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Call Redialed: NEW Judith Clurman Interview: Listen to the World

composer conductor music musical director recording artist singer songwriter television theatre tv Apr 15, 2025
Call Me Adam Title Page. There are three spotlights at the top of the page shining down onto the page. The Call Me Adam Logo is in the top right corner. The top left side of the page has a light blue box with a dark blue border and in the center of the box it says CallMeAdam.com A Different Kind of Interview. There is an orange arrow pointing down from the box to a circle frame containing Judith Clurmanā€™s headshot. To the left of the circle frame is an orange jagged edge flag that says Featuring: Judith Clurman. To the right of her headshot it says Listen To The World

I have had the pleasure of seeing Judith Clurman conduct her chorus, Essential Voices USA for many years at The New York Pops' concerts.

I last spoke with Judith in 2022, when she was getting ready for The New York Pops' annual holiday concert.

Now, I am thrilled to catch up with Judith on the heels of her newest CD, Listen To The World , being released.

In this NEW interview, Judith once again answered my call, but this time around she shares:
  • How she came up with the idea for her new album, Listen To The World
  • Why she collaborated with Matthew Sklar, Robert Sirota, William Schermerhorn & Victoria R. Sirota
  • What kind of perspective she gained from writing "Listen To The World"
  • What she would tell the world right now
  • So much more

Connect with Judith: Website, Facebook, Instagram

Featuring compositions by Judith Clurman, Matthew Sklar, and Robert Sirota, with texts by William Schermerhorn and Victoria R. Sirota, Listen To The World addresses pressing global challenges: environmental preservation, immigration, and human connection. 

Judith’s Listen to the World urges listeners to foster understanding; Matthew’s Hymn for the Earth celebrates ecological stewardship; and Robert's A Migrant’s Dream honors the courage and aspirations of migrants.

With profound texts and stirring melodies, the album inspires listeners to engage with the world’s complexities through empathy and action.

Listen To The World is available on all music streaming platforms. 

1. You have just released your latest choral album, Listen to the World, which features your choral group, Essential Voices USA. When did you come up with the idea and concept for this album? I am always thinking about the expression “Tikun Olam” - - - that is a Hebrew value for finding ways to repair and improve the world. And what better way to do that than by having music written to help the world repair and improve.

For me, the words come first; they are as important as the notes! I had conversations with both Bill and Vicki about my passion to make these pieces happen and I asked both of them for lyrics.

2. In addition to your compositions, the album also features music by Matthew Sklar and Robert Sirota, with texts by William Schermerhorn and Victoria R. Sirota. What made you want to collaborate with them for this album? Matthew Sklar and I always wanted to work together. He was inspired by the idea of repairing the world and he responded to the lyrics that Bill provided. Vicki Sirota is a lyricist; she often collaborates with her husband Bob and that is how that connection was made. You don’t explain how you know Bob.

3. What was the best part about working with them for this project? Everyone is top notch in their field and it was great to collaborate with everyone involved. I edit music for my choral series at Hal Leonard, so I edited the lyrics and music as we were working together. There is always room for change and improvement.

Judith Clurman Conducting
Photo Courtesy of Judith Clurman

4. What was the hardest part about putting this album together? Why was said part so difficult? I was not sure if I wanted to release these pieces as singles at different times of the year or all at once. I eventually felt that they fit together, like pieces of a puzzle.

5. The songs on this album address a lot of global challenges including environmental conservation, immigration, and human connection. Why do you feel it was important to release an album with these themes? Honestly, I wanted music written about making this world a better place in which to live for the choral series I edit for Hal Leonard. I wanted appropriate texts to be able to be sung by school, community, and professional choruses.

Then I worked on raising the funds to record these three pieces because the three pieces are each important and teach the world important lessons with their lyrics - - - listen to what is out there, take care of our planet, and value new people coming to our shores.

6. Your particular song, "Listen to the World," encourages listeners to foster understanding. What kind of understanding did you gain from writing this song? I am putting this out into the world with the hope that people will listen to Bill’s text and sing my melody and they will be able to sit together at a table, look into one another’s eyes, and have a civil conversation, even if they do not agree with one another, and even if they come from two different cultures.

7. Playing off the album's title, Listen to the World, what do you think the world is telling us to listen to (besides your new album)? To do what I just said in question six. Learn how to communicate with one another.

