I have been very fortunate to provide coverage for The New York Pops’ concerts at New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall for 10 years.

I can’t believe this is the first time I am interviewing Music Director Judith Clurman whose chorus, Essential Voices USA, has been in residence with The New York Pops since 1997. I am thrilled to finally have the chance to spotlight Judith.

In this interview, Judith pulls back the curtain to share:

• How she came to collaborate with The New York Pops
• Her Favorite Holiday Traditions
• What it’s like to perform on the Carnegie Hall stage
• Career advice

Connect with Judith: Website, Facebook, Instagram

Connect with The New York Pops: Website, Facebook, Instagram

Judith Clurman & Essential Voices USA will be performing at The New York Pops annual holiday concert, Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree at Carnegie Hall on Friday, December 16, 2022 at 8pm. The concert will also feature recording artist Ingrid Michaelson.

Judith Clurman and Essential Voices USA Holiday Photo

1. You are the Music Director of Essential Voices USA, which is currently in residence with The New York Pops on the Carnegie Hall subscription series. How did you first come to collaborate with The New York Pops? I was the founder-music director of the Lincoln Center Tree Lighting. I worked on the project for 11 years. I organized the event and conducted the vocal and choral music and accompanied singers from the Metropolitan Opera. Stars from all the constituents of Lincoln Center and the performing arts world participated, along with the Sesame Street Muppets and cast members.

I wrote to the composer Marvin Hamlisch and asked him if he wanted to participate in the festivities with 300 public and private school students, all under my direction. As a result of this event, Marvin asked me to organize a student chorus to perform his orchestral/choral piece “Anatomy of Peace” with the New York Pops, at Carnegie Hall.

Marvin conducted the performance and the icing on the cake was that I got to know Skitch Henderson, the conductor of the Pops. Then Skitch asked my Juilliard chorus to sing with the orchestra. This all began in 1997 and I began to prepare choruses for the orchestra, on a regular basis, since Steven Reineke became the Music Director, in 2008.

2. On December 16, Essential Voices USA will be performing with The New York Pops for their annual holiday concert. This year's show also features Ingrid Michaelson. What do you love about the holiday shows? This Carnegie Hall concert is special. Everyone in the audience is there to ring in the season and there is magic in the air. It will be especially moving this year because we have not participated in the holiday concert for three years, due to the pandemic.

3. What are some of your favorite holiday traditions that you have kept from childhood? What new ones have you added as an adult? I enjoy walking around New York City, looking at the beautiful lights, and watching people smile and enjoy themselves during the season.

Personally, I have always loved lighting the Menorah, first as a child with my parents and sister Ann, then with my husband Bruce and our son Ari, and this year I will also get to do it with our daughter-in-law Alexandra, and our 10-month-old granddaughter, Penelope.

My other fun holiday tradition is that for the past 6 years, I have ushered the holiday season as Music Director and Conductor of the new Macy’s Singing Christmas Tree float in the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Essential Voices USA group photo with masks
Photo Credit: Richard Termine

4. I have been fortunate to see Essential Voices USA perform multiple times with The New York Pops under your direction. What feelings come over you as you walk out on the Carnegie Hall stage? I have been fortunate to have conducted concerts throughout the world, but there is no place on earth like Carnegie Hall. I get the chills when I walk through the backstage entrance and an inner excitement when the white doors open backstage, whether I walk on the stage to conduct or if I am going to take a bow with my chorus.

By the way, I have worked with choruses for four orchestras, for about twenty five years, at Carnegie Hall - The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The American Composer’s Orchestra, The Juilliard Orchestra, and The New York Pops.

5. For someone out there who wants to become a musical director like you, what advice would you give to them? Study, keep focused, and keep learning, and never stop loving music.

6. From 1989-2007 you were the Director of Choral Activities at The Juilliard School. You created and conducted the Juilliard Choral Union and taught conducting and vocal chamber music. What is something you learned from your students that you didn't know before working at Juilliard? My talented, bright, and wonderful students taught me as I taught them. We learned from one another as I gave them the tools to soar. One of my greatest thrills is to see them surpass me. 

It is especially rewarding to have my former vocal chamber music class pianist Caren Levine coaching and prompting at the Metropolitan Opera, students conducting choruses and opera companies and serving as church musicians in Europe and the USA, and students singing in the major opera houses throughout the world.

BTW, I currently teach solo voice and ensemble singing at the Manhattan School of Music. Alysia Velez, my private student and a recent graduate, is performing as Rapunzel in the Into the Woods revival. Seeing her in this excellent revival brings tears of joy to my eyes.

7. What is something you would like my readers to know about you that we didn't get to discuss in this interview? My Essential Voices USA is cast according to the musical needs of a concert, workshop or recording. The large chorus that people hear at Carnegie Hall is made of fabulous volunteer singers. I often record with my professionals and sometimes I invite volunteer members to record as well. 

My latest commissioning and recording project is something I am really excited about. I conducted the premiere of Washington Women, a new collection of choral songs that I helped create with David Chase, on a Tiny Desk Concert at National Public Radio in July of this year. Scored for mixed chorus, piano and cello, the texts are taken from speeches, opinions, and interviews of sixteen remarkable women from across the political spectrum, all of whom spent part of their lives associated with Washington DC - First Ladies, Senators, Congresswomen, Supreme Court Justices, Secretaries of State, Vice President, and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Essential Voices USA will be performing the work with students from the Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music, Bronx, New York, at Lehman College, during International Women’s Month, March, 2023. Then I will be conducting workshops and performances of the piece throughout the spring.

Judith Clurman
Photo Credit: Michael Yeshion

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