By Magee Hickey
Posted: Jan 20, 2023 / 10:22 PM EST
Updated: Jan 20, 2023 / 10:22 PM EST
FORT GREENE, Brooklyn (PIX11) — What happens when you mix traditional choral music with top 100 pop hits and turn it into a dance party? You get an evening called Bigger Than My Song.
At first, It sounds like a traditional Acappella church choir, but then it morphs into something very different.
It was one of the world’s first choral music raves inside the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church at The Space at Irondale.
It may just be the winter’s most unique dance party.
“What we are trying to do is to honor two different communities and art forms,” Vince Peterson, the founder and director of Choral Chameleon, told PIX11 News. “In tandem and given the same weight and with authenticity to each.”
This musical genre-bending dance party features recognizable hits from the Bee Gees, Rihanna, Netta, Ariana Grande, and more.
Each track is deconstructed and reassembled into separate melodies, harmonies, beats and rhythmic patterns and put back together by collaborating with DJ Classic Concrete Husband, who also plays the flute.
“I’ve been a classical flutist my entire life and still am,” Carlos Aguilar, the DJ also known as Concrete Husband, told PIX11 News. “We’re going to create a balance between creating experimental soundscapes, referencing classical music in addition to true underground New York Techno.”
The singers are all part of Choral Chameleon, a next-gen choral music company featuring new music and immersive performances exploring different expressions of visual art, movement, taste and texture.
This rave bridged the generations.
“It’s so exciting because we don’t usually dance at our shows,” Stephanie Tuck, one of the 50 singers, told PIX11 News. “To have music and dance, we like to push the envelope.”
Bigger Than My Song will perform all weekend at the Space at Irondale inside the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church.