts/Columbia University Institute of Classical Music, and as co-creator and conductor of The Singing Tree for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC. She currently teaches voice at the Manhattan School of Music, and her compositions and arrangements are performed by major orchestras and choruses nationwide.
The Essential Strings (Suliman Tekali & Rita Wang violins; Caeli Smith viola; and Aaron Wolff cello) was formed for EVUSA’S recent project, Christmas Joy. Christmas Joy and Listen to the World are recorded by EVUSA for Albany Records.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: On Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 7:30pm, Judith Clurman’s ESSENTIAL VOICES USA will present the world premiere performance of The Star – A new work for chorus, piano, and string quartet with music by composer Robert Sirota and text by Victoria Sirota. The performance will be part of an evening of carols, readings, and a community sing-along held in St. Malachy’s - The Actors’ Chapel (239 West 49th Street) and features the Essential Voices chorus conducted by Music Director Judith Clurman, accompanied by the Essential Strings.
Concert details:
What: World Premiere of The Star – a New Work for Chorus, Piano, and String Quartet Music by Robert Sirota and Text by Victoria Sirota in Sing Christmas! - A Holiday Concert and Sing-Along
Presented as part of EVUSA’s Community Project
Who: Essential Voices USA and Essential Strings, conducted by Music Director Judith Clurman
When: Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 7:30pm
Where: St. Malachy’s - The Actors’ Chapel, 239 West 49th Street, New York, NY 10019
More Information: www.judithclurman.com/wp/news-events