Candlelight Christmas
Concerts

Monday, December 16, 2024 at 7:30 pm
Tuesday, December 17, 2024 at 7:30 pm
Church of the Ascension

Special Guests TBA

Our most popular two concerts of the season are back! Lit by the glow of hundreds of candles, enjoy seasonal masterworks, Christmas choral anthems, and family holiday favorites performed by Voices of Ascension.  25 candelabras and close to 600 candles turn the majestic Church of the Ascension into an immaculate Christmastime experience. This is an unforgettable Christmas tradition for New York concertgoers of all ages!

Rome & the renaissance

Tuesday, February 4, 2025, 7:30 pm
Church of the Ascension

Music by Palestrina and Victoria

This a cappella concert celebrates the glories of Renaissance Rome, home to some of the most beloved and enduring vocal compositions of all time. The concert features works by the “Prince of Music,” Giovanni Palestrina.

Also featured will be Tomás Luis de Victoria, a Spaniard by birth who spent the peak of his career working as Maestro di Capella in cathedrals throughout Rome.

St. Matthew passion

Thursday, March 13, 2025, 7:00 pm*
Church of the Ascension

Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion is perhaps the most beloved in his tremendous canon of works for chorus and orchestra. Across a full riveting evening, the piece  unfolds using two orchestras, two choruses, a children’s chorus, dramatic characters, narration, and exquisite baroque aria performances.

The full scope of Bach’s unmatched talent for marrying compositional complexity with profound emotional expression come together to tell the timeless story of the Passion narrative.

*Please note the early start time

voices of the new:
voices of mannahatta

Tuesday, April 8, 2025, 7:30 pm
Church of the Ascension

World premiere composition by Danielle Jagelski

No consideration of the complexity of American culture could be complete without the perspective of the indigenous people who were America’s sole inhabitants in 1491. Voices of Ascension commissioned composer Danielle Jagelski to write an extended ensemble narrative exploring the history and context of the piece of land on which the Church of the Ascension sits today in Manhattan, the island known by the Lenape as Manahatta.

In collaboration with musicians and multimedia artists, many of whom are members of North American tribal nations, the traditional and newly-composed works on this program will be sure to make us see the map and territory where we interact every day in a new light.

american voices:
barber, hogan, ives, yoon

Thursday, May 8, 2025 at 7:30 pm
Church of the Ascension

Music by Samuel Barber, Charles Ives, Randall Thompson, Bora Yoon, Moses Hogan, Gian Carlo Menotti, and more

This concert will celebrate the full range of American choral music, celebrating the rich diversity of Americans with roots in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Featuring Charles Ives’s Psalm 90 and Randall Thompson’s Alleluia, the program will also include the evocative sounds of contemporary Korean-American composer Bora Yoon; a panorama of African-American spiritual arrangements by Harry Burleigh, William Dawson, and Moses Hogan; and the motets of Gian Carlo Menotti. A highlight of the evening will be a rare performance of Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei, which is the choral version of his beloved and deeply moving Adagio for Strings.