IN TIME OF WAR and More Set for The Mendelssohn Choir Of Pittsburgh 26-27 Season
Music director Daniel Singer will lead programs at East Liberty Presbyterian Church featuring works by Arvo Pärt and Florence Price.
The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh has unveiled its 2026-2027 season under Music Director Daniel Singer and newly appointed Executive Director Cameron Gunsbury-Massey. The season reflects a renewed direction for the organization, one grounded in connection, shared experience, and the belief that choral music can help people make sense of the world around them.
Now in its 118th season, the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh continues to build on its tradition of artistic excellence while expanding its focus to programming that speaks directly to lived experience. The 2026-2027 season emphasizes music as a space for reflection by exploring three interwoven themes: conflict, community, and grief. Each program approaches these ideas through a different lens, bringing together works that ask challenging questions while holding space for hope.
The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh 2026-2027 Season
In Time of War
October 11, 2026 | East Liberty Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh
MCP opens its season with a program of composers from three different centuries each offering their response to violence. Arvo Pärt's Da pacem Domine, written in 2004 in commemoration of those lost to acts of terrorism, starts the program with a meditation for peace. Next, Florence Price's 1939 setting of Vachel Lindsay's poem Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight imagines Lincoln's restless ghost observing the start of World War I and questioning why we continue to rage against one another. Franz Joseph Haydn closes the program with the Mass in Time of War. Written in 1796 as Austria struggled against the advance of French armies, Haydn uses trumpets and timpani to color the text of the Catholic Mass with the imminent threat of approaching warfare. The program ends as it began, with a prayer for peace, leaving listeners with the hope that through shared experience and mutual understanding, we can put an end to violence.
CrosSING Bridges - Community Singing Workshop
February 20, 2027
Now in its third season, MCP's CrosSING Bridges initiative returns in the form of a participatory singing workshop. All are invited for a morning of community music-making led by Dr. Herbert V.R.P. Jones, founder and director of the Heritage Gospel Chorale of Pittsburgh. As one of the nation's foremost experts on Gospel music, Dr. Jones will guide attendees in learning about the history and significance of this fundamental genre through group singing and conversation. No prior experience with Gospel music is required - all those who love singing are welcome to delve into this rich American tradition together.
The Sacred Veil
May 21 & 23, 2027 | Westminster Presbyterian Church & East Liberty Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh
MCP closes its season with Eric Whitacre's The Sacred Veil, a deeply personal work exploring love and loss. Written with poet Charles Anthony Silvestri, this 12-movement work tells the true story of Silvestri's wife, Julie, who passed away from ovarian cancer at 36. The Sacred Veil allows listeners the space to grieve and acknowledge that it is okay to do so. Silvestri notes, "We all have pain. We all have experienced loss. We all long for catharsis and closure, even as we grieve." Presented alongside works by Renaissance master Tomás Luis de Victoria and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, the program invites reflection both during the performance and beyond it.
Alongside its self-produced season, MCP continues its longstanding partnership with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, appearing throughout the year to perform major choral works that are central to the orchestral cannon. These include Beethoven's Mass in C Major, Handel's Messiah, and Orff's Carmina Burana. For the widely beloved PSO Holiday Pops, MCP will once again take the stage alongside members of the Junior Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, MCP's pre-professional training ensemble for High School singers, a program that is celebrating its 40th anniversary next season.
The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh 2026-2027 Season with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
December 4 & 6, 2026 | Heinz Hall; Beethoven: Mass in C Major
December 5, 2026 | Heinz Hall; Handel: Messiah
December 11-13 & 18-20, 2026 | Heinz Hall; Highmark Holiday Pops
February 12-14, 2027 | Heinz Hall; Orff: Carmina Burana
March 11, 2027 | St. Vincent College; Beethoven: Christus am Ölberge
April 17, 2027 | Heinz Hall; Mozart et al.: Amadeus
June 25-27, 2027 | Heinz Hall; The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
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