Dear Kent,

Landmark seasons of two of Kent’s choruses – the 150th of Oratorio Society of New York and the 60th of Musica Sacra – as well as programs by his Cathedral Choir of St. John the Divine bring unusual concentrations of choral richness this spring: 

The Oratorio Society of New York marks its sesquicentennial with a concert at St. Bartholomew’s Church (March 5) at which Kent leads the choral movements of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in arrangements for chorus and organ by David Briggs, who will also perform, as well as a contemporary work, Karen P. Thomas’s Le Stelle. The OSNY concludes their season at Carnegie Hall, with Kent leading Handel’s Samson, which the OSNY performed 150 years ago, in 1874 (May 6).

Musica Sacra’s spring concert, “Spirit and Splendor: Schütz & Handel,” spotlights the chorus’s virtuosity with two Baroque gems that are among the group’s signatures: Heinrich Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien – the first German-language requiem – and Handel’s famously challenging Dixit Dominus. The concert will be preceded by a discussion between Kent and the artist Anne Patterson, creator of the Cathedral’s textile installation Divine Pathways under which the concert will take place (March 19).

The Cathedral Choir of St. John the Divine’s latest collaboration with world/early music ensemble Rose of the Compass is “Children of Abraham: Shared Pathways,” a concert that lifts up the commonality of the religions, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, that descend from the prophet Abraham, with intertwined music of these faith traditions, both sacred and secular (April 9). And for the season-culminating concert, Kent has assembled a program of three peaks of choral majesty for choir and orchestra from early Baroque to Classical: Vivaldi’s Beatus Vir, RV 795, led by Associate Music Director Bryan Zaros, and, led by Kent, Monteverdi’s Laetatus sum and Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis, “Lord Nelson Mass” (April 20), about which Kent says, “this dramatic setting of the ancient mass text, written in time of tribulation, reflects the drama and ethos of our current day.”

In addition, Musica Sacra is the featured chorus in four performances of Mozart’s Requiem by the New York Philharmonic led by Jaap van Zweden (May 23-28). As the organist of the Philharmonic, Kent will do double duty at these concerts, preparing the chorus and performing with the orchestra. He is also at the organ console for NYP performances this spring of Scriabin’s Poéme de l’extase and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection.” (Musica Sacra is also participating in the New York City Ballet’s spring performances of Balanchine’s ballet to the Mendelssohn score of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.)

And Kent returns to lead the Amherst Early Music Festival Choral Workshop this summer (July 7-14), which will focus on two works by Tomás Luis de Victoria as well as Agostino Steffani’s Stabat Mater. Registration is open, so sign up now!

L.V. BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9, finale: “Ode to Joy” (arr. David Briggs)

GUSTAV MAHLER Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” choral finale (arr. David Briggs)

KAREN P. THOMAS  Le Stelle

This special program features the choral finales of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 transcribed for chorus and organ by David Briggs, and a work chosen from a call for scores by the OSNY.

The world/early music group Rose of the Compass, with musicians on recorder, oud, kanun, percussion and cello, combines with the voices of the Cathedral Choir. Hear music spanning over 1,000 years seated below Anne Patterson’s glorious Divine Pathways art installation.