Cathedral Choral Society presents Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Media Contact:
Kristen Turner / Bucklesweet
Kristen@Bucklesweet.com

 

CCS Contact:
Jennie Weyman / Director of Marketing
jweyman@cathedral.org

 

 

Cathedral Choral Society presents
Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana 

Featuring Guest Conductor Edward Maclary

 

 

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Cathedral Choral Society (CCS) presents Carl Orff’s monumental choral masterwork Carmina Burana on Sunday, March 1 at 6:00 PM at Washington National Cathedral. One of the most instantly recognizable and viscerally thrilling works in the classical repertoire, Carmina Burana is a celebration of fate, fortune, love, and life, anchored by the iconic movement “O Fortuna.”

The concert will be conducted by Edward Maclary, recently retired after over two decades as Director of Choral Activities at the University of Maryland. It will also feature an outstanding roster of soloists: soprano Colleen Daly, GRAMMY-nominated tenor Brian Giebler, and bass Daniel Rich, a recent graduate of The Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Program. In addition to Carmina Burana, the evening’s program will include Three Latin Motets by Charles Villiers Stanford (1852 – 1924) and Musica Dei donum optimi by Orlando di Lasso (1532 – 1594), rounding out the exhilarating performance.

“This program is a deliberate mixture of striking contrasts: sacred and secular; high art and bawdy play; serene counterpoint and driving, choral dances,” said conductor Edward Maclary. “We begin our exploration with a cappella motets from the Renaissance and the late Romantic eras before plunging into the elemental power of Carmina Burana. It’s music that feels both ancient and immediate, driven by rhythm, raw emotion, and the irresistible pull of fate.”

In the leadup to the performance, Cathedral Choral Society will also participate with Cantate’s Lift Every Voice program, a paid fellowship designed to support and elevate emerging Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) classical singers by providing professional training, performance opportunities, mentoring, and career development. As part of this meaningful partnership, Joy Schreier, CCS Assistant Conductor and Accompanist, will conduct a coaching session for soprano Ayanna Freelon-Coleman and baritone Lysle S. Follette, IV, as well as inviting them to attend rehearsals and the performance. Edward Maclary also will conduct a virtual masterclass and score study with the program attendees.

 

PERFORMANCE DETAILS FOR LISTINGS

Date & Time: Sunday, March 1, 2025 | 6:00 pm ET
Location: Washington National Cathedral
Tickets: PURCHASE HERE ($39-$69)

Performers:
Edward Maclary, Guest Conductor
Cathedral Choral Society & Orchestra

Colleen Daly, Soprano

Brian Giebler, Tenor

Daniel Rich, Bass

Amanda Sabelhaus, Piano

Joy Schreier, Assistant Conductor and Piano

Washington National Cathedral Choristers

Julie DeBoer, Associate Director of Music and Director of Chorister Program

 

Program:

 

Musica Dei donum optimi, Orlando di Lasso (1532 – 1594)

Three Latin motets, op. 38, Charles Villiers Stanford (1852 – 1924)

1. Justorum animae
   2. Coelos ascendit hodie
   3. Beati quorum via

Carmina Burana, Carl Orff (1895 – 1982)

 

The wheel of fortune is turning — and fate is about to be decided! The Cathedral Choral Society presents an evening of striking contrasts, where sacred meets secular, high art collides with bawdy play, and serene counterpoint gives way to driving choral rhythms. Anchored by Orff’s Carmina Burana, this electrifying performance is a bold exploration of fate, fortune, excess, longing, and the contradictions that define the human experience.
 

About the Cathedral Choral Society
As Washington, DC’s longest standing symphonic chorus, the GRAMMY-nominated Cathedral Choral Society sets the standard for vibrant, engaging concerts in the nation’s capital. Each season, CCS presents mainstage concerts in historic Washington, DC, inviting concertgoers on exciting musical journeys that reflect the rich diversity of musical traditions in our local community and throughout our nation. The aims of the chorus are to invite more people into the art of choral singing, elevate emerging voices, and steward the art for future generations.

