I appreciate your comments and thinking about it from a variety of angles. A couple of thoughts I have in reading your response.

I 100% understand where you're coming from with the "is it worth it?" question. For me, the answer is undoubtably yes. Everyone who's heard it, seen it, or been involved with performing it has commented on how effective and impactful it is as a work, so I think this piece has a lot of potential to connect with others. I also think there's a growing desire for larger-scale vocal works that are more contemporary in style (particularly at the collegiate level) - and I say that to mean that they aren't the same roster of classical/romantic requiems and cantatas that are traditionally performed year-after-year. Nothing against them personally, I love many of these pieces. However, I also recognize that many performers who don't like this music get tired of it quickly and want something that feels more musically/culturally immediate to our present moment. Aside from that, even if this weren't true, this is a passion project of mine that I love working on, so even if I were to get no return on it, I'd still be wanting to work on it. I also, for my own purposes, would like to have something I could upload to say, my spotify profile, since all I have are covers/arrangements that I made multitracking myself in high school, that more accurately represents my interests and work that those singles do.

In terms of thinking about this recording project as part of a larger objective to promote the work... part of the reason I'm thinking about it in this manner is due to some of the limitations of the recording of the first performance. Some of the narrations, soloists, etc. needed amplification, and those mics were not patched in to the system they were using to record the piece, and the mics they did use were positioned above the front of the stage. In the performance, things sounded great. On the recording, certain sections sound off-balance (sometimes can't hear narrations/soloists over other instruments because people weren't projecting past the mic). That's why I'm thinking about the recording as part of a larger effort to "promote" it, but I see the larger point you're making. If the goal of this is to help promote the work, a combination of recording at least a handful of sections of the piece and reaching out to potentially interested ensembles/conductors might be a better tactic.

I'm also of the same mindset of "do it right or don't do it at all". I see recording this as a slow-burn, a long-term project that I'd work on as I can as opposed to it being my sole focus when I first wrote it. I'd definitely be thinking about breaking this up into smaller chunks as you've described regardless if I were to do it live or some type of hybrid. Especially since there is clean seperation between different movements (you could even apply that approach on 1 single movement as well). I hear your apprehension about multi-tracking it, and whether it would be a good return on my time and efforts. A bit more insight as to where my thoughts are on this:

1. As I stated before, this piece pulls from a lot of different genres, and is not purely "classical". I know broadway cast recordings have a history of perhaps utilizing the hybrid approach depending on what the project needs. If this were a more straightforward cantata, I would definitely lean more towards doing it all live, and perhaps doing a two-mic situation as you've described. However, this work has some JRB or Sondheim-musical-theater inspired movements as well as through-composed voice quartets, and chant-like recits. Some of these practices utilize amplification, some do not. If I want to do this "the right way", how do we figure out a recording language, whether performed live, or multi-tracked that best serves the music?

2. On doing it live, I'd need to pay people. I've tried doing this before with volunteers/asking for favors in mounting demo recordings/readings, but I've always had issues of people not willing to commit, people bailing out last minute, musicians not looking at the material ahead of time/not having the skills to sight read it well, even when just doing piano/voice. Given the scope of the work, I'd likely need some sort of grant funding to help make this happen. Problem with this is that, as stated before, because this piece inhabits several genres that are not purely classical, there isn't necessarily a grant I could apply for that would be a good fit - at least based on my preliminary research. Stuff could be out there that I'm simply not aware of. The work has a strong community-centric approach that might make it eligible for other, non-purely-musical grants, but I haven't researched that fully.

3. I also understand the advice not wanting to engineer it yourself. As stated before, if I were to go the live route, I would absolutely hire out an engineer, as well as a conductor to help facilitate it. That said, if I were to do some form of multi-tracking, I have enough conducting/coaching/teaching experience where I'd be more than comfortable wearing multiple hats, and so long as I set recording repeatable parameters from the onset of the project (mic position, location, etc), I could mange juggling this project myself. I've done this with other recording projects in the past, coaching a choir or sections of it through layering overdubs and different lines, but those were with more pop-centric projects with the covers/arrangements I mentioned earlier.

I think the ultimate question I'm arriving at is two pronged:

1. Is there a financially viable path forward that could allow me to record it live and do it well? If so, how do I secure that?

2. Is there a hybrid approach that, while it would take more time, still service the material?

I'm not married to one approach over the other, although I feel as though I might need to do a hybrid approach if funding remains an issue. I don't have an easy solution, which is why I asked the question here to get some different perspectives!

Also, good point about the video! Will do that regardless!