About

About PREformances™️

After eleven seasons of live performances, the innovative classical concert series PREFORMANCES™ with Allison Charney pivoted to a virtual format in March of 2020, presented by the PREFORMANCES™️ Chamber Music Collaborative, whose mission is to honor Henry David Thoreau’s belief that “if we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be, music and poetry would resound along the streets.”

During the pandemic we created a new 7-part concert and conversation series – SEASON OF HOPE – where acclaimed opera singer Allison Charney hosts a behind-the-scenes glimpse into top-level artists’ practices and performances, deliberately blurring the traditional barriers which exist between classical musicians and their audiences. Ms. Charney not only showcases each of her renowned guests’ exquisite performances but also sings on each episode. As with her in-person series, Ms. Charney promises a unique experience that provides entertainment performed at the highest level along with unique insights, providing audience members with classical music knowledge that she promises “is simply not Google-able.” In addition, we partnered with New York City’s historic TOWN HALL to present OPERA AT HOME – the first installment in our new OPERAS IN SHORT series.

PREFORMANCES™ has presented over 100 of the preeminent musicians of our time. Notable appearances include those by New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert, Metropolitan Opera stars William Burden and Maria Zifchak, “Queen of the Flute,” Carol Wincenc, violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins of Broadway’s “Fiddler on the Roof” fame, and concert pianists Joel Fan and Navah Perlman, just to name a few. In addition, we have presented new classical works by composers such as Michael Ching, Moshe Knoll, Mary Ellen Childs, Russell Platt and Kim D. Sherman.

PREFORMANCES™ is supported in part through the generosity of its patron group – Friends of  PREFORMANCES™ –  donors who believe in the series’ mission and vision.  This support enables the development of new works and helps provide educational community outreach efforts, offering free tickets to aspiring young professional musicians as well as students without regular access to high-quality classical music programming.

PREFORMANCES™ embraces artists, audiences and music of all backgrounds, ethnicities, orientations and world-views. We denounce racism and bigotry of any kind and stand committed to equality, diversity, accessibility and combating injustice; anything less is unacceptable.

Ms. Charney’s career has brought her to opera companies across the United States, including the:

Concert highlights have included performances at Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, as a featured soloist with the esteemed Philadelphia Orchestra and with the Boston Pops under the baton of Alan Gilbert. Continuing her commitment to performing music of our times, Ms. Charney recently premiered Moshe Knoll’s Psalm 133 with the San Jose Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Barbara Day Turner, in a concert that also featured Kim D. Sherman’s oratorio (composed for Ms. Charney) Songbird and the Eagle. Upcoming performances will include further premieres of pieces by Michael Ching, Ms. Sherman and Mr. Knoll, whose Psalm 133 she recently sang in concert at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, where she was also the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Ms. Charney made her Carnegie Hall debut in the spring of 2022 as a featured soloist in the new composite song cycle, Forgotten Voices.

Ms. Charney is featured in the first recording of the Pulitzer Prize nominated oratorio Choose Life, by composer Mona Lyn Reese and can be heard in a CD of American songs with pianist, Benjamin Loeb, on the DSC Label. Ms. Charney is excited to appear on the upcoming AVIE Records recording of Forgotten Voices as well as the newly-released Navona Records ARK Resounding – the debut recording of  the ARK trio, of which she is a founding member. She is also a co-creator of the series, Her/Music; Her/Story, which was launched at Steinway Hall in 2019 and is currently showcased in a four-part radio series on WQXR.  Ms. Charney is an active recitalist and master teacher and is the artistic and executive director of the long-running concert series,  PREFORMANCES™️ WITH ALLISON CHARNEY most recently presented in-person at Merkin Hall in New York City. During the pandemic, Charney pivoted to the virtual stage where her concert and conversation series: SEASON OF HOPE launched the centennial year of  New York City’s historic Town Hall who then presented her OPERA AT HOME adaptation of Verdi’s Otello – the first installment in her OPERAS IN SHORT series. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude with highest honors, in Special Concentrations from Harvard University, she went on to earn two graduate degrees in music from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Ms. Charney now lives in New York with her husband and their two sons.