NEC Faculty On Faculty: Preparing a Choir to Perform “Babi Yar”

NEC faculty member, composer, and music theorist Andrew Schartmann interviewed Erica J. Washburn, NEC’s Director of Choral Activities, on preparing a choir to sing Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Babi Yar” for the latest edition of the DSCH Journal, a biannual publication dedicated to the life and work of Shostakovich. Schartmann serves as Associate Editor for the DSCH Journal.

“The privilege of encouraging my choristers as they file on stage, greeting them when they file off, and witnessing first-hand their satisfaction of a job brilliantly done is what makes the many hours of private score study and ensemble rehearsals worth the effort,” said Washburn about the NEC Symphonic Choir’s May 2023 performance of Shostakovich’s “Babi Yar” with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood Festival Chorus (pictured right). “To have the added bonus of recording Symphony no. 13 with the BSO and TFC for Deutsche Grammophon was an experience the NEC choristers—and I—will not soon forget.”

Click here to read Andrew Schartmann’s interview with Erica J. Washburn in the DSCH Journal.

Photo credit: Hilary Scott