Stephen M. Black, Music Director

Stephen M. Black, an active conductor and performer in New York City, is beginning his eleventh season as Director of Music at St. Joseph’s Church Yorkville, New York City’s German national parish on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He is also the founder and Artistic Director of the St. Joseph’s Singers, a select chamber choir in residence at the church. In April 2008 he led the church’s choral ensembles in a concert of music by Arvo Pärt, Aaron Jay Kernis, and J.S. Bach on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI’s internationally televised visit to the historic parish. With the St. Joseph’s Singers he has conducted New York City premieres of works by Steven Stucky, Kristin Kuster, and Stefan Weisman. In 2006 the St. Joseph’s Singers presented the world premiere of O frondens virga by Neil Farrell, an a cappella motet for four-part women's choir.

Choral Conducting

Mr. Black is also the Artistic Director of the Central City Chorus in New York City. He has led performances of Bach’s Magnificat and Christmas Oratorio and the Brahms Requiem with the chorus, and recently conducted a critically acclaimed concert featuring the Frederick Delius Requiem with the chorus and symphony orchestra at Symphony Space in Manhattan. Mr. Black and Central City Chorus have also given several New York City premieres, including Emma Lou Diemer’s cantata, A Feast for Christmas (“[A] major addition to the choral repertoire…” Choral Journal, 1991), and Emmy-award-winning composer Steve Heitzig’s choral suite, Leaf Songs, based on the poetry of the American poet Wendell Berry. Additionally, Mr. Black conducts the Brearley Singers, an eighty-member chorus associated with the Brearley School on the upper east side of Manhattan. With the Brearley Singers he has conducted Haydn’s Paukenmesse, Duruflé’s Requiem, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and Mozart’s Solemn Vespers K. 339. Mr. Black has also prepared choruses for performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at Riverside Church with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Astoria Symphony, and William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the Empire State Youth Orchestra. As a guest conductor he has led summersings sponsored by the St. George’s Choral Society, the West Village Chorale, and the Association of Connecticut Choruses.

Honors, Awards & Recitals

Mr. Black has received several honors and awards in both organ performance and choral conducting. In 1997 he won first prize in the John R. Rodland organ competition in New Jersey, the largest organ scholarship competition in the United States. In 1999 he was one of six finalists in the American Guild of Organists Young Artist Competition. He has performed recitals at Washington National Cathedral; St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City; All Saints Cathedral in Albany, New York; Longwood Gardens in Westchester County, Pennsylvania; and St. Mary’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland. In addition, he was awarded a conducting fellowship from the Dennis Keene Choral Festival in the summer of 2002.

Mr. Black is continually involved in the performance of new music. With the St. Joseph’s Singers he has presented concerts of new music, including a TimeOut Magazine NY Critic’s Choice Concert in October 2006 featuring the world premiere of a choral suite from Stefan Weisman’s critically acclaimed opera Darkling. He has commissioned composers Elliot Levine and Kristin Kuster to write for the Central City Chorus. As a professional singer he appears regularly with the New York Virtuoso Singers, an ensemble devoted exclusively to the performance of contemporary music.

Mr. Black is a graduate of the University of Louisville and the Yale School of Music.