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. This season they will perform twice at Carnegie Hall, and make their debut at the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, Cal Performances in Berkeley, and LA Opera with The English Concert and Harry Bicket. Their recent recording of Kastalsky's Requiem reached #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Charts, and was nominated for a GRAMMY® for Best Choral Performance. The Clarion Choir 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 Passion Week by Maximilian Steinberg, and, in October of 2016, 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 a GRAMMY® nomination, as well as a nomination for BBC Music Magazine's Choral Award. The Choir's second recording, the world premiere recording of Alexander Kastalsky's Memory Eternal to the Fallen Heroes, also was nominated for a GRAMMY® for Best Choral Performance and was 'Editor's Choice' in Gramophone. The Clarion Choir has performed regularly in recent years as part of the MetLiveArts series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; including performances of large-scale Renaissance works by Victoria, Palestrina, Tavener and Guerrero in the Medieval Sculpture Hall and the Met Cloisters. The Choir, and artistic director Steven Fox, have collaborated in recent years with renowned artists such as Harry Bicket and The English Concert at Carnegie Hall, Eric Jacobsen and The Knights, Susan Graham, Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and Madonna at the 2018 Met Gala. 

'The superb 28-member Clarion Choir was a revelation'
- The Wall Street Journal

‘The Clarion Choir’s performance, with 26 strong singers led by the group’s artistic director, Steven Fox, was indeed stunning.’
- The New York Times

'Who could fail to be knocked sideways by the balanced tones and glorious thrust of New York's Clarion Choir (so aptly named)'
- The Times of London

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 the Arts.

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. The 2022-2023 season saw his conducting debuts with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Ballet, and as Cover Conductor for Jaap van Zweden at the New York Philharmonic. In previous seasons, he has conducted the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Opéra de Québec, Chicago's Music of the Baroque, San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Boston's Handel and Haydn Society, Juilliard415, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Portland's 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 first three recordings: Steinberg's Passion Week (2016), Kastalsky's Memory Eternal (2018), and Kastalsky's Requiem (2020). 

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. In recent years, he has collaborated with artists and ensembles such as Harry Bicket and The English Concert, Susan Graham, Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Eric Jacobsen and The Knights Chamber Orchestra, and Madonna at the 2018 Met Gala. 

Steven has a distinguished background in liturgical music, having served as Acting Director of Music for the renowned music program of Trinity Church, 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