The Cecilia Chorus of New York

With a membership of approximately 180 singers, the chorus performs twice annually at Carnegie Hall with a professional orchestra and soloists, as well as at other New York–area venues.

Its nucleus formed in 1900 when a small group of women began meeting to sing together at each other's Manhattan homes on Tuesday mornings.

During this period, the Chorus gave several dozen world and U.S. premieres,[4] by composers including Amy Beach, Deems Taylor, and Virgil Thomson.

[3] Harris continued as the Chorus's Music Director until 1936; he was succeeded by Léon Barzin (1936–37), Willard Sektberg (1937–42),[5] Hugh Ross (1942–195?

In April 1981, prompted by the popularity of the Broadway play Amadeus, the Chorus performed a program in Carnegie Hall featuring the U.S. premiere of Antonio Salieri's Mass No.

In 1996, a small group of Chorus members appeared as Christmas carolers in The Preacher's Wife, a major motion picture starring Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington.

[3] Under Shapiro, the Chorus, while maintaining its engagement with standard repertoire, embarked on a new path of commissioning and premiering works at Carnegie Hall as well as other venues.

Commissioned composers have included The Brothers Balliett, Jonathan Breit, Tom Cipullo, Raphael Fusco and Zaid Jabri.

The Chorus's 2019 performance of a program in tribute to Walt Whitman, including a premiere by Jorge Martín and music by the neglected nineteenth century American composer John Knowles Paine, was broadcast on the public radio series "Pipe Dreams."

Composers included Alexandre Guilmant, G. F. Handel, Arseny Koreshchenko, Gioacchino Rossini and Robert Schumann, as well as Johnny Cash, Penny Prince and Harold Rome.