Kent Tritle Announces 2019 Spring Concert Season

The programs of Kent Tritle's spring 2019 concerts offer a display of the conductor's work on both a grand and intimate scale. "New York's choral conducting superstar" (Time Out New York), leads the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall in Sibelius's massive Kullervo, and in Verdi's mighty Requiem. Narrowing the lens, he conducts Musica Sacra in an a cappella program of works interleaving the Renaissance William Byrd's Mass for Five Voices with new works, including the world premiere of Migration by Michael Gilbertson for choir and cello; and he leads the Cathedral Choir and Orchestra of St. John the Divine in a program of music by Poulenc and the Fauré Requiem.

That French program features soprano Jennifer Zetlan and baritone John Brancy; other soloists this spring include the Finnish soprano Johanna Rusanen (in her Carnegie Hall debut) and baritone Takaoki Onishi in Kullervo; and the quartet of soprano Elizabeth del Trejo, mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis, tenor Joshua Blue, and bass Adam Lau in the Verdi Requiem.

The season also includes a residency at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, and organ recitals in Connecticut and Florida.

Kent Tritle is Director of Cathedral Music and Organist at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the largest cathedral in the world; Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York, the acclaimed 200-voice volunteer chorus; and Music Director of Musica Sacra, New York's longest continuously performing professional chorus. He is Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music. Also an organ virtuoso, Kent is the organist of the New York Philharmonic.

A full schedule of the season's events with program details follows 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 200-voice avocational chorus; and Music Director of Musica Sacra, the longest continuously performing professional chorus in New York City. In addition, Kent is Director of Choral Activities and a member of the organ faculty at the Manhattan School of Music and is a member of the graduate faculty of The Juilliard School. An acclaimed organ virtuoso, he is also the organist of the New York Philharmonic and the American Symphony Orchestra.

Kent Tritle's discography of more than 20 recordings on the Telarc, AMDG, Epiphany, Gothic, VAI and MSR Classics labels includes the 2016 performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 8, David Briggs's organ-choral version, which received a rave review in The American Organist, and Eternal Reflections: Choral Music of Robert Paterson with Musica Sacra, about which Gramophone said, "As shaped by Music Director Kent Tritle, the myriad hues, lyricism and nobility in Paterson's music emerge in all their splendour." Other releases, including his 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 releases with the Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola, 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, have been praised by Gramophone, American Record Guide, and The Choral Journal.

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.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Taylor