The Cecilia Chorus of New York Marks 120 Years of Performances with A Program For Our Moment

The program, Buller, Sirota, and Haydn, brings together three choral works united by a single, theme: humanity's yearning for peace amid war.

The evening begins with the world premiere of A Call for the Battle to Cease by Robert and Victoria Sirota (https://www.robertsirota.com/) — a new work modeled on Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and performed with pianist Simone Dinnerstein (https://www.simonedinnerstein.com/)), whom The Washington Post has called "spellbinding." It marks Dinnerstein's first performance with the Chorus.

The program continues with the New York Premiere of Mass in Exile by composer Mark Buller (https://www.markbullercomposer.com/) with a libretto by Leah Lax — a reimagining of the traditional mass structure through the lens of displacement, faith, and belonging. Commissioned for the Grammy Award-winning Houston Chamber Choir and recently recorded by Conspirare on the Divine Art label, this will be the works’ New York debut.

The program concludes with excerpts from Haydn's Mass in Time of War, completing a triptych that spans three centuries of composers confronting the same unanswerable question.

"In a world that feels increasingly fractured," says Music Director Mark Shapiro, "these three works don't offer easy comfort — they offer honest witness. That's what great choral music does, and it's what we've been doing for 120 years."

The Cecilia Chorus is joined for this concert by Every Voice Children's Choir (https://everyvoicechoirs.org/), the All-City Chorus, and the Singers' Workshop at Teachers College, Columbia University, with soloists Karen Vuong (soprano), Marcella Astore (mezzo-soprano), Henry Drangel (tenor), and Shavon Lloyd (baritone), and guitarist David Leisner.

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Host or Publisher Jeffrey James