The Cathedral Of St. John The Divine's 2022-2023 Season Of Great Music In A Great Space Continues With LIGHT OF PARADISE

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine's 2022-2023 season of Great Music in a Great Space continues with Light of Paradise, featuring the world premiere of British composer David Briggs's Stabat Mater along with works by George Walker and Morten Lauridsen, on Wednesday, March 8 at 7:30pm, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue (at 112th Street) and livestreamed at stjohndivine.org.

The concert will be the first performance of Artist in Residence David Briggs's Stabat Mater, co-commissioned with St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas. Kent Tritle conducts the Cathedral Choir and Orchestra for this premiere, with soloists Halley Gilbert and Andrew Fuchs. The concert will open with George Walker's beloved Lyric for Strings. To conclude, Bryan Zaros directs the combined Cathedral Choristers, Cathedral Choir and Cathedral Chorale in a performance of Morton Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna, a deeply moving work written by Lauridsen after the death of his mother.

To purchase tickest and for more information, visit the Cathedral's website. Student admission is free with valid ID. This concert will also be livestreamed from the Cathedral website. For more details on this program, contact Music Director Kent Tritle at ktritle@stjohndivine.org.

For more details and information on all the Cathedral's programs and services, visit stjohndivine.org.

PROGRAM

Cathedral Choir, Chorale, Choristers & Orchestra

Kent Tritle & Bryan Zaros, conductors

Halley Gilbert, soprano

Andrew Fuchs, tenor

Lyric for Strings George Walker (1922-2018)

Stabat Mater (World Premiere) David Briggs (b. 1962)

I. Stabat mater dolorosa

II. Cujus animam

III. O quam tristis et afflicta

IV. Quae moerebat

V. Quis est homo

VI. Pro peccatis suae gentis

VII. Eia Mater, fons amoris

VIII. Fac ut ardeat cor meum

IX. Sancta Mater, istud agas

X. Fac me tecum pie flere

XI. Inflammatus et accentus

XII. Quando corpus morietur

Intermission

Lux Aeterna Morten Lauriden (b. 1943)

1. Requiem Mass
2. In Te, Domine, Speravi
3. O Nata Lux
4. Veni, Sancte Spiritus
5. Agnus Dei - Lux Aeterna

About The Artists

David Briggs is a composer whose works are performed across all five continents. Also a renowned concert organist, David has improvised since the age of six. His first major composition was a mass setting for Truro Cathedral composed in 1990 and now performed regularly by choirs around the world. David has written some 60 works and recorded two DVDs and 37 CDs, many of which include his own compositions and transcriptions. David's music is widely praised for its rich harmonic language, emotional depth, and accessibility.

Described by the New York Times as "one of the world's greatest contemporary organists," David's performances are celebrated for their musicality, virtuosity, and ability to excite and engage audiences of all ages. With an extensive repertoire spanning five centuries, David has also become one of the foremost organ transcribers of symphonic works. He has transcribed orchestral compositions by Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Elgar, Bruckner, Ravel, and Bach, as well as Mahler's Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth symphonies.

Named as "an intrepid improviser" by Michael Barone, host of American Public Media's Pipedreams, David performs more than 50 concerts a year at international venues, teaches performance at Cambridge University, frequently serves on international organ competition juries, and gives master classes at colleges and conservatories across the U.S. and Europe.

On March 4, 2023, David will receive the highest honour of the Royal College of Organists, the RCO Medal, in recognition of distinguished achievement in organ performance and composition.

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 and Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York and Musica Sacra.

An acclaimed organ virtuoso, Kent Tritle is the organist of the New York Philharmonic and performs regularly as an organ recitalist in Europe and across the United States. His discography features more than 20 recordings on the Telarc, Naxos, AMDG, Epiphany, Gothic, VAI and MSR Classics labels.

Kent Tritle has been featured on ABC World News Tonight, National Public Radio, and Minnesota Public Radio, as well as in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He is the 2020 recipient of Chorus America's Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art.

Bryan Zaros is a young American conductor recognized for his "strong musical imagination" and "deep sense of musicality and communication." Bryan is the Associate Director of Music & Choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City where he leads the Cathedral Choirs, Orchestra and Brass in liturgical as well as concert performances in the grand space of the world's largest Gothic cathedral. He is also the Music Director of Central City Chorus, Music Director of The Pro Arte Chorale and a frequent guest lecturer at the Manhattan School of Music and at music conferences throughout the USA.