Since its inaugural performance of Verdi’s Requiem in 1942 at the outset of the Second World War, CCS has performed in times of national celebration and in times of mourning. The chorus has performed with some of the most extraordinary musicians of the last century, including Robert Shaw, Marin Alsop, Leonard Slatkin, Dominick Argento, John Rutter, Dave Brubeck, J’nai Bridges, and more. In collaboration with New York’s Clarion Music and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, CCS was nominated for a 2021 GRAMMY Award for its recording of Alexander Kastalsky’s Requiem for Fallen Brothers. 

CCS has embarked on numerous other collaborations, often with today’s finest performing ensembles, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Ballet, the Washington Bach Consort, Kansas City Chorale, Washington Ballet, and more. A multi-year collaboration with the Heritage Signature Chorale, called I, Too, Sing America, has resulted in performances and documentary videos — available on CCS’s YouTube channel — and will culminate in a concert of new commissions from African American composers in 2026.

CCS was founded by the Cathedral’s music director Paul Callaway in 1941, just days before the United States entered World War II. Since that time, only two other music directors have led the chorus: J. Reilly Lewis from 1985 to 2016, and Steven Fox since 2017.

 

 

About Edward Maclary

Edward Maclary is Professor Emeritus of Music and the former Director of Choral Activities at the University of Maryland School of Music. Recognized as one of the leading conductors and choral pedagogues of his generation, he led the UMD Choral Activities program for over two decades to global recognition. Alumni of the UMD choral program now populate all our nation’s military choirs and are on the rosters of the top professional choral ensembles in the country. Under his direction, the UMD Chamber Singers toured extensively and won top prizes in international competitions. In addition, the UMD Concert Choir became the symphonic choir of choice for both the National Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In 2019 the Concert Choir made its highly acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut, performing Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the NSO under the direction of Music Director Gianandrea Noseda.

Maclary has also served as the chorus master for an array of internationally recognized conductors such as Robert Shaw, Christoph Eschenbach, Marin Alsop, Andris Nelsons, Iván Fischer, Nicholas McGegan, Helmuth Rilling, Donald Runnicles, Leonard Slatkin, Markus Stenz, Nathalie Stutzman, Peter Oundjian, and Masaaki Suzuki. Choirs under his direction have also performed with The Cleveland Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Edward Maclary received his doctorate in conducting with honors from Indiana University after earning a graduate degree in historical musicology from Boston University. In the following years, he worked closely on many performance projects with Robert Shaw and studied and collaborated with Helmuth Rilling, Margaret Hillis, and Robert Page.

About Colleen Daly

American soprano Colleen Daly skillfully balances engagements on both the concert and opera stages. In the 2024/2025 season, she premiered of excerpts from Kverndokk and Wiik’s Babette’s Feast with the Denyce Graves Foundation at the National Gallery of Art and the French Embassy (Washington, D.C.), returned to Maryland Opera’s for Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen, and reprised her role as Older Alyce in Cipullo’s Glory Denied with Greensboro Opera. This season, she debuts with Opera Tampa for Britten’s Turn of the Screw, and joins both Maryland Opera and Annapolis Opera for operatic favorites in concert. 

Widely recognized for her masterful concert performances, in recent seasons she has appeared as the soprano soloist for both Dvorák’s Stabat Mater (Vancouver Symphony) and his Te Deum (Cathedral Choral Society), both Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Brahms’ Requiem with New York’s Trinity Wall Street, Verdi’s Messa di Requiem with Santa Barbara Symphony and the Bozeman Symphony, Martin’s In Terra Pax with the Grant Park Music Festival, and both Orff’s Carmina Burana and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony with the Washington Chorus at the Kennedy Center. Ms. Daly debuted internationally with the Calgary Philharmonic as Madeline in Philip Glass’ setting of The Fall of the House of Usher and was immediately reengaged for Mahler’s Symphony No. 8.

 

About Brian Giebler

GRAMMY® nominated tenor Brian Giebler radiates “shine and clarity” (Opera News) in every phrase using “his high-placed tenor with great skill” (Opera Magazine). His debut solo album a lad's love garnered high praise and earned him his first GRAMMY® Award nomination for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.

