Sound Out of Silence

James McVinnie, organ
Voices of Ascension Chorus

Thursday, January 7, 2027 at 7:30PM
Church of the Ascension
36 Fifth Avenue at 10th St.
New York, NY 10011

Nico Muhly - Nativity Cycle (2027)
Tristan Perich - Infinity Gradient (2025)
Pérotin - Viderunt Omnes (c.1198)

Join us for a concert that traces a line from the earliest flowering of Western polyphony to the outer edges of contemporary sound, exploring how music emerges from silence and takes shape in space.

One of the most sought-after organists in contemporary music, James McVinnie, joins Voices of Ascension for the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s Nativity Cycle. Conceived as a companion to his Seven O Antiphon Preludes, Muhly’s seven-part cycle — written especially for Voices of Ascension, the Church of Ascension's Manton Memorial Organ, and James McVinnie — unfolds as a meditation on the texts and melodies of the Christmas liturgy, moving from anticipation toward arrival. The program opens with Pérotin’s Viderunt Omnes, one of the defining works of 12th-century organum, a pioneering style of medieval polyphonic music that involves taking Gregorian chant melody and enhancing it by adding harmonizing vocal lines.

The concert culminates with Tristan Perich’s Infinity Gradient, a monumental organ solo featuring 100 loudspeakers installed in the Church of the Ascension, with the audience at the center. A sonically profound, encompassing concert experience, Sound Out of Silence invites us to encounter sound not only as something heard, but as something physical, unfolding within and around the body.

Our 2025-26 Season