Oratorio Society of New York Announces 2024-25 Season

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mallory McFarland | Morahan Arts and Media
mallory@morahanartsandmedia.com | (646) 241-0899 

ORATORIO SOCIETY OF NEW YORK ANNOUNCES 2024-25 SEASON

Performances Take Place at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall

Season Opens with Carmina Burana – November 11, 2024

OSNY’s 150th Performance of Handel’s Messiah – December 23, 2024

World Premiere of Paul Moravec & Mark Campbell’s All Shall Rise Plus
Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang – May 5, 2025

"a beautifully blended, thoroughly unified sound" – The New York Times

www.osny.org

New York, NY (June 6, 2024) — The Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY), led by Music Director Kent Tritle – entering his 20th season at the helm of the Society – today announces its 2024-2025 season with three concerts in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall. Season highlights include presentations of Orff’s Carmina Burana, the 2023 Call for Scores Winner Oliver Caplan’s Cloud Anthem, Handel’s Messiah, and the world premiere of Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell’s All Shall Rise. Subscriptions are available now.

The season kicks off on Monday, November 11, 2024 at 7:00 pm with a rare performance of Orff’s own arrangement of Carmina Burana for two pianos and percussion, directed by Dr. Bryan Zaros, with pianists Amir Farid and Blair McMillen, and the Choristers of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Call for Scores Winner Oliver Caplan’s Cloud Anthem, Libby Larsen’s Invitation to Music, and selections from Brahms’ Liebeslieder are additionally featured on this concert. Joining the Society as soloists are Eva Martinez, soprano (making her Carnegie Hall debut), John Riesen, tenor, and John Brancy, baritone, all led by Music Director Kent Tritle.

Continuing the season, the Oratorio Society of New York presents its 150th rendition of Handel’s Messiah on Monday, December 23, 2024 at 7:00 pm. A holiday tradition for the Society since 1874, this year’s grand performance – again led by Maestro Tritle – includes soloists Nola Richardson, soprano, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, countertenor, Joshua Blue, tenor, and Joseph Parrish, bass-baritone, together with the Orchestra of the Society.

OSNY’s 2024-25 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, a new piece that sheds light on the importance of voting rights in the U.S., 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 (making his Carnegie Hall debut), and Steven Eddy, baritone.

Regarding the upcoming season, Music Director Kent Tritle shares, “I’m excited to be leading this, my 20th season with the Oratorio Society of New York! During these years, this chorus has undergone a steady crescendo of musical excellence, further cementing our important history in the cultural fabric of New York City. The 2024-2025 season promises to lead us to new heights. From the great choral monuments of Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Handel’s Messiah to Libby Larsen’s Invitation to Music and the world premiere of Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell’s oratorio, All Shall Rise, we celebrate the power of the choral idiom to elevate the human spirit. I hope you will join us.”

The Society’s 24-25 season additionally includes the 48th annual Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition on Saturday, April 5, 2025 in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. The annual competition features eight young singers performing major oratorio arias with piano accompaniment. A panel of distinguished judges choose winners and award cash prizes. Winners have performed with OSNY and other organizations at Carnegie Hall and other major NYC locations. Founded in 1977, the competition is the only major vocal competition dedicated to oratorio singing with the goal of nurturing the careers of aspiring oratorio soloists and their commitment to the oratorio repertoire.

Event Information

Carmina Burana
Monday, November 11, 2024 at 7:00 pm
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
Tickets: Subscriptions start at $90
Link: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2024/11/11/Oratorio-Society-of-New-York-0700PM

Libby Larsen: Invitation to Music
Oliver Caplan: Cloud Anthem (Call for Scores Winner / New York Premiere)
Brahms: Liebeslieder, Op. 52 – selections
     No. 1 Rede, Mädchen, allzu liebes
     No. 2 Am Gesteine rauscht die Flut
     No. 9 Am Donaustrande
     No. 10 O wie sanft die Quelle
     No. 11 Nein, es ist nicht auszukommen
     No. 12 Schlosser auf, und mache Schlösser
Orff: Carmina Burana (piano/percussion version)

Eva Martinez, soprano (Carnegie Hall debut)
John Riesen, tenor
John Brancy, baritone
Kent Tritle, conductor
Amir Farid, pianist
Blair McMillen, pianist
Choristers of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine
________________________________________

Handel’s Messiah
Monday, December 23, 2024 at 7:00 pm
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
Tickets: Subscriptions start at $90
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
________________________________________

Paul Moravec & Mark Campbell’s All Shall Rise and Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang
Monday, May 5, 2025 at 7:00 pm
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
Tickets: Subscriptions start at $90
Link: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2025/05/05/Oratorio-Society-of-New-York-0700PM

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 2, “Lobgesang”, Op. 52
Paul Moravec & Mark Campbell: All Shall Rise (World Premiere)

Susanna Phillips, soprano
Lucia Bradford, mezzo-soprano
Jonathan Pierce Rhodes, tenor (Carnegie Hall debut)
Steven Eddy, baritone 
Kent Tritle, conductor
Orchestra of the Society

Ticket Information
Subscriptions to the three concerts at Carnegie Hall are available now at osny.org. Single tickets will be 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.

The OSNY membership consists of avocational and professionally trained singers as well as non-singing members. Auditions are held three times annually in the spring, summer, and winter. OSNY is a not-for-profit 501c3 corporation governed by a volunteer board of directors with a professional music staff and executive director.

About Kent Tritle
Kent Tritle is one of America’s leading choral conductors. Called “the brightest star in New York's choral music world” by The New York Times, 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 recordings on the Telarc, Naxos, AMDG, Epiphany, Gothic, VAI, and MSR Classics labels. Recent releases include the Paul Moravec/Mark Campbell oratorio A Nation of Others with the Oratorio Society of New York, as well as the Grammy-nominated Naxos recording of the Moravec/Campbell oratorio Sanctuary Road with the Oratorio Society; Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in David Briggs's organ-choral version, and Eternal Reflections: Choral Music of Robert Paterson with Musica Sacra. Other releases include the 2013 recording of Juraj Filas’ Requiem, Oratio Spei dedicated to the victims of 9/11, with the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the Kühn Choir; Messages to Myself, an acclaimed recording with Musica Sacra of five new works; and recordings – including Cool of the Day, an a cappella program of music ranging from Gregorian chant, Palestrina, and spirituals to Strauss’s Deutsche Motette, and Ginastera’s The Lamentations of Jeremiah with Schnittke’s Concerto for Choir – with the Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola.

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. A Juilliard School faculty member since 1996, he currently directs a graduate practicum on oratorio in collaboration with the school’s Vocal Arts Department. 

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. Kent hosted “The Choral Mix with Kent Tritle” on New York’s WQXR, a weekly program devoted to the vibrant world of choral music, from 2010 to 2014. 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. Kent is on the advisory boards of the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective (C4) and the Clarion Music Society, and was the 2016 honoree at Clarion’s annual gala. 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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