Musica Viva New York Choir to Perform Brahms and Schubert in May

New York City’s leading chamber choir, Musica Viva NY, will present A HUMAN REQUIEM, a one-night-only concert at Manhattan’s All Souls NYC on Sunday, May 18, 2025, at 5:00 p.m.

Led by Musica Viva NY’s Artistic Director/Conductor Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, the Musica Viva NY choir and orchestra mark the culminating concert of Alejandro’s 10th anniversary season at the helm. The program’s two pieces are deeply personal to him: Johannes Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, which is one of the most imposing and profoundly moving musical statements in history, and Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. Both works are closely connected to the conductor’s memories of his father, whom he lost when he was 15 years old.

“Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem was a constant companion throughout my father’s long illness and eventual passing,” says Hernandez-Valdez. “With its profound focus on offering comfort to the living in the face of loss, this powerful, monumental, and disarmingly moving work became a beacon of hope for me.” One of the world’s most famous requiems, it is sacred but non-liturgical and, as its title states, is a Requiem in the German language. Brahms began to write his A German Requiem roughly midway through the long, tortured process of composing his First Symphony, a work begun in 1854 but not premiered until 1876.

Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759, commonly known as the Unfinished Symphony, is a musical composition that Schubert started in 1822 but left with only two movements—though he lived for another six years. The reasons why he never finished his symphony are mysterious and scarce, which has only heightened the intrigue over the years. Sometimes called the first Romantic symphony, it showcases Schubert’s beautiful and flowing melodies. The Musica Viva NY orchestra performs the first movement, marked Allegro Moderato, comprising the famous waltz-like theme. 

“Schubert’s unfinished symphony was the first piece of classical music I truly fell in love with as a child, ”says Hernandez-Valdez. My father often played it for me—at home, in the car—its melodies accompanying us wherever we went. I vividly remember him describing the haunting, ominous quality of the low basses in the opening bars—a detail that resonated deeply, as he himself was a professional bass player.”

About Musica Viva NY

Musica Viva NY is a non-profit arts organization that was established nearly 50 years ago. Its mission is to bring world-class music to a wide community through an annual concert series, an active community engagement program, and an ambitious artistic vision. Under the baton of Artistic Director Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez since 2015, Musica Viva NY strives to offer joy, solace and renewal in a complex world by presenting new compositions and classic masterworks in transformative interpretations that ennoble the human spirit.

Musica Viva NY’s superb chamber choir and world class collaborating instrumentalists make their concert home in Manhattan’s historic All Souls Church. It regularly combines its presentation of the classical repertoire with less widely known works, as part of its commitment to perform the works of living American composers, women composers and composers of color, including works that address social, racial or environmental issues. Composers whose works have been featured in recent Musica Viva NY performances include Florence Price, Alexandra T Bryant, Steve Reich, Frank Ticheli, Missy Mazzoli, Alice Walker, Joel Thompson and Jesse Montgomery.

Musica Viva NY has commissioned and premiered numerous works by contemporary composers including Bora Yoon, Seymour Bernstein, Elena Ruehr, Joseph Turrin, Bruce Saylor, Jean-Louis Petit, Eugenio Toussaint, Gilda Lyons, Richard Einhorn, Trent Johnson and Trevor Weston.

Beyond high-quality concert performances, Musica Viva NY also serves the communities of New York City through a growing variety of rich community engagement programs. Currently, Musica Viva NY partners with New York city public schools, extracurricular youth ensembles, New York Public Library branches and the All Souls’ Monday Night Hospitality dinner program, offering free performances, artist clinics, interactive workshops, and more. Musica Viva NY has nurtured young artists throughout its half century of existence. Great musicians who have been Musica Viva NY singers and soloists include the Metropolitan Opera stars Samuel Ramey and Renée Fleming, and Broadway’s Aladdin, Michael Maliakel.

The organization was founded as an annual concert series in 1977 by Walter Klauss, who directed the group for 38 years, and adopted the name “Musica Viva” in 1985. Under Walter Klauss’ baton the choir toured in Paris (2004), Germany and Czechoslovakia (2006) and Italy (2012). In 2026 it will tour in Spain under the auspices of Teatro Real of Madrid.