Musica Sacra to Present CLASSICS FOR CHRISTMAS At Carnegie Hall

Musica Sacra will present “Classics for Christmas,” a concert of festive delights, for its annual holiday concert at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday, December 17, at 7:30 pm. This year's program features excerpts from Handel's Messiah along with a Handel harp concerto, choral selections from Bach's Mass in B Minor and Rachmaninoff's Vespers, and choral and orchestral works by Corelli, Poulenc, Helena Paish, and Randall Thompson.

Joining the chorus as soloist in “Rejoice greatly” from Messiah and Adolphe Adam's Cantique de Noël is Metropolitan Opera star soprano Kathryn Lewek. Metropolitan Opera harpist Mariko Anraku is the soloist in the harp concerto. 

Musica Sacra, founded in 1964, is New York's longest continually performing professional chorus, and the 2025-26 season marks Kent Tritle's 19th as Music Director. Musical America, in its coverage of the 2023 performances of Bach's St. Matthew Passion with the New York Philharmonic, praised the chorus's “stunning transparency,” saying the group “achieved ravishing homogeneity in the frequent chorales while triumphing in the complex and moving ‘Wir setzen uns mit Tränen' that closes the work.”

Musica Sacra concludes its season with “Oquin and Shaw” with the world premiere of Wayne Oquin's On the Words of Walt Whitman on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at 7:00 pm at St. Bartholomew's Church. The world premiere of Wayne Oquin's new work setting Whitman's poetry for soloists, chorus, chamber orchestra, and organ, featuring soprano Susanna Phillips and baritone John Moore, centers the program, which also features Caroline Shaw's Entr'acte for string orchestra and selections by Oquin for a cappella chorus: O Magnum Mysterium, Alleluia, and Sure on this shining night. This performance of Wayne Oquin's works will be recorded for future commercial release.

In the 2025-26 season, Kathryn Lewek makes her debut in the title role of Alcina in concert performances in Paris, Barcelona, and Montpellier with the Ensemble Artaserse and maestro Philippe Jaroussky. Lewek also takes on the role of Elettra for the first time in Calixto Bieito's new production of Idomeneo at La Monnaie. Later in the season, the soprano debuts in the title role of Salome at the Cincinnati Opera. Kathryn Lewek also revisits Mozart's Queen of the Night in four productions of The Magic Flute: at the Royal Opera House in London, the Berlin State Opera, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and in Rolando Villazón's new production with Roberto González-Monjas conducting at the Mozart Week Festival and the Santander Festival, where she also joins Piotr Beczala for a gala concert. www.kathrynlewek.com

As soloist, chamber, orchestral, and recording artist, Mariko Anraku has enchanted audiences with her “manifestation of grace and elegance” (Jerusalem Post) and as “a masterful artist of intelligence and wit” (The New York Times).  Since her debut with the Toronto Symphony led by Sir Andrew Davis, she has been guest soloist with numerous orchestras and given recitals at major concert halls around the world. Since 1995, Mariko has held the position of Associate Principal Harpist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Her list of awards include First Prize at the First Nippon Harp Competition, First Prize, the Channel Classics Recording Prize, and the ITT Corporation Prize at the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York.