Kent Tritle Announces Spring 2023 Season

A Musica Sacra program spotlighting works by women composers spanning 500 years (April 18, 2023); the world premiere of a setting of the Stabat Mater for soloists, chorus, organ, and orchestra by David Briggs at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which will be livestreamed free of charge (March 8, 2023), and Bach's Mass in B Minor with the Oratorio Society of New York (May 8, 2023) are highlights of the spring 2023 season of Kent Tritle, who is Director of Cathedral Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and Music Director of both the Oratorio Society of New York, the acclaimed volunteer ensemble, and Musica Sacra, New York's elite professional chorus.

"Multitude of Voyces," a program by Musica Sacra at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (April 18, 2023), takes its name from a newly published British anthology of sacred music composed by women, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Kent has created a musical arc that moves back and forth in time, from the 16th-century Stabat Mater of Sister Sulpitia Cesis and the 17th-century Alma Redemptoris Mater of Isabella Leonarda to music of early 20th-century composers Amy Beach and Ethyl Smyth, to works by living composers Kerensa Briggs, Melanie DeMore (a Bronx native), and Rani Arbo (who while growing up in New York was a Cathedral Chorister at St. John the Divine) - alongside J. S. Bach's Jesu meine Freude, a Musica Sacra signature piece.

"We have music from the time of Purcell coupled with living composer Kerensa Briggs's Hear my prayer (after the work of the same name by Purcell); Ethyl Smyth's Komm, süsser Tod (ditto, Bach) preceding Bach's Jesu, meine Freude," says Kent Tritle, "and arrive at living composers Melanie DeMore and Rani Arbo, native New Yorkers both. The trajectory bridges ebullient praise to supplication, longing to release. And peace is a through-line - we end with Undine Smith Moore's We shall walk through the valley in peace."

With the Cathedral Choir and Orchestra of St. John the Divine, Kent leads the world premiere of Stabat Mater for soloists, chorus, organ, and orchestra by David Briggs, Artist in Residence at the Cathedral; also on the program, which will be livestreamed free of charge from the Cathedral's website, are works by George Walker and Morton Lauridsen (March 8, 2023). Kent also leads the Cathedral Choir in "Venice: City of Light," a collaboration with Rose of the Compass celebrating the variety in that city's cultural fabric, with music of the Armenian, Turkish, and Jewish communities alongside that of Cipriano de Rore, Giovanni Gabrieli, and their 16th-century contemporaries. (May 16, 2023).

The Oratorio Society of New York's season-concluding event is a performance of J. S. Bach's monumental Mass in B Minor; Kent leads the chorus, orchestra, and soloists Emily Donato, Lucia Bradford, Brian Giebler, and Sidney Outlaw (May 8, 2023).

Kent leads the choir and orchestra of the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City for its Founders' Day Concert, a performance of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius. The soloists in the work, which premiered in 1900, around the time the cathedral was built, are Heather Petrie, Christopher Oglesby, and Seth Keeton (March 19, 2023).

An acclaimed organist, Kent Tritle performs two recitals in New York this spring: at the Church of St Monica to celebrate the rededication of its organ (March 10, 2023), and his second recital of the season at St. John the Divine, music of David Hurd, J. S. Bach, and César Franck (April 16, 2023).

As the organist of the New York Philharmonic, Kent gave the first performances on the new organ of David Geffen Hall on the hall's reopening program, in Respighi's Pines of Rome; he returns to that organ with the Philharmonic for Respighi's Roman Festivals in a bookending program toward the end of the season (May 4, 5, 6, 2023). Kent also wears two hats at the Philharmonic performances of J. S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion led by Jaap van Zweden (March 23, 24, 25, 2023) - as organist and as music director of Musica Sacra, the featured chorus in the performances.

The schedule with full programs and links is below.

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 avocational chorus; and Music Director of Musica Sacra, the longest continuously performing professional chorus in New York City. In addition, Kent 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 is renowned as a master clinician, giving workshops on conducting and repertoire; he leads annual choral workshops at the Amherst Early Music Festival, and recent years have included workshops at Berkshire Choral International, Summer@Eastman and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. As Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music from 2008 to 2022, Kent established the school's first doctoral program in choral conducting. A Juilliard School faculty member since 1996, he currently directs a graduate practicum on oratorio in collaboration with the school's Vocal Arts Department.

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 2020 Chorus America Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art, 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