CANDLELIGHT CHRISTMAS CONCERTS

Monday, December 16, 2024 @ 7:30 pm
Tuesday, December 17, 2024 @ 7:30 pm
Church of the Ascension
36 Fifth Avenue at Tenth St
New York, NY 10011

Featuring music by Rachmaninoff, Vaughan Williams, Mendelssohn, Bruckner, Ola Gjeilo, Puccini and more!

Brittany Olivia Logan, Soprano
Mihai Marica, Cello
Kevin Cobb, Trumpet
Daniel Beckwith, Organ

Our most popular concerts of the year 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. This is an unforgettable Christmas tradition for New Yorkers of all ages!

Featuring:

Christmas Antiphon — Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ave Maria — Anton Bruckner

Slava v vïshnih Bogu (from Vespers) — Sergei Rachmaninoff

Hodie Christus Natus Est — Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

Vissi d’arte (from Tosca) — Giacomo Puccini

Trumpet Voluntary and Tune — Henry Purcell

Serenity (O Magnum Mysterium) — Ola Gjeilo

I Saw Three Ships
O Little Town of Bethlehem
O Come, all ye Faithful
Good King Wenceslas
The Little Drummer Boy
Silent Night
Hark, the Herald Angels Sing

And more!

Other Concerts in our 2024-25 Season

rome & the Renaissance

Tuesday February 4, 2025 @ 7:30 pm
Church of the Ascension
36 Fifth Avenue at Tenth St
New York, NY 10011

Motets and Masses by Palestrina, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Antonio Lotti, and more

Along with Byrd and Lassus, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina today is considered one of the three great masters of the late Renaissance. Although he composed many secular madrigals, the bulk of his vast output of compositions are sacred choral works. The complete works of Palestrina number somewhere around 1,000 pieces. That includes around 300 motets and offertories. Today the complete works are published in 77 volumes.

Although music historians are not entirely certain, it seems likely that Palestrina was born in 1525 in a town near Rome named Palestrina (“da Palestrina” means “from Palestrina”). His musical training took place at the great Roman basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, where he was a choirboy. At the age of nineteen he was appointed organist of the cathedral in the town of Palestrina. There he played the organ and taught music to the choirboys and the canons of the cathedral. In 1547 he married Lucrezia Gori who bore him three children. As luck would have it, the Bishop at the cathedral (by the name of Cardinal del Monte) was elected Pope in 1550. He had come to admire greatly the young composer during his years in Palestrina, and now, as Pope Julius III, he brought Palestrina to Rome to become the maestro of the Cappella Giulia, one of the two prestigious musical establishments of St. Peter’s - the other being the Sistine Chapel Choir.

Born in the Spanish town of Ávila in 1548, Tomás Luis de Victoria began his studies there and played the organ at a very early age. Around 1565 he moved to Rome to further his studies and career. Perhaps he was a student of Palestrina - certainly he knew him and came under his influence. Victoria’s compositional techniques became more sophisticated than his Spanish contemporaries, no doubt due to this influence. Victoria also was ordained a priest, and this was very significant to him.

Victoria was a deeply religious man and wrote only sacred music in a period where most of the great composers spent a portion of their careers writing secular madrigals and instrumental music. Furthermore, during certain periods of his life Victoria worked primarily as a priest in non-musical roles. The combination of technical compositional sophistication and deep, rich, Spanish musical mysticism place Victoria in a special category quite his own.

PROGRAM TO INCLUDE:

Crucifixus, by Antonio Lotti (ca. 1167 - 1740)

Tenebrae Factae Sunt, by Marc'Antonio Ingegneri (c. 1535 - 1592)

By Tomás Luis de Victoria (1547 - 1611):
O Vos Omnes, Selections from Missa O Quam Gloriosum, Genitori Genitoque, Regina Coeli, Vere languores, Pueri Hebreorum  

By Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 - 1594):
Sicut cervus, Canite tuba, Exultate Deo, Peccantem me quotidie, Dum complerentur, Stabat Mater (for two choirs), Exaltabo te, Super flumina Babilonis, Tu es Petrus, Ascendo ad Patrem

Other Concerts in our 2024-25 Season

BACH: ST. matthew PASSION

Thursday, March 13, 2025 @ 7:00PM*
Church of the Ascension
36 Fifth Avenue at Tenth St
New York, NY 10011

*Please note the earlier start time for this event*

Johann Sebastian Bach | St. Matthew Passion, BVW 244

Brian Giebler, Tenor, Evangelist
Sidney Outlaw, Baritone, Jesus
Sarah Frei, Soprano
Lucia Bradford, Mezzo-Soprano
Jacob Perry, Tenor
Cody Quattlebaum, Baritone

featuring
the Brooklyn Youth Chorus
Dianne Berkun Menaker, Artistic Director

The St. Matthew Passion is one of Bach's most profound and enduring works. More than a sacred oratorio, this masterpiece grapples with timeless human struggles—betrayal, suffering, forgiveness, and redemption—questions that remain ever-present and deeply relevant.