Mr. Giebler’s 25/26 season includes debuts with American Bach Soloists, the National Philharmonic and Charleston Symphony Orchestras (Handel Messiah); the Savannah (Mozart Requiem), Boise, San Antonio, and Vermont Philharmonic Orchestras (Orff Carmina Burana); return engagements with The Sebastians, the Austin Symphony (Mozart Requiem), the Milwaukee Symphony, and the Colorado Symphony (Haydn Mass in time of War); and sees the release of his second solo album, a dad’s love.

Quickly establishing himself as one of the most sought-after interpreters of the Roasted Swan in Carl Orff Carmina Burana, Mr. Giebler has recently performed the work to great acclaim with the Austin, Colorado, Knoxville, Milwaukee (cond. Ken-David Masur) and Virginia Symphony Orchestras (cond. Eric Jacobsen). Equally engaged for Handel Messiah, he has performed the work with Music of the Baroque (cond. Nicholas Kraemer–available on recording), internationally in South Korea with the Seoul Metropolitan Chorus, Trinity Wall Street (cond. Dame Jane Glover), and with the Asheville, Charlotte, Memphis (cond. Robert Moody), Naples, Rhode Island, and Virginia Symphony Orchestras. 

Acknowledged as a specialist in the music of the Baroque and Classical periods, Mr. Giebler has been heard as Apollo in Handel Semele with The English Concert and Clarion Choir in an international tour under Harry Bicket; Septimius in Handel’s Theodora with Ars Lyrica Houston; Aeneas in Purcell Dido and Aeneas with Atlanta Baroque Orchestra; in Desmerest Circé and Caccini Alcina with Boston Early Music Festival; and as Arnalta in Monteverdi L'incoronazione di Poppea with Boston Baroque. Highlights of early music in recent seasons include: Evangelist in Bach St. Matthew and John Passions (Voices of Ascension; Trinity Wall Street); Bach B Minor Mass at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York, the Carmel Bach Festival (cond. Grete Pedersen), and Clarion Music Society (cond. Steven Fox); Bach Cantatas with the Grand Rapids Symphony and Handel & Haydn Society under Harry Christophers; a tour of the Ravinia and Caramoor Festivals singing Monteverdi with Apollo’s Fire and Jeannette Sorrell; and his France debut with Ensemble Correspondances under Sébastien Daucé and Germany debut with BEMF singing Charpentier Les Plaisirs.

  

About Daniel Rich

Baltimore-born baritone Daniel Rich is a recent graduate of The Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. His 2024-2025 Season included debuts with Opera Philadelphia as both the Dillon and Paul covers in Mazzoli’s The Listeners, Atlanta Opera as Raymond in the premiere of Ragland’s Steele Roots, return to The Metropolitan Opera as 2nd Nazarene cover in Strauss’ Salome, debut with Opera Delaware and a return to Opera Baltimore with his role debut of Marcello in La Boheme. Daniel’s concert work included a tour of Angela Rice’s Thy Will Be Done with Compose Arts, Handel’s Israel in Egypt with New Choral Society, two recitals for Opera Baltimore and Redeemer Westside.

On the concert stage, he has appeared as a featured soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, Brahms Requiem with Capitol Singers of Trenton, Orff's Carmina Burana with both the Richmond Symphony and Berkshire Choral International, and a concert of sacred music by Mary Lou Williams & Duke Ellington with the Los Angeles Master Chorale at Walt Disney Concert Hall, among others. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2019 as a soloist in Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music under the baton of Leonard Slatkin and returned to Carnegie Hall in January 2025 as a soloist for the premiere of Sir Karl Jenkins’ One World.

In addition to his extensive performance experience, he has worked as a music educator in public schools and in fall 2025 will return for his second year as an adjunct professor of voice at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. He holds degrees from Morgan State University and Manhattan School of Music, where he received the Edgar Foster Daniels Scholarship in Voice.