Kent Tritle to Lead Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 2/24-25

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in collaboration with the Manhattan School of Music and Oratorio Society of New York, presents two unprecedented Great Music in a Great Space performances of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8, featuring more than 450 musicians, on Wednesday, February 24th and Thursday February 25th, at 7:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue (at 112th Street), Manhattan.

Kent Tritle, Director of Cathedral Music, will lead this work, which, since its 1910 premiere with 1,030 musicians, has been referred to as "The Symphony of a Thousand." This concert features the scoring for large orchestra with additional players including mandolin and the great Cathedral Skinner Organ; off-stage brass ensemble; two large mixed choirs; a children's choir; and eight soloists: Sara Murphy, mezzo-soprano; Angel Azzarra, soprano; Bryn Holdsworth, soprano; Janet Todd and Jana McIntyre, sopranos (taking the role of Mater Glorioso on February 24th and February 25th respectively); Lisa Barone and Noragh Devlin, mezzo-sopranos (taking the role of Maria Aegyptiaca on February 24 th and February 25 th respectively); John Tiranno, tenor; Tim Murray, baritone; and Adam Lau, bass.

Mahler spoke of the 8th as his most groundbreaking symphony and the grandest thing he had ever done. From the moment Tritle first visited the Cathedral with the idea of serving there, he dreamed of conducting musical creations on the grand scale befitting the world's largest neo-Gothic space. Mahler's Symphony No. 8, weaving together the text of a medieval hymn and the closing scene of Goethe's Faust, draws together essential redemptive themes of Western culture and is one of the most ambitious and thrilling of such works.

Tickets for each performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 start at $25. To purchase tickets for the February 24th performance, visit this page. To purchase tickets for the February 25th performance, visit this page. For more information on future performances throughout the 2015-2016 season, including a Great Organ performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 on April 7th featuring a new organ transcription by David Briggs, please visit the Great Music in a Great Space homepage.

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