“Sing”

Sesame Street
Music & Lyrics: Joe Raposo

J’nai Bridges, mezzo-soprano
Doug Peck, music director
with members of Chicago Children's Choir:
Daelyn Calloway, Simon Cegys, Jamion Cotten, Bianca Fratila, Amina Gorman, Ella Koss, Salome Kuhr, Bennet McConkey, Emerson McConkey, Elizabeth Neveu, Zoey Obregon, Myra Sahai, Solé Stampley, Katherine Talmers, Elaine Tang, Ellen Tang, Sarah Troccoli, Kaylee Wellington

Joe Raposo (1937-1989) was a multi talented musician—a singer, pianist, composer, lyricist, and musical-theater conductor. His music made a vital contribution to numerous important programs in children’s television. Raposo wrote many beloved songs for Sesame Street, among them “Sing,” “Bein’ Green,” and the show’s title song. In 1973, two years after Raposo composed “Sing,” The Carpenters recorded the song and significantly increased its popularity internationally. On Sesame Street the song has been performed by young cast members as well as by major performers and celebrities, from singer Barbara Cook and actress Candice Bergen to violinist Isaac Stern and even First Lady Barbara Bush.

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“Sing” with J'Nai Bridges and the Chicago Children's Choir

In this excerpt from For the Love of Lyric, Ryan Opera Center alumna J'Nai Bridges brings us a childhood favorite: Joe Raposo’s "Sing" from Sesame Street with members of the Chicago Children's Choir and music director Doug Peck.

Mezzo-Soprano

J’nai Bridges

J’Nai Bridges, a Ryan Opera Center alumna, has recently scored major successes at the Metropolitan Opera (Nefertiti/Philip Glass’s Akhnaten, company premiere), Washington National Opera (Dalila/Samson et Dalila), San Francisco Opera (title role/Carmen, Josefa Segovia/John Adams’s Girls of the Golden West, the latter a world premiere reprised at Dutch National Opera), LA Opera (Akhnaten, Kasturbai/Philip Glass’s Satyagraha), Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu (Federica/Luisa Miller), the Zurich Opera House (Preziosilla/La forza del destino), Munich’s Bavarian State Opera (Bersi/Andrea Chénier), and Vancouver Opera (Sister Helen Prejean/Dead Man Walking). The mezzo-soprano made a sold-out Carnegie Hall recital debut, and she has appeared in concert with the major orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Washington, among other prestigious ensembles. Bridges is a former recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence Award and the Marian Anderson Vocal Award. A former participant in the Glimmerglass Festival young-artist program, she also represented the United States at the prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.

Chicago Children’s Choir

Previously at Lyric: 13 productions since 2000|01, most recently The Queen of Spades, Dead Man Walking (both 2019/20).

Chicago Children’s Choir (Josephine Lee, president and artistic director) is the nation’s preeminent youth choral organization, serving 5,200 students across the city of Chicago. Founded in Hyde Park in direct response to the Civil Rights Movement in 1956, CCC has grown from one choir into a vast network of in-school and after-school programs driven by one mission: to inspire and change lives through music.CCC has impacted the lives of more than 50,000 diverse youth throughout its 62-year history. Since its founding, CCC has focused on building programs that reflect the racial and economic diversity of Chicago. Eighty percent of youth served are from low-moderate income homes, with over 4,000 students annually participating completely free of charge. All singers in CCC programs receive some level of subsidy. High school seniors enrolled in CCC have a 100% graduation and college acceptance rate, becoming global ambassadors who carry on CCC’s core values in a wide array of professional fields.