September
11&13
OSM
Payare Conducts Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder
After performances this past April of Transfigured Night and Pelleas und Melisande, to open the 2024–2025 season, Rafael Payare continues his exploration of Schoenberg’s works with a monument of the post-Romantic repertoire: the Gurre-Lieder. This imposing musical saga narrating the ill-fated romances of King Waldemar at the Gurre Castle, unfolds against a backdrop of jealousy, demise, and damnation, and reaches its apex in the final chorus heralding the dawn of salvation. Schoenberg offers deep insight into human nature, while his music vividly and sensitively highlights the psychology of his characters. Though colossal, the work’s vocal and instrumental scoring is characterized by finesse and poetry. The deeply moving and striking Gurre-Lieder reveal a facet of Schoenberg’s personality well worth discovering.
October
11-13
True Concord
French Masters
True Concord opens its 21st Season with an exciting collaboration of two GRAMMY Award-honored ensembles, True Concord and the Phoenix Chorale.
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Luxuriate in the power and plush vocalism of 40 singers combined from the two ensembles, performing together for the first time, with the podium shared by Christopher Gabbitas and Eric Holtan.
October
28
OSM
Azrieli Music Prizes Gala Concert
Enjoy this momentous event featuring premieres of works by the 2024 Azrieli Music Prizes’ four laureates. Come discover and appreciate these remarkable composers’ diverse sources of inspiration and aesthetic approaches in their evocations of Canadian landscapes, pre-Hispanic Mexican cultures, the Book of Psalms, and Jewish philosophy. Held every two years, the Azrieli Competition rewards excellence, social engagement, and artistic creativity.
November
19
SMAM
Polyphonic Legacies
This a cappella concert celebrates a dual heritage: that of the extraordinary, vast, and imperishable vocal polyphony of the Renaissance and that of the SMAM, which has sung this repertoire with unparalleled conviction over the past 50 years. Bearing witness to this dedication are its remarkable recordings of works by famous and lesser-known masters, covering more than a century of music, from Josquin des Prez to Johann Hermann Schein. The program also features a foray into the contemporary repertoire
November
22-24
True Concord
Frankenstein, Brahms, & the Search for Love
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Ever since its publishing in 1818, young Mary Shelley’s masterpiece has created an unwavering fascination with Frankenstein, inspiring major performance works created to this day.
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True Concord is proud to present one of the most recent interpretations; Co-Composer-In-Residence Timothy C. Takach and choreographer Penny Freeh’s Unfashioned Creature, a Choral Ballet, in its Southwest Premiere, performed by the company for which the dance was created.
December
13-15
Early Music Voices
Messiah Soloist
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Every other year, Early Music Voices presents a full performance of Handel’s Messiah with guest soloists, Rosa Barocca and an outstanding small professional choir all led by Claude Lapalme. Our interpretation of this marvellous work with baroque instruments is not to be missed.​
December
23
Chapelle de Québec
Chemin de Noël
Le 23 décembre prochain, Le chemin de Noël revient tout en musique, en lumière, en partage et en douceur pour réchauffer et rassembler les gens à la veille du temps des Fêtes. La population est invitée à participer à cette activité de réjouissances qui fera vivre la magie de Noël par le biais de ses volets intérieur et extérieur. Un événement unique proposant deux expériences distinctes, exclusives et chaleureuses!
January
17-19
True Concord
Handel & Vivaldi, The Best of Baroque
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Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria is a perennial favorite of audiences and, second only to his Four Seasons, is his best-known work. The liturgical Gloria text was first inspired by the angels’ joyful melody at Christ’s birth. True Concord brings this masterpiece to life with a lively and historically-informed interpretation.
George Frideric Handel may be best known for his Messiah, a monument of Western music, but the exhilarating Dixit Dominus prefigured that work. Inspired by the opera art form, this composition is filled with virtuosic solo melodies, dramatic choral sound and orchestral flourishes.
February
12-13
OSM
Ravel and Prokofiev With Weilerstein and Payare
The ballet Daphnis et Chloé poetically conjures an idyllic natural setting combined with elements of Greek Antiquity as imagined by Maurice Ravel, to the orchestra’s glistening hues and subtle inflections, that endow this work with graceful sensuality. The program’s other precious gem is Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante, a colourful piece tinged with sarcasm and humour, brought to life through Alisa Weilerstein’s powerful artistry.
March
28-30
True Concord
Mozart Requiem & Prayers and Remembrances
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The late, great Stephen Paulus’s transcendent and GRAMMY Award-winning Prayers and Remembrances, commissioned by True Concord, and the Mozart Requiem—the program with which True Concord made its New York debut at Lincoln Center, September 11, 2015.
April
10
Chapelle
St. John Passion​
A performance of J. S. Bach’s awe-inspiring, choral masterpiece St. John Passion is always a notable event. This concert is particularly momentous, however, as it marks the completion of Bernard Labadie’s extraordinary tenure as principal conductor of Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL). It also completes Labadie’s cycle of major Bach choral works performed across New York. For the occasion, the ensemble is joined by a spectacular cast of singers and La Chapelle de Québec, a celebrated choir founded and music directed by Labadie. As we celebrate the beloved orchestra’s 50th anniversary season, this performance closes an incredible chapter in triumphant fashion.
April
16-17
OSM
Mozart Requiem
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The dramatic intensity and emotional candour expressed in Mozart’s Requiem contribute to the fascination this work continues to arouse more than 200 years after it was written. Bach similarly approaches the theme of death through an aura of contemplative humanism in the motet Jesu, meine Freude, in which a serene vision of the afterlife is offered. The genius of both Bach and Mozart will be celebrated by the Orchestra and the OSM Chorus.
April
23-25
OSM
Cosi fan Tutte​​
Così fan tutte results from the close collaboration between Mozart the compositional mastermind, and da Ponte the shrewd librettist. The opera is a study of human nature and social conventions that often embraces caustic humour. Its somewhat manic plot is heightened by the composer’s captivating and sophisticated score. Mozart specialist and renowned baritone Thomas Hampson will lend his sumptuous voice to the role of Don Alfonso, as well as direct the staging for this magnificent opera.