Evocative strains of acoustic guitar and echoes of gregorian chant bind together two profound contemporary explorations of reconciliation in Cantate Chamber Singers’ season-opening concert. Jeffrey Van’s A Procession Winding Around Me depicts the anxious anticipation, violent destruction, horrific carnage, and healing in Walt Whitman’s compassionate civil war poems, while Mass in Exile, by composer Mark Buller expresses with deep personal intensity what librettist Leah Lax terms “our mutual struggle toward a new kind of faith within this broken world.”

Featuring baritone Carl DuPont.

Nothing embodies the joy of the holiday season quite like Vivaldi’s ebullient Gloria, the ecstatic centerpiece of Cantate Concert Choir’s December concert. Joined by a chamber orchestra, our symphonic choir transports and uplifts with a program that also includes Francesco Durante’s Magnificat, complemented by contemporary celebrations of the season by John Rutter, Eric Whitacre, and Ola Gjeilo to inspire wonder and hope.

Featuring soprano Amy Broadbent and mezzo-soprano Magdalena Wòr

An evening with Cantate Chamber Singers resonates with the timeless echoes of ancient traditions. Trevor Weston’s Messe Ancienne transports the sonority of medieval chant into the modern day with thrilling harmonies, while his Ma’at Musings interpret Egyptian pyramid texts with the help of atmospheric percussion. I Hate and I Love by Dominick Argento explores the perennial close connections between hate and love apparent even in early Roman writings.

Cantate Concert Choir travels from darkness and despair to the light of hope in a dramatic double-bill featuring an unconventional instrumental ensemble that challenges and transcends tradition. Michael Kurth’s Miserere embraces a “modern-primitive-sacred-spooky” style, alternating texts from Psalms and Lamentations with visceral modern poems. Elaine Hagenber’s Illuminare offers a balm as in her cinematic style, “Light gradually returns, hope is restored, illuminating our future and guiding us in peace.”

Featuring mezzo-soprano Cara Schaefer

Together with a chamber ensemble, Cantate Chamber Singers invites you on an expansive musical and emotional journey with Kim Andre Arnesen’s The Wound in the Water. The composer shares: “The Wound in the Water explores the theme of Mammon, the traditional symbol of the love of greed and money, by singing of our exile and the wounding of our world, of the beauty of the earth, and of the struggle of profoundly divided humanity…This work recognizes the long journey towards the healing that we have to undergo and ends with an attempt of a shared song.”

Featuring soprano Mandy Brown.

Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem is unlike any requiem before it. The composer set aside the mass for the dead and its day of wrath and chose instead words of comfort: Blessed are they that mourn. How lovely is thy dwelling place. I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice. It is a requiem for the living — music written to hold a grieving world and help it rise again. For our season finale, over one hundred musicians from Capital City Symphony and Cantate join together in this monumental, healing masterwork. This is where the entire season has been leading all along - a moment to find each other, share comfort, and rise together as one. Bring someone you love.



Featuring soprano Teresa Ferrara Blessing and baritone Jim Williams



Celebrate the accomplishments of this year's cohort of oratorio fellows at our first-ever Lift Every Voice Showcase. Our incredible quartet of emerging talents present oratorio solos and ensembles polished and perfected throughout their year of residency with Cantate. Soprano Amber Rogers, countertenor Ian Pathak, tenor Ja'Marvae Lard, and bass-baritone Justin Harrison bring you thrilling excerpts from Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, Handel's Messiah, Vivaldi's Gloria, the Requiems of Mozart, Brahms, and Verdi, and more!