THE THIRTEEN Opens 15th Season with Brahms & Bonds

The Thirteen, a professional choir and orchestra, opens its fifteenth season, In Our Time, October 16–18, 2026 with Johannes Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem and Margaret Bonds' Credo, her setting of W.E.B. Du Bois' 1904 declaration of racial equality, dignity, and hope.

Artistic Director Matthew Robertson conducts, with pianists Brian Ganz and Eric Conway. Soloists include Edmund Milly and Andréa Walker. The program opens The Thirteen's fifteenth season, which explores how great works live across time, imbued with the intentions of their creators, bearing the imprint of their reception through history, and shaped by the purpose drawn from them today.

'Brahms and Bonds wrote in different centuries and from very different experiences, but both works are grounded in hope,' said Robertson. 'Brahms wrote a Requiem for the living, offering consolation to those who grieve. Bonds and Du Bois insist on the dignity and equality of human beings and on the possibility of a more just world.'

The Thirteen's performance of Bonds' Credo also marks a return to the city where the work was premiered. Bonds completed the piano-vocal version of the work in 1965, setting Du Bois' text beginning 'I believe in God who made of one blood all races that dwell on earth.' It received its world premiere in Washington, D.C., on March 12, 1967, conducted by Frederick Wilkerson with Bonds herself at the piano. Earlier this year, in February 2026, Bonds' grave finally received a headstone, having remained unmarked for more than fifty years. The Thirteen's performance marks a homecoming for Credo in a year of long-overdue recognition of Bonds' contributions to American concert music.

'Collective memory is an act of selection,' said Robertson. 'For years, Bonds' contributions to our art form were ignored. I am glad that The Thirteen is now playing a small role in helping her stunning work to receive the recognition it deserves.'

Bonds' Credo is paired with one of the great choral works of the nineteenth century, Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem. Brahms composed the work during the years surrounding the death of his mother, assembling his own German-language text from scripture and creating a Requiem concerned not with the fate of the dead, but with consolation for the living. Of its title, Brahms wrote that he would gladly leave off the word 'German' and replace it simply with 'human.' The Thirteen performs Brahms' own version for piano four hands, with Ganz and Conway at the piano.

Performance Information

BRAHMS & BONDS

Johannes Brahms | Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45

Margaret Bonds | Credo, text by W.E.B. Du Bois

The Thirteen
Matthew Robertson, conductor

Brian Ganz & Eric Conway, piano

Tour Dates

Friday, October 16, 2026 | 7:30 p.m. — Schlesinger Concert Hall | Alexandria, Virginia

Saturday, October 17, 2026 | 4:00 p.m. — National Presbyterian Church | Washington, D.C.

Sunday, October 18, 2026 | 5:00 p.m. — Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church | Bethesda, Maryland

Subscriptions, tickets and information: TheThirteenChoir.org

About The Thirteen

'Exquisite in every way' (Gramophone), The Thirteen is a professional choir and orchestra celebrated for reimagining the potential of vocal music. In fourteen years of performing works ranging from early chant to world premieres and the centuries in between, the ensemble has gained a reputation not only for its 'tight and attractive vocal blend and excellent choral discipline' (American Record Guide), but also as clarion voices for its time, 'offer[ing] a vivid portrait of a nation still finding its voice' (The Washington Post). Its mission is to inspire the soul to sing, move the heart to empathy, and build community through musical performance. The chief music critic of The Washington Post wrote of the ensemble's New American Songbook program in May 2025, 'I wasn't expecting to have my heart broken.'

About Matthew Robertson

American conductor Matthew Robertson is the founder and driving voice of the professional choir and orchestra The Thirteen, which he has led in more than two hundred concerts, two dozen concert tours, nine commercial recordings, and numerous world premieres. Noted for boundary-defying performances that 'transfigure the listener' (The Washington Post), for his 'incisive tempos and dramatic pacing' (Washington Classical Review) and 'flowing lines and dramatic climaxes' (Fanfare Magazine, UK), Robertson's vision has led to acclaimed performances of a diverse repertoire.

About Brian Ganz

Nearly sixty years later, Ganz takes Bonds' place at the piano as The Thirteen performs Credo in Washington.

Ganz, one of Washington's best-known pianists, has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, National Symphony, National Philharmonic, and City of London Sinfonia. A laureate of the Marguerite Long Jacques Thibaud and Queen Elisabeth of Belgium international piano competitions, he is also widely known for his long-running exploration of the complete works of Frédéric Chopin.

About Eric Conway

Eric Conway, pianist, conductor, and longtime director of the Morgan State University Choir, has appeared as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, and other ensembles. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, where he earned his doctorate in piano performance, Conway was a Liberace Scholarship recipient and winner of the Yale Gordon Concerto Competition. He also served for more than a decade as orchestral pianist for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and has collaborated with artists including Hilary Hahn.

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