Manhattan Choral Ensemble Announces Full 2013-14 Season

The Manhattan Choral Ensemble (MCE) will venture into new territory in its 14th season through collaborations with three distinguished guest conductors who will stand in for Music Director Thomas Cunningham during his one-year sabbatical in New Zealand. The three guest conductors-Deborah Simpkin King, Andrew Megill and Joseph Flummerfelt-have worked with Mr. Cunningham to curate programs that will showcase the MCE's commitment to contemporary composers and choral masterworks.

"While I'll miss working with the MCE over the next season, it's an honor to have such accomplished musicians lend their talents to help further our mission. Deborah and Andrew will both bring tremendous insights to the repertoire they've chosen. And as for Joseph: what can I say? He's a living legend," said MCE Music Director Thomas Cunningham.

The season begins on December 6, 2013 with Deborah Simpkin King conducting the fourth installment of the MCE's Reading and Carols series. This year's program will focus on the theme of love, with evocative works including Edvard Grieg's How Fair Is Thy Face, Robert Schuneman's Do I Not Deal With Angels, Eric Whitacre's A Boy and a Girl, John Karl Hirten's Child of Sweetness and Robert S. Cohen's I See. In keeping with the format of the MCE's Reading and Carols series, music selections will be interspersed with literary passages by New York writers and traditional Christmas carols.

On March 15, 2014 Andrew Megill will lead the MCE in a performance of Heinrich Schütz's celebrated Musikalische Exequien with period instrument accompaniment. A new piece commissioned by the MCE from rising star Caleb Burhans will complete the program. This is the 32nd piece commissioned by the MCE and its first collaboration with Mr. Burhans.

The season will conclude on May 10, 2014 when the MCE welcomes Joseph Flummerfelt to the podium in an evening of favorites from Maestro Flummerfelt's 30-year conducting career. Dr. Flummerfelt has selected a program of works by Mendelssohn, Brahms, Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky, with a closing set of his own arrangements of well-loved folk songs.

Tickets for these programs will go on sale six weeks prior to the concert dates.