Conductor and Organist Kent Tritle Announces Spring Concerts

Having planned a full, pre-pandemic-scale season for 2021-22, Kent Tritle, who is Director of Cathedral Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Music Director of both the Oratorio Society of New York and Musica Sacra, and Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music, led or performed in a dozen concerts in the season's first half, with only one event being canceled.

Kent's spring concert schedule has undergone a few shuffles, but is going ahead largely as planned, featuring Bach's Magnificat and Mozart's Great Mass in C Minor with Musica Sacra at Carnegie Hall (April 6; the replacement event for Musica Sacra's canceled Messiah); Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Oratorio Society of New York and soloists Susanna Phillips, Lucia Bradford, Isaiah Bell, and Justin Austin at Carnegie Hall (May 9); a program with Musica Sacra featuring Viktor Kalabis's Canticum canticorum (marking the Czech composer's centennial), the Te Deum of Arvo Pärt, and the world premiere of The Name That Never Dies, a Musica Sacra commissioned work by Wang Jie (March 22); the Requiem mass of the Classical-era Afro-Brazilian composer José Maurício Nunes Garcia and the local premiere of the Stabat Mater of Alissa Firsova with the Cathedral Choir of St. John the Divine (April 5); and a program with the Cathedral Choir, Parthenia, and Rose of the Compass devoted to rarely-heard music of Portugal (May 23; rescheduled from Feb. 22). In addition, he leads the choral forces of the Manhattan School of Music in the Fauré Requiem (March 30). (See full program details below.)

In addition to conducting its concerts, Kent is preparing his professional choir Musica Sacra for a concert by the Juilliard Orchestra led by Barbara Hannigan featuring Debussy's La damoiselle élue (March 31), and nine performances with the New York City Ballet in Balanchine's ballet to Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream (May 21-29). Musica Sacra was also recently featured in a Carnegie Hall performance by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Holst's The Planets.

Kent also performs an organ recital at Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa - just 70 miles from his hometown of Spirit Lake - that will be livestreamed (Feb. 19). And this summer, after a pandemic-induced year off, he will lead the choral workshop at the Amherst Early Music Festival.

"Here in New York, the undisputed king of the Messiah is Kent Tritle," said New York Public Radio's New Sounds in December - and buttressing the claim is a WQXR broadcast of the Oratorio Society of New York's December 20, 2021, performance of highlights of the work at Carnegie Hall that is available for streaming. Addressing the circumstances of this year's performance in a pre-concert interview, Kent said, "This is what I always find about Handel Messiah in 'normal' times: each year, we go through so much - personally, individually, as well as culturally, nationally, internationally - so when we come to the score for another iteration, it's not the same experience - it never is."

Spring at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine

On February 1, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine resumed in-person services. On Sunday, February 20, and continuing through Palm Sunday, April 10, the Cathedral will launch a Compline service at 7 pm in which the Cathedral Choir, led by Kent, will be featured. As are all services, it is open to all.

Kent Tritle is one of America's leading choral conductors. Called "the brightest star in New York's choral music world" by The New York Times, he is Director of Cathedral Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City; Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York, the acclaimed 200-voice avocational chorus; and Music Director of Musica Sacra, the longest continuously performing professional chorus in New York City. In addition, Kent is Director of Choral Activities and a member of the organ faculty at the Manhattan School of Music and is a member of the graduate faculty of The Juilliard School, serving its Vocal Arts Department. An acclaimed organ virtuoso, he is also the organist of the New York Philharmonic.

Kent Tritle's discography features more than 20 recordings on the Telarc, Naxos, AMDG, Epiphany, Gothic, VAI and MSR Classics labels. Recent releases include the Grammy-nominated Naxos recording of the Paul Moravec/Mark Campbell oratorio Sanctuary Road with the Oratorio Society of New York; Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in David Briggs's organ-choral version, and Eternal Reflections: Choral Music of Robert Paterson with Musica Sacra. Other releases include the 2013 recording of Juraj Filas' Requiem, Oratio Spei dedicated to the victims of 9/11, with the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the Kühn Choir; Messages to Myself, an acclaimed recording with Musica Sacra of five new works; and two discs - Cool of the Day, an a cappella program of music ranging from Gregorian chant, Palestrina, and spirituals to Strauss's Deutsche Motette, and Ginastera's The Lamentations of Jeremiah with Schnittke's Concerto for Choir - with the Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola.

