If it’s a real taste of Martha Stewart-style living you seek, then put down her special-recipe cocktails and crank up some New York Polyphony instead.
The haunting chamber group formed nine years ago, and on their Grammy-nominated 2014 Christmas album, “Sing Thee Nowell,” the quartet perform everything from medieval carols to 21st century a cappella pieces. The group’s baritone, Christopher Dylan Herbert, also happens to be Stewart’s nephew, but the domestic goddess doesn’t just dig New York Polyphony because of her family ties.
“She’s a big classical music fan in general,” Herbert tells The Post. “One of the things Aunt Martha likes about us is that we sound like more than just four voices.”
The 34-year-old Herbert, who lives in Fort Greene, has impressive classical chops — graduating from Yale with a bachelor’s in music and currently a doctoral fellow at the Juilliard School. His late mother, Laura, was Stewart’s sister, and Herbert was married in 2010 at his aunt’s estate in Bedford, NY. The union, with spouse Timothy Long, was one of the first same-sex marriages to be featured in Martha Stewart Weddings magazine. Aunt and nephew remain close. “I still see Martha at least once a month,” Herbert says.
The group’s current lineup has been in place for four years and features, aside from Herbert, countertenor Geoffrey Williams, tenor Steven Caldicott Wilson and bass-baritone Craig Phillips. Stewart has used her influence to help the group on occasion, including inviting them to perform on her show “Martha” in 2011. That same year, Stewart had tongues wagging when the hunky Herbert accompanied her to the opening of “Anna Bolena” at the Metropolitan Opera.
When New York Polyphony were first nominated for a Grammy last year for their 2013 album “Times Go by Turns,” Herbert called her to tell her the good news, and a proud Stewart made it known to anyone who would listen. “Martha was at Art Basel in Miami that day,” he remembers. “When I told her the news, she shouted, ‘Christopher got nominated for a Grammy!’ at everyone in the room around her.”
The group attended last year’s pre-telecast Grammy show and found the experience of being one of the more specialist nominees to be amusingly surreal. “No one seemed to quite know what to do with us. It was like being at a wedding without knowing who was getting married!”
This year, the band’s tour meant they missed out on Sunday night’s festivities, but Aunt Martha continues to bang a drum for New York Polyphony, even if she accidentally steals their limelight.
“We played at St. Paul’s Chapel at Columbia University in December,” laughs Herbert.
“There was a snow storm that made everyone late, so when she walked in with my family, we’d already started. She was wearing a big hat and everyone in the audience turned to look at her!”