Currently he serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Choral Consortium, on the Advisory Board to Music Sacra New York and is a conductor for the American Federation Pueri Cantores. Recent conducting engagements have included invitations with choirs and orchestras throughout the USA, Europe and South America. Most notably he has conducted ensembles at Alice Tully Hall-Lincoln Center, the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., at American Choral Director's Association Conferences, on the film set at Warner Bros. Studios and at various cathedrals in England including Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral-London and Canterbury Cathedral. He is a recipient of several conducting awards and fellowships including an American Prize award in Conducting. For more information about Bryan, visit bryanzaros.com.

Of soprano Halley Gilbert's Zerbinetta in Utopia Opera's production of Ariadne auf Naxos, James Jorden of the New York Observer wrote: "Stealing the show was Halley Gilbert as Zerbinetta, flinging out crystalline trills, arpeggios, staccati and roulades... Ms. Gilbert's frankness... made the text sound like it could have been written yesterday." She has performed multiple leading roles including Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Cunegonde (Candide), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Violetta (La Traviata), Nanetta (Falstaff), Ännchen (Der Freischütz), Younger Soprano (Impresario), and Birdie (Regina). Other roles include Ms. Wordsworth (Albert Herring), Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflӧte), Chlorinda (Cenerentola) and Frasquita (Carmen).

Ms. Gilbert has been a featured soloist with the Great Music in a Great Space Concert Series, Musica Sacra, Greenwich Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, Lake Placid Sinfonietta, and Bronx Arts Ensemble among others. She received first prize in both Opera Idol NYC and the Jenny Lind Competition for Sopranos and was a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

A native of Kansas City, MO, NYC-based tenor Andrew Fuchs's wide-ranging repertoire includes an abundance of early music, which he has sung with such groups as Pegasus, TENET, ARTEK, and New York Polyphony (with whom he recorded Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli for BIS Records). He recently made his Kennedy Center debut in Monteverdi's Vespers with The Thirteen and his Lincoln Center debut in Bach's Magnificat with the American Classical Orchestra. The music of Bach has come to play a central role in Andrew's career, and he has cherished performing the Evangelist in both the St. Matthew and St. John Passions. Additionally, while a member of The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Andrew was a frequent soloist on their "Bach at One" series at St. Paul's Chapel.

Equally passionate about the music of today, Andrew is very active in NYC's new music scene and has premiered many works including the principal role of ME in Daniel Thomas Davis's chamber opera Six. Twenty. Outrageous. with American Opera Projects, Alexander Goehr's song cycle Verschwindenes Wort for The Juilliard School's Focus Festival, and Zachary Wadsworth's oratorio Spire and Shadow with Downtown Voices. He has also been featured in several substantial pieces by Steve Reich, such as Three Tales at Disney Hall and Daniel Variations at Miller Theatre (both with Ensemble Signal), and Desert Music with the American Composers Orchestra.

Andrew holds degrees from the University of Kansas and Stony Brook University, and is an alumnus of the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar and Tanglewood Music Center.

About Great Music in a Great Space

Revived in 2011, Great Music in a Great Space reprises the legendary concert series first held at the Cathedral in the 1980s. Great Music in a Great Space presents choral, orchestral, and instrumental music, in the magnificent, deeply spiritual setting of the world's largest Gothic cathedral. The beloved holiday traditions of the Christmas Concert and New Year's Eve Concert for Peace are an integral part of our concert series. Joined by Rose of the Compass, Musica Sacra, and the Oratorio Society of New York, the Cathedral Choirs, Orchestra, and a remarkable artistic team of organists and soloists bring the beloved space of the Cathedral to life with this transcendent music.

About The Cathedral

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is chartered as a house of prayer for all people and a unifying center of intellectual light and leadership.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cathedral has responded to changing needs in the local community and across the city and state. People from many faiths and communities worship together in daily services held online and in person; the soup kitchen serves roughly 50,000 meals annually; social service outreach has an increasingly varied roster of programs to safely provide resources and aid to the hardest-hit New Yorkers; the distinguished Cathedral School prepares young students to be future leaders; Advancing the Community of Tomorrow, the renowned preschool, afterschool and summer program, offers diverse educational and nurturing experiences; the outstanding Textile Conservation Lab preserves world treasures; concerts, exhibitions, performances and civic gatherings allow conversation, celebration, reflection and remembrance-such is the joyfully busy life of this beloved and venerated Cathedral.

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