New York Choral Society Announces 2025–2026 Season: DISRUPTING THE CANON – CHORAL CLASSICS REIMAGINED

The New York Choral Society has announced its 2025–2026 season, Disrupting the Canon – Choral Classics Reimagined. The season will transform three iconic works into immersive events where music, storytelling, and visual design converge, offering audiences bold new ways to experience beloved choral repertoire.

The season opens on Saturday, November 22, 2025 at 7:30 PM at Alice Tully Hall with King David: A Theatrical Choral Event. Arthur Honegger’s rarely staged oratorio will be presented in a sweeping production directed by Alison Pogorelc of The Metropolitan Opera. Restoring the work’s original theatrical intent, this staging places chorus, orchestra, and actors in a dramatic retelling of the biblical epic, immersing audiences in David’s journey from shepherd to king with the sounds of battle, triumph, and loss.

On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 7:30 PM at Alice Tully Hall, the chorus will premiere Requiem Reimagined: Mozart and Spears. Gregory Spears has composed a new ending to Mozart’s unfinished masterpiece, creating a dialogue across centuries. With lighting and projections by Camilla Tassi, the work will unfold in shifting light and shadow, reframing Mozart’s score in a visually and emotionally powerful performance.

Additional highlights include A Very Merry Brooklyn with the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra on Sunday, December 21, 2025 at 5:00 PM at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity, a festive holiday concert celebrating community and joy. The season concludes on Sunday, June 7, 2026 at 5:00 PM at David Geffen Hall with a monumental performance of Górecki’s Symphony No. 2, “Copernican”, in collaboration with the International Centre for Contemporary Music, uniting chorus, orchestra, and soloists in a cosmic meditation on Copernicus’ writings.

“Threading through both works is a shared artistic impulse: to take the familiar and invite audiences to hear—and see—it anew,” said Music Director David Hayes. “In King David, the drama of the music is brought vividly to the stage; in Requiem Reimagined, an incomplete score becomes a living conversation between eras.”

Executive Director Ellen PutneyMoore added: “This is a season for the curious, the passionate, and the bold. We're creating performances that audiences won't just hear—they'll experience, in ways that surprise, move, and inspire.”