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Press Releases
12/23 at Carnegie Hall: Oratorio Society of New York's 150th Holiday Season Presentation of Handel's Messiah
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mallory McFarland | Morahan Arts and Media
mallory@morahanartsandmedia.com | (646) 241-0899
ORATORIO SOCIETY OF NEW YORK CELEBRATES ITS
150TH HOLIDAY SEASON OF THE MESSIAH
Featuring Soloists Nola Richardson, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen,
Joshua Blue, and Joseph Parrish
December 23, 2024 at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
"a beautifully blended, thoroughly unified sound" – The New York Times
New York, NY (November 12, 2024) — The renowned Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY), led by Music Director Kent Tritle, continues its 2024-2025 season with its 150th holiday season presentation of Handel’s Messiah on Monday, December 23, 2024 at 7:00 pm at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall.
A holiday tradition for the Society since 1874, this year’s grand performance – led by Maestro Tritle – includes acclaimed soloists Nola Richardson, soprano (“A voice for which Handel might have designed the music... clarity and a bell-like beauty”, Parterre), Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, countertenor (“Spectacular...a rising star”, LA Times), Joshua Blue, tenor (2022 recipient of the Mabel Dorn Reeder Foundation Prize by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis), and Joseph Parrish, bass-baritone (2023 recipient of the Bayreuth Stipendiate), together with the Orchestra of the Society.
Handel composed his masterpiece in 1741 and its popularity quickly established it as a beloved Christmas tradition. Music Director Kent Tritle shares, “I am excited to conduct my 20th Messiah performance with OSNY, on their 150th anniversary of performing Handel’s masterwork! We approach Messiah every year not with a sense of presenting a museum piece, but rather with a sense of the living, breathing power of this music to transcend and transform. The messages of hope, compassion, endurance, and triumph resonate particularly in our time.”
OSNY’s 2024-25 mainstage season concludes on Monday, May 5, 2025 at 7:00 pm with the world premiere of Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell’s All Shall Rise, as well as Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang. Joining the Society, Maestro Tritle, and the Orchestra of the Society for this performance are soloists Susanna Phillips, soprano, Lucia Bradford, mezzo-soprano, Jonathan Pierce Rhodes, tenor, and Steven Eddy, baritone.
Event Information
Handel’s Messiah
Monday, December 23, 2024 at 7:00 pm
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
Tickets: Starting at $40
Link: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2024/12/23/Oratorio-Society-of-New-York-0700PM
HANDEL: Messiah
Nola Richardson, soprano
Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, countertenor
Joshua Blue, tenor
Joseph Parrish, bass-baritone
Kent Tritle, conductor
Orchestra of the Society
Ticket Information
Subscriptions to OSNY’s three concerts at Carnegie Hall are available now at osny.org. Single tickets are available via carnegiehall.org, CarnegieCharge 212-247-7800, or the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th and Seventh.
About the Oratorio Society of New York
The Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY.ORG) is one of the oldest musical organizations in the United States and has become New York City’s standard for grand choral performance. Founded in 1873 by Leopold Damrosch, the Society has played an integral role in the musical life of the city. In its early years, the Society established a fund to finance the building of a new concert hall, a cause taken up in earnest by the Society’s fifth president, Andrew Carnegie. In 1891, under the direction of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the Society helped inaugurate this new Music Hall, which would be renamed Carnegie Hall several years later.
The Society continues to perform several times each season at Carnegie Hall. Its annual performances of Handel’s Messiah, a New York holiday tradition unbroken since 1874, have become a holiday favorite with New York audiences. In addition to its collaborations with the New York Philharmonic and Orchestra of St. Luke’s, as well as other performing arts institutions, the Society performs internationally every few years – including recent concerts in Japan, Uruguay, Germany, Italy, and Brazil.
The Society is also committed to commissioning and championing new works, including most recently three pieces by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec and Grammy Award-winning librettist Mark Campbell: Sanctuary Road which was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award and is available from Naxos Records, A Nation of Others, which saw its premiere in November 2022 and is available from Lexicon Classics, and All Shall Rise, focusing on voting rights in the U.S., to be premiered in 2025.
About Kent Tritle
Kent Tritle is one of America’s leading choral conductors. He is Director of Cathedral Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City; Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York, the acclaimed avocational chorus; and Music Director of Musica Sacra, New York’s elite professional chorus. In addition, Kent is a member of the graduate faculty of The Juilliard School, serving its Vocal Arts Department. An acclaimed organ virtuoso, he is also the organist of the New York Philharmonic.
Kent Tritle’s discography features more than 20 recordings on the Telarc, Naxos, AMDG, Epiphany, Gothic, VAI, and MSR Classics labels, including the Grammy-nominated 2018 world premiere performance of the Paul Moravec/Mark Campbell oratorio Sanctuary Road with the Oratorio Society of New York.
Kent Tritle is renowned as a master clinician, giving workshops on conducting and repertoire; he leads annual choral workshops at the Amherst Early Music Festival, and recent years have included workshops at Berkshire Choral International, Summer@Eastman, and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. As Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music from 2008 to 2022, Kent established the school’s first doctoral program in choral conducting.
Kent Tritle founded the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space concert series at New York’s Church of St. Ignatius Loyola and led it to great acclaim from 1989 to 2011. From 1996 to 2004, he was Music Director of New York’s The Dessoff Choirs. Among his recent honors are the 2020 Chorus America Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art, the 2017 Distinguished Achievement Award from Career Bridges, and the 2016 President’s Medal for Distinguished Service from the Manhattan School of Music. He was recently featured in the WIRED video series “Masterminds,” an installment titled, “What Conductors Are Really Doing”.
Photo at top of release by Brian Hatton
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