Kent Tritle founded the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space concert series at New York's Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, and led it to great acclaim from 1989 to 2011. From 1996 to 2004, he was Music Director of New York's The Dessoff Choirs. Kent hosted "The Choral Mix with Kent Tritle" on New York's WQXR, a weekly program devoted to the vibrant world of choral music, from 2010 to 2014. Among his recent honors are the 2017 Distinguished Achievement Award from Career Bridges and the 2016 President's Medal for Distinguished Service from the Manhattan School of Music. Kent is on the advisory boards of the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective (C4) and the Clarion Music Society, and was the 2016 honoree at Clarion's annual gala. He was recently featured in the WIRED video series "Masterminds," an installment titled, "What Conductors Are Really Doing."

www.kenttritle.com

KENT TRITLE SPRING 2022 SEASON

Saturday, February 19, 2022, at 7:30 pm - to be livestreamed

Dordt University, Sioux Center, IA

KENT TRITLE, organ

NICHOLAUS BRUHNS Praeludium in E Minor

NICHOLAS DE GRIGNY Tierce en taille

J. S. BACH Piece d'orgue, BWV 572

JOHANNES BRAHMS O Welt, ich muss dich lassen, Op.122, No.3

FELIX MENDELSSOHN Sonata IV in B-Flat

GEORGE CRUMB Pastoral Drone

FRANZ LISZT Prelude and Fugue on BACH

(Kent will conduct a master class on Friday, Feb. 18, at 3:00 pm)

Tuesday, March 22, 2022, at 7:30 pm

Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC

MUSICA SACRA

Kent Tritle, conductor

Nicole Joy Mitchell, contralto

John Riesen, tenor

Musica Sacra Orchestra

VIKTOR KALABIS Canticum Canticorum

ARVO PÄRT Te Deum

WANG JIE The Name That Never Dies (World premiere, Musica Sacra commission)

JOHANNES BRAHMS Schaffe in mir, Gott, Op. 29, No. 2

Wednesday, March 30, 2022, at 8 pm

Manhattan School of Music, NYC - Neidorf-Karpati Hall

MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC SYMPHONIC CHORUS AND CHAMBER PHILHARMONIA

Kent Tritle, conductor

Ronnie Oliver, conductor

Eva Martinez, soprano

Henry Griffin, baritone

Arr. UNDINE MOORE "Daniel, Daniel, Servant of the Lord"

MOSES HOGAN "Hear My Prayer"

MOSES HOGAN "Elijah Rock"

GABRIEL FAURÉ Requiem

Thursday, March 31, 2022, at 7:30 pm

Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC

JUILLIARD ORCHESTRA

Barbara Hannigan, conductor

Musica Sacra

Kent Tritle, Music Director

Program to include:

CLAUDE DEBUSSY La damoiselle élue

Tuesday, April 5, 2022, at 7:30 pm

Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC

CATHEDRAL CHOIR AND ORCHESTRA OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE

Kent Tritle, conductor

Bryan Zaros, conductor

Nola Richardson, soprano

Tracy Cowart, mezzo-soprano

Andrew Fuchs, tenor

Joseph Beutel, bass-baritone

ANTONIO VIVALDI Concert in D Minor, RV 565

ALISSA FIRSOVA Stabat Mater (New York City premiere)

FRANCIS POULENC Litanies à la Vierge Noire (1947 version orchestrated with strings and timpani)

JOSÉ MAURÍCIO NUNES GARCIA Requiem

Wednesday, April 6, 2022, at 8 pm

Carnegie Hall, NYC

MUSICA SACRA

Kent Tritle, conductor

Jennifer Zetlan, soprano

Heather Petrie, mezzo-soprano

Bernard Damon Holcomb, tenor

Enrico Lagasca, bass-baritone

J. S. BACH Magnificat

W. A. MOZART Great Mass in C Minor

Monday, May 9, 2022, at 8 pm

Carnegie Hall, NYC

ORATORIO SOCIETY OF NEW YORK

Kent Tritle, conductor

Susanna Phillips, soprano

Lucia Bradford, mezzo-soprano

Isaiah Bell, tenor

Justin Austin, baritone

Orchestra of the Society

FELIX MENDELSSOHN Elijah

Monday, May 23, 2022, at 7:30 pm

Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC

"CALEIDOSCÓPIO! UNSUNG VOICES FROM PORTUGAL"

Rose of the Compass

Parthenia

Cathedral Choir of St. John the Divine

Kent Tritle, Nina Stern & Raymond Nagem, music directors

An exploration of rarely heard works from Portugal including the 13th-century female-voiced "Cantigas de Amigo," symphonies of the converso Jewish heiress Isabella Duarte, and sacred and secular works of the 16th century Black composer Vicente Lusitano.

Underwritten by a generous grant from Lois and Richard Pace

(This concert had originally been announced to take place on February 22, 2022.)

May 21-29, 2022

David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC

NEW YORK CITY BALLET

Musica Sacra

Kent Tritle, Music Director

George Balanchine's ballet to Felix Mendelssohn's score of A Midsummer Night's Dream

August 14-22, 2022

Northampton Community College, Bethlehem, PA

AMHERST EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL

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