Across a riveting evening, this tremendous piece utilizes two orchestras, two choruses, a youth chorus, dramatic characters, narration, and exquisite baroque aria performances, often in duet with solo instruments.

*Please note the earlier start time for this event*

Other Concerts in our 2024-25 Season

Voices of mannahatta

Tuesday, April 8, 2025 @ 7:30 pm
Church of the Ascension
36 Fifth Avenue at Tenth St
New York, NY 10011

Danielle Jagelski, Artistic Director and Conductor
Hai-Ting Chinn, Curator, Voices of The New
Sage Ahebah Addington, Projection Designer

featuring

Works by Raven Chacon, Cris Derksen, and Andrew Balfour
World Premiere by Danielle Jagelski

The settlement of Manhattan Island embodies a complicated legacy marked by the colonization, clash of cultures, displacement of Indigenous and Black communities, and the continuation of this land as a hub for commerce, art, and connection. 

On April 8th, Voices of Ascension will present Voices of Mannahatta at The Church of the Ascension, exploring the history of the land on which our concert hall stands, on the unceded lands of the Munsee Lenape, Mannahatta Island.

In collaboration with The Eagle Project—NYC's only Lenape-led performing arts organization—this concert will feature the multimedia world premiere by composer Danielle Olana Jagelski (Oneida/Ojibwe). Written for five Indigenous classical singers from the Mvskogee, Acoma Pueblo, Cherokee, Anishinaabe, and Taíno Nations, the composition Holy Ground is accompanied by a five-octave marimba and vibraphone, with video imagery created by visual artist Sage Ahebah Addington (Navajo).

The program will also include performances of Raven Chacon's 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning composition Voiceless Mass featuring The International Contemporary Ensemble and the Church’s Manton Memorial Organ, Andrew Balfour's Vision Chant, and Cris Derksen’s Triumph of the Euro-Christ (a United States premiere).

“Holy Ground is a piece written for the land on 5th avenue between 10th and 11th streets on Mannahatta in Sapokanikan; right near Kintecoying in Lenapehoking; Nimaamaa-aki just like everywhere else. It is also written to be sung with that land, in the acoustic conditions of the building currently standing there- the Church of the Ascension.

This piece, written for 5 voices and percussion, is an effort to listen to this little plot of land- what she has to say to those who inhabit it, and what we have to say to her?”

What happens if we sing with the land, rather than to her?
What will happen if we stop excavating, but instead start listening?
What will happen if, rather than extracting, we nourish?
What if while learning, we un-learn too?
What does she have to teach us?
Do you think that we are the ones who made this ground holy?

- Danielle Jagelski, 2024

Upcoming Concerts in our 2024-25 Season

american voices

Thursday, May 8, 2025 @ 7:30 pm
Church of the Ascension
36 Fifth Avenue at Tenth St
New York, NY 10011

Soloists to be announced

Music by:

Samuel Barber | Bora Yoon

Charles Ives | Randall Thompson

Harry Burleigh | Moses Hogan

Gian Carlo Menotti | Johann Freidrich Peter and more!

Featuring the full range of American choral music, we celebrate the music brought to our shores by Americans who arrived from all over the world. Our concert will celebrate that rich diversity with music by Americans from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Pieces range from the German-American composer Johann Friedrich Peter who worked in Moravian Churches in Pennsylvania and North Carolina around the time of the American Revolution, to the evocative and explorative sounds of contemporary composer and Voices artist Bora Yoon.

A panorama of African-American spirituals will feature classics by Harry Burleigh, William Dawson, Wendall Whalum, and Moses Hogan. America’s most famous choral piece – Randall Thompson’s Alleluia – is included, along with towering works by Charles Ives, including Serenity, Turn ye, turn ye, and his greatest work, Psalm 90 which features four sets of bells from distant corners of the church and the Manton Memorial Organ.

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, along with a virtually unknown but luminous motet by his partner, Italian-American operatist Gian Carlo Menotti.

Explore our 2024-25 Season