The Dessoff Choirs to Open 2025–26 Season with Hailstork, Howells & León at Brick Church

The Dessoff Choirs will launch its 2025–2026 season on Saturday, November 8, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. at Brick Church (1140 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10128) with a program that pairs contemporary American voices with a luminous English masterwork.

Centerpiece of the afternoon is Adolphus Hailstork’s The World Called, inspired by Rita Dove’s poem “Testimonial,” a work that blends African, American, and European traditions and reflects Hailstork’s studies with Nadia Boulanger. The chorus also offers Herbert Howells’s deeply felt Requiem alongside his radiant Magnificat—originally written for St. Paul’s Cathedral in London—featuring organist Dr. Raymond Nagem, and revisits Tania León’s It’s a Journey, commissioned for Dessoff’s centennial with poetry by the late Nikki Giovanni. Pianist Steven Ryan joins the ensemble.

“To begin our 101st season with the poetry of Rita Dove and Nikki Giovanni, set by Adolphus Hailstork and Tania León, alongside Howells’ Requiem, is to honor resilience and the enduring power of the choral art,” said Dr. Merriweather.

The concert continues a hallmark Dessoff approach that critics have hailed as “incredibly powerful” (Interludes) and “sustaining the high quality and thoughtful programming that have characterized the ensemble for a century” (Blogcritics). Founded in 1924 by Margarete Dessoff, the chorus is renowned for introducing unknown, long-forgotten, and newly composed works to American audiences. Under Merriweather’s leadership, Dessoff has re-introduced music by Black women composers including Margaret Bonds, Florence Price, and Valerie Capers while commissioning and premiering new works; the chorus celebrated its centennial in 2024 with landmark projects and collaborations.

Tickets for “Resilience and Revelation: Hailstork, Howells & León” are $25–$45 and available at dessoff.org/events/howells-and-hailstork.

Program (concert order subject to change)

The afternoon features Adolphus Hailstork’s The World Called; Herbert Howells’s Magnificat and Requiem; and Tania León’s It’s a Journey. Performers include The Dessoff Choirs with Malcolm J. Merriweather, conductor; Raymond Nagem, organ; and Steven Ryan, piano.

About The Dessoff Choirs

One of New York City’s leading independent choruses, The Dessoff Choirs champions choral music from the Renaissance to today, enriching audiences through adventurous programming, professional collaborations, community outreach, and education. Recent seasons have included Brahms’s Requiem at Town Hall; Florence Price’s Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight; Verdi’s Requiem with Trinity Church; Britten’s War Requiem and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the New York Philharmonic; and world or American premieres by Virgil Thomson, George Perle, Paul Moravec, Ricky Ian Gordon, Philip Glass, and John Tavener. Dessoff’s acclaimed recordings include Margaret Bonds: The Ballad of the Brown King & Selected Songs (a WQXR “Best of 2019”), and Margaret Bonds: Credo, Simon Bore the Cross (AVIE), praised by WRTI for its “utmost care of execution.” The Choirs are supported, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts. Learn more at dessoff.org.

About Malcolm J. Merriweather