Judith Clurman conducting her chorus, Essential Voices USA
Photo Courtesy of Judith Clurman

8. When you are getting ready to put an album together, do you ever consult with the members of Essential Voices USA to get their feedback before heading into production? Not really. However, I often hire some professional singers to read through music when it is new so I can put my editor’s ears on, fix things, improve things, catch mistakes in the score, etc.

I enjoy working with singers and sometimes, during rehearsals (or even a recording session), they raise their hand or just call out a suggestion. I often agree with them.

I am known to change things on the spot during a rehearsal or recording session. You need to be flexible and be able to rethink and rewrite on the spot.

9. What do you get from recording with Essential Voices USA that you don't get from performing with them live?  These are two very different experiences. My mind and ears work differently in each discipline. I always grow as a musician from a session because I am working with fine producers (David Frost or Silas Brown). They become the boss at a session. At this point in my career, they know me, and they know the sound I want from singers and instruments. I trust their ears. They work on details and more details and hear differently than I because what they are hearing is over a speaker. That is different than what I am hearing from the singers, who are singing without a microphone.

In a live concert, the sound I hear is the sound that I mold in the concert hall. That is what the audience hears as well!

10. Bringing the interview back to your new album, Listen to the World, if you could tell the world something, what would you want it to know? Behave. Stop getting angry with one another. Communicate with one another. Try to value each day you are alive because life is precious.


More Judith Clurman Interviews:

2022 (Read Here): Making Music with Essential Voices USA

Judith Clurman
Photo Courtesy of Judith Clurman

More on Judith Clurman:

Judith Clurman is the musical director for Essential Voices USA and The Singing Christmas Tree Float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (NBC). Her Essential Voices USA is currently in residence with The New York Pops on the Carnegie Hall subscription concert series and she is collaborating on various choral for 2022 and beyond.
 
Judith has worked with many of the world’s finest symphonies, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St Luke’s, the American Composer’s Orchestra, and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. She previously conducted The New York Concert Singers, a group that appeared on Lincoln Center’s Great Performers and Carnegie Hall’s concert series.
 
Highlights of her career include conducting performances at the Mozarteum Grosser Saal in Salzburg, the nationally televised Music of the Spirit (NBC and PBS), the choral music for the SONY movie The Song of Names, and the nationally televised July 4th Macy’s Fireworks Spectacular (NBC), with the Diva Jazz Orchestra. In addition, she conducted the complete canons for Lincoln Center’s Mozart Bicentennial, which included World and US Premieres of the versions of the music that were found in Constanze Mozart’s edition of the music; the US Premiere of the original edition of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle; the World Premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s arrangement of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue; and the US premiere of music by Phillip Glass and Arvo Paert.
 
She has commissioned and conducted new works by over seventy composers, including works by Tzvi Avni, Milton Babbitt, Robert Beaser, William Bolcom, Jason Robert Brown, Shawn Crouch, Marvin Hamlisch, Jake Heggie, Jennifer Higdon, Laura Karpman, Andrew Lippa, Tania Léon, David Ludwig, Nico Muhly, Stephen Paulus, Shulamit Ran, Christopher Rouse, Augusta Read Thomas, Joshua Schmidt, Howard Shore, Mark Sirett, and Stephen Schwartz.
 
She has received two Emmy nominations, one for music direction and composition (Sesame Street, Season 39) and one for outstanding original song (Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – “The Holidays Are Here”). She conducted Tania Léon’s music on the Grammy and Latin Grammy nominated CD, In Motion.
 
As an educator, Judith was Director of Choral Activities at The Juilliard School from 1989-2007 where she created and conducted the Juilliard Choral Union and taught conducting and vocal chamber music. She has served as a visiting artist/teacher at University of Cambridge, Curtis Institute of Music, Harvard University, Princeton University, the Janacek Academy, and Israel’s Zimriya Festival at Hebrew University, and was the vocal specialist at the National Endowment for the Arts/Columbia University Institute of Classical Music.
 
She currently teaches voice and ensemble voice at the Manhattan School of Music. Judith is a member of ASCAP, ASCAP’s Special Classification Committee, and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She edits two choral series, with over 100 publications for Hal Leonard.
 
Her own music and arrangements are published by G. Schirmer, Hal Leonard, and Schott, and have been performed by the Detroit, Houston, New Jersey, National, San Francisco, and Toronto Symphonies, and the Boston and New York Pops. Her work can be heard on the Acis, Albany, Delos, Decca, New World labels, and Symphony Space labels.
 
Judith is a graduate of The Juilliard School. She has also studied at Oberlin College, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Temple University Ambler Music Festival.

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