The Central City Chorus announces the appointment of Phillip Cheah as Music Director.  A versatile performer and conductor in the New York choral music scene, Mr. Cheah is also Music Director of Guildsingers, a medieval consort of voices, and is a co-founder of C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, an ensemble dedicated solely to music written in the last 25 years.  Mr. Cheah is a member of the professional choir at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields and the Bach Choir of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, and performs regularly as chorister and soloist with ensembles in New York City. In addition, he regularly collaborates with pianist Trudy Chan in unique recital programs where he “defies the laws of nature” (Time Out New York) with his unusually large vocal range of three-and-a-half octaves.  Mr. Cheah is also staff accompanist with The Brearley School in Manhattan. 

 

Known for cultivating a ‘warm tone and carefully calibrated blend’ (New York Times) from his choirs, Mr. Cheah has led ensembles as varied as Amuse, Cerddorion Vocal Ensemble, the Handel Society of Dartmouth, the Indiana University Opera Theatre, and the Amato Opera, where he was also a répétiteur.  As a performer with the New York Choral Artists and the Concert Chorale of New York, Mr. Cheah has sung under the batons of Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and he has performed with Olympia Dukakis, Barbara Bonney, Thomas Quasthoff, and Angela Brown. A tireless champion of contemporary music, Mr. Cheah has performed works by Ralph Shapey, Joe Manieri, John Eaton, and Frank Oteri, and John Tavener, including the US premieres of Tavener's monumental all-night vigil, The Veil of the Temple, in 2004, and Paul McCartney's Ecce Cor Meum in 2006. As an accompanist, he has given recitals with the Aguavã New Music Studio and the Opera Collective of New York. He has recorded on the Pro Organo and Tzadik labels. A guest lecturer at the Manhattan School of Music and Barnard College, Mr. Cheah has held teaching appointments at the Putney School and Cathedral High School where he was the Director of Music.  He has worked at Oxford University Press as Music Promotions Manager and has also been the personal assistant to the composer/satirist Peter Schickele.  He holds both B.M. and M.M. degrees from Indiana University where he studied piano, conducting, and opera coaching with Jan Harrington, Thomas Dunn, Carmen Téllez, John Poole, Reiko Shigeoka-Neriki, and Christopher Harding.