Videos: Choir Creates Beautiful NY Moment Outside Of Carnegie Hall During The Blackout

July 14, 2019, 8:20 a.m.

The blackout, Manhattanhenge, and a choir set the scene outside of Carnegie Hall on Saturday night.

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When the lights went out in New York City on Saturday night, the sun was still lining up with the city's street grid for the year's final Manhattanhenge sunset. And that's when a choir took to the streets outside of Carnegie Hall, where they had been set to perform that evening, to deliver the perfect soundtrack to the scene that was unfolding. As the FDNY arrived at the iconic venue, the Millennial Choir put on an impromptu sidewalk show for a growing audience on West 57th Street.

The choir, who were not able to perform their final show at the venue due to the hours-long blackout, posted on social media: "We made the best of the unfortunate situation and performed some of our pieces outside for passersby to enjoy during the stressful time... we feel blessed to have been able to touch many more hearts in an unexpected way from the streets of beautiful New York City."

The moment—which happened 42 years to the day after the 1977 blackout—was captured on many, many phones:

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As you may have heard, we were not able to perform our final concert at Carnegie Hall this evening due to a widespread blackout which affected a large part of Manhattan for several hours. But in true MCO fashion, we made the best of the unfortunate situation and performed some of our pieces outside for passersby to enjoy during the stressful time. This is Brandon Stewart's arrangement of "I Stand All Amazed." Currently, countless people have heard this story about MCO and seen the viral videos of our impromptu performance. So although we regret that many of our participants and audience members missed out on performing and seeing us on the world-renowned Carnegie stage this evening, we feel blessed to have been able to touch many more hearts in an unexpected way from the streets of beautiful New York City. • • • #mcoinnyc #nearermygodtothee

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The orchestra was there, too:

The cast of Waitress and Hadestown also took their shows to the street: