Press Room

Trinity Church Wall Street Winter 2020: Return of Bach + One, Performances of Ellen Reid’s Pulitzer Prize-Winning Opera p r i s m at Kennedy Center; Wachner Tapped as Finalist to Lead Oregon Bach Festival

This winter, Trinity Church Wall Street’s “indispensable and unmissable” (New York Times) program of ambitious musical offerings in lower Manhattan sees the return of the audience favorite Bach + One concert series, which will crown its season in the spring with a performance of three of Bach’s cantatas at the Leipzig Bach Festival. Director of Music Julian Wachner has also just been announced as one of three finalists to become the next Artistic Director of the storied Oregon Bach Festival. On the heels of last August’s release of Ellen Reid’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera p r i s m on the Decca Gold label, with Wachner leading The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity’s in-house contemporary orchestra, NOVUS NY, the same forces reunite for the Washington D.C. premiere of the opera in the Kennedy Center’s DIRECT CURRENT festival.

Wachner, The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and the Trinity Baroque Orchestra have long had a reputation for excellence in Baroque repertoire. They earned a 2013 Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance for their recording of Handel’s Israel in Egypt, and Trinity’s rendition of Handel’s Messiah is a staple of the holiday season that the New York Times calls “the best ‘Messiah’ in New York.” They also performed a five-season cycle of Bach’s entire monumental output of sacred vocal music, completed a few seasons ago. The cycle took place largely during the lunchtime Bach at One concerts, which the New York Times praised for their “dramatic vigor.” The Monday lunchtime series returns in St. Paul’s Chapel beginning March 9, now transformed into Bach + One. One Bach cantata is featured each week, paired with a complementary work drawn from a variety of composers of all eras. The June 8 performance will feature three recently performed cantatas and will be reprised later that week when Wachner, the choir and the orchestra travel to the Leipzig Bach Festival. This year’s festival features more than 30 Bach ensembles from six continents performing the entire cycle of Bach cantatas, with Trinity presenting the first concert of the series in St. Thomas Church, where Bach served as Kapellmeister for the last 27 years of his life. The following day they repeat the program in Wartburg Castle in Eisenach.

Besides the Grammy-nominated Israel in Egypt that marked his own debut recording with The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Wachner’s recordings also include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Boston Bach Ensemble, the first American recording of the work. His interpretations of masterworks of early music with the Trinity ensembles have been performed outside the walls of the church as well: Handel’s Messiah on tour in New Jersey and California and at Alice Tully Hall; Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 in Philadelphia; and Bach’s Mass in B minor at the Montreal Bach Festival, of which he was the founding music director. In 2018, he was appointed Artistic Director of Michigan’s Grand Rapids Bach Festival in addition to his post at Trinity, and he has just been named one of three finalists for the position of Artistic Director of the Oregon Bach Festival. The three candidates will appear live in the festival’s 50th anniversary season this summer, with each conducting one of Bach’s revered choral-orchestral masterworks: the Mass in B Minor, St. Matthew Passion or St. John Passion. The candidates will also conduct a separate chamber orchestra program, with a handpicked selection of pieces designed to showcase their unique personal style.

Trinity’s roster boasts many stellar Baroque musicians, including Associate Organist and Chorusmaster Avi Stein, who has also had some resounding recent success, performing with Yo-Yo Ma at Youth Music Culture Guangdong 2020. The ten-day event saw young musicians from countries including Australia, Hungary, Italy and Japan gather in Guangzhou, China for an intensive period of musical and cultural exchange centered on the music of J.S. Bach. In the midst of the four-hour marathon final concert was a full performance of all six of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, for which Stein earned especial praise from Australia’s Limelight magazine:

“The unsung hero of the evening … was faculty harpsichordist Avi Stein, who performed in all six Brandenburgs – the formidable harpsichord cadenza of the Fifth might be considered a night’s work by itself – as well as in poignant, intimate duet with Ma.”

In the last decade, Trinity’s music program has steadily gained traction as an influential voice in the wider cultural conversation, frequently serving as an incubator of important new concert and theatrical works whose topics have ranged from coal mining to human trafficking. To date these have included three Pulitzer Prize-winners, the most recent of which, Ellen Reid and Roxie Perkins’s opera p r i s m, co-commissioned by Trinity and Beth Morrison Projects, explores the theme of trauma and its aftermath. Wachner leads The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and NOVUS NY in the Washington D.C. premiere of the opera this spring in two fully-staged performances at the Kennedy Center’s DIRECT CURRENT festival (March 13-14). As at its LA Opera and PROTOTYPE Festival premieres last year, the Kennedy Center’s production is by “gifted young American director” James Darrah (Chicago Tribune). After the Los Angeles premiere, Parterre Box called the opera “mesmerizingly beautiful,” and the glowing critical reception extended to Trinity’s performers as well. Praising the “lush, eerie harmonies of an invisible chorus,” the New Yorker declared the choir to be “one of the nation’s best.” The New York Times agreed:

“Ellen Reid’s score is accessible in the best way, disconcertingly sweet without being syrupy, with occasional whispers of choral voices so soft they’re almost more odor than sound. The truly prismatic Choir of Trinity Wall Street is astonishing here; Trinity’s new-music ensemble, NOVUS NY, plays beautifully under Julian Wachner.”

Trinity’s long-term relationship with the Prototype Festival and its co-producer, Beth Morrison Projects, also yielded the New York premiere last month of Wachner’s latest opera REV. 23, composed to a libretto by Cerise Jacobs which finds the final events of the Book of Revelation in full collision with Greek mythology, timely political satire, and our own collective human folly. The New York Times called REV. 23 a madcap explosion of lovable ludicrousness,” in which Jacobs’s libretto “inspired Julian Wachner … to create an explosively, virtuosically eclectic score, with the pummeling perpetual motion of John Adams, the burbling angularity and dark comedy of Stephen Sondheim, the arpeggios of Philip Glass, and the coloratura of Handel – all thrown into a blender with some amphetamines. … Mr. Wachner handled this 50-car pileup of styles with confidence and apparently inexhaustible verve.”

About Music at Trinity Church Wall Street

Trinity Church Wall Street’s groundbreaking music program – “the top of musical life in New York” (New York Times) – has changed the landscape of performing arts in New York City, re-envisioning the impact arts organizations have with its peerless ensembles, a uniquely broad range of expertise from early to new music performance, a long tradition of championing underrepresented composers, and an extensive and growing discography. A pioneer in amplifying the voices of female artists, Trinity has helped incubate many new compositions, including three large-scale Pulitzer Prize-winning works by women: Julia Wolfe’s oratorio Anthracite Fields, Du Yun’s opera Angel’s Bone and Ellen Reid’s opera p r i s m. Conductor and composer Julian Wachner serves as the director of music at Trinity and the principal conductor of The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, NOVUS NY and the Trinity Baroque Orchestra.

Anchor components of Trinity’s music program include the midday Bach + One and Pipes at One concert series, improvised Sunday evening Compline by Candlelight services, annual performances of Handel’s Messiah that the New York Times declares to be “New York’s best,” annual Time’s Arrow and 12 Nights themed festivals, and additional new programs each season.

Trinity’s musical education initiatives reach more than 400 children in New York City’s underserved schools. Students perform in their local community, as well as at least once a year at Trinity, and the church offers an annual music camp for children involved with its partner organization, Hour Children. The Trinity Youth Chorus program, now in its 14th year and with 100 young singers enrolled, has its own schedule of performances and collaborations, and provides support for liturgical music, concerts and recordings. Trinity also provides opportunities for adults in the community to further their own musical education and experience, with the semiprofessional choir Downtown Voices and the volunteer St. Paul’s Chapel Choir.

Concerts at Trinity are professionally filmed, streamed live in high definition, and available on-demand at http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/videos. The Rev. Phillip Jackson is Vicar/Priest-in-charge of Trinity Church Wall Street.

High-resolution photos can be downloaded here.

www.trinitywallstreet.org/music
www.facebook.com/MusicTrinityWallStreet
twitter.com/trinitywallst

 

Trinity Church Wall Street: Winter/Spring 2020 Music Programming
All events are free and take place in St. Paul’s Chapel unless otherwise indicated.

Thursday, Feb 20 at 1pm
Pipes at One
Jeremy Filsell, organ (St. Thomas Church, NYC)

Sunday, Feb 23 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Trevor Weston: Given Sound 

Thursday, Feb 27 at 1pm
Pipes at One
Avi Stein, organ (Trinity Church Wall Street) 

Sunday, March 1 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Henry Purcell: Hear my prayer, O Lord 

Thursday, March 5 at 1pm
Pipes at One
First Thursdays Conservatory Series

Sunday, March 8 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
William Byrd: Domine, Exaudi Orationem Meam, Inclina 

Monday, March 9 at 1pm
Bach + One
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
J.S. Bach: Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12
Herbert Howells: Take him, Earth for Cherishing 

Thursday, March 12 at 1pm
Pipes at One
Geoffrey Ward, organ (The University of the South, Sewanee, TN)

Friday, March 13 at 7:30pm; Saturday, March 14 at 2pm
Washington, D.C.
Kennedy Center Presents p r i s m
The Kennedy Center
Ticketed
NOVUS NY; The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
James Darrah, director; Julian Wachner, conductor
Ellen Reid: p r i s m (fully staged opera) 

Sunday, March 15 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Bo Holten: In nomine 

Monday, March 16 at 1pm
Bach + One
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
J.S. Bach: Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen, BWV 13
Johann Adolph Hasse: Sinfonia in G minor, Op. 5 No. 6

Thursday, March 19 at 1pm
Pipes at One
Eric Plutz, organ (Princeton University)

Sunday, March 22 at 7pm & 8pm
Chorister Lenten Concert and Compline by Candlelight
Trinity Youth Chorus; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Melissa Attebury, conductor
Pergolesi: Stabat Mater 

Monday, March 23 at 1pm
Bach + One
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
J.S. Bach: Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit, BWV 14
Johann Bernhard Bach: Suite in D

Thursday, March 26 at 1pm
Pipes at One
Janet Yieh, organ (Trinity Church Wall Street)

Sunday, March 29 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Josquin Des Pres: Qui habitat

Monday, March 30 at 1pm
Bach + One
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
J.S. Bach: Herr Gott, dich loben wir, BWV 16
Francesco Geminiani: Concerto Grosso in C, Op.  5 No. 3 (after Arcangelo Corelli)

Thursday, April 2 at 1pm
Pipes at One
First Thursdays Conservatory Series

Sunday, April 5 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Gabriel Jackson: Hymn to St Margaret of Scotland

Monday, April 6 at 1pm
Bach + One
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
J.S. Bach: Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich, BWV 17
J.S. Bach: Missa in G, BWV 236 

Thursday, April 16 at 1pm
Pipes at One
Peter Sykes, organ (Boston University, Juilliard School)

Sunday, April 19 at 4pm
Philadelphia Heritage Chorale Exchange
Downtown Voices and Philadelphia Heritage Chorale; Stephen Sands, conductor; Dr. Donald Dumpson, curator 

Sunday, April 19 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Antoine Busnois: Gaude caelestis Domina 

Monday, April 20 at 1pm
Bach + One
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
J.S. Bach: Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt, BWV 18 

Thursday, April 23 at 1pm
Pipes at One
Bradley Burgess, organ (Edenton Street United Methodist Church, Raleigh, NC)

Friday, April 24 at 7pm
Candlelight Baroque
Alana Youssefian, violin and Baroque violin

Sunday, April 26 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
William Byrd: Tribulatio Proxima Est 

Monday, April 27 at 1pm
Bach + One
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
J.S. Bach: Es erhub sich ein Streit, BWV 19
Johann Christian Schieferdecker: Concert No. 1 in A minor 

Thursday, April 30 at 1pm
Pipes at One
Gail Archer, organ (Columbia University, Vassar College)

May 1 (8pm) & 3 (2pm)
Los Angeles, CA
LA Opera
Angel’s Bone
Ticketed: laopera.org/performances/201920-season/angels-bone
The Broad Stage
Beth Morrison Projects; Julian Wachner, conductor
Du Yun: Angel’s Bone

Sunday, May 2 at 7pm
Concert with ISO Symphony
Salvation Army Headquarters; 120 West 14th Street, NYC
Trinity Youth Chorus; ISO Symphony; Barry Stern, conductor
Daniel Felsenfeld: Or the Stars for orchestra and children’s chorus 

Sunday, May 3 at 8pm
Bang on a Can’s LONG PLAY Festival
MURMRR Theater, Brooklyn
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Bang on a Can All-Stars
Tickets: https://www.longplayfestival.org/

Sunday, May 3 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Bent Sorensen: In Paradisum 

Monday, May 4 at 1pm
Bach + One
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
J.S. Bach: O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20
Antonio Vivaldi: Overture to “L’Olimpiade” 

Thursday, May 7 at 1pm
Pipes at One
First Thursdays Conservatory Series

Sunday, May 10 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
John Dunstable: Veni Sancte Spiritus

Monday, May 11 at 1pm
Bach + One
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
J.S. Bach: Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, BWV 21
Richard Strauss: Der Abend

Thursday, May 14 at 1pm
Pipes at One
Nicole Keller, organ (Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, OH)

Sunday, May 17 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
John Taverner: Dum transisset Sabbatum 

Thursday, May 21 at 1pm
Pipes at One
Julian Wachner, organ (Trinity Church Wall Street)
Maurice Duruflé: Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain
Charles-Marie Widor: Symphonie No. 6 in G minor 

Sunday, May 24 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9: Prelude and Fugue 

Thursday, May 28 at 1pm
Pipes at One
Michael Shake, organ (First Presbyterian Church, New York, NY)

Friday, May 29 at 5pm
Trinity Youth Chorus and Outreach Choirs Concert
Trinity Youth Chorus Juniors and Peppercorns; CPC Outreach Choruses; Melissa Attebury and Anne Damssa Graff, conductors 

Sunday, May 31 at 4pm
Trinity Youth Chorus Concert
Trinity Youth Chorus; NOVUS NY; Melissa Attebury, conductor
Franz Schubert: Mass in G
W.A. Mozart: Missa Brevis in G, K49

Sunday, May 31 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Tarik O’Regan: I Sleep, But My Heart Waketh 

Wednesday, June 3 at 5pm
Trinity Commons
Music Outreach Concert

Thursday, June 4 at 1pm
Pipes at One
First Thursdays Conservatory Series

Sunday, June 7 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Richard Strauss: Der Abend 

Monday, June 8 at 1pm
Bach + One
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
J.S. Bach: O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20
J.S. Bach: Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein, BWV 2
J.S. Bach: Christ unser herr zum Jordan kam, BWV 7 

Monday, June 8 at 6pm
Music Outreach Concert

Thursday, June 11 at 1pm
Pipes at One
Ed Moore, organ (East Liberty Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, PA)

Friday, June 12 at 12pm and Saturday, June 13 at 7:30pm
Leipzig Bach Festival Performances
Ticketed
June 12: St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, Germany
June 13: Wartburg Castle, Eisenach, Germany
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
J.S. Bach: O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20
J.S. Bach: Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein, BWV 2
J.S. Bach: Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV 7

Sunday, June 14 at 8pm
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street 

12 NIGHTS FESTIVAL 

Wednesday, June 17 at 1pm
12 Nights Festival
The Handel Project
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
George Frideric Handel: Deborah, Part the First 

Wednesday, June 17 at 7pm
12 Nights Festival
Beethoven 250
Trinity Church
Attacca Quartet
Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete String Quartets, Part 1 

Thursday, June 18 at 1pm
12 Nights Festival
The Handel Project
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
George Frideric Handel: Deborah, Part the Second 

Thursday, June 18 at 7pm
12 Nights Festival
Brandenburg Concertos
Trinity Church
Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
J.S. Bach: Complete Brandenburg Concertos 

Friday, June 19 at 1pm
12 Nights Festival
The Handel Project
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Trinity Baroque Orchestra; Julian Wachner, conductor
George Frideric Handel: Deborah, Part the Third 

Friday, June 19 at 7pm
12 Nights Festival
Beethoven 250
Trinity Church
Attacca Quartet
Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete String Quartets, Part 2 

Sunday, June 21 at 8pm
12 Nights Festival
Compline by Candlelight
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Julian Wachner, conductor
Johannes Ockeghem: Deo Gratia a 36
Thomas Tallis: Spem in alium

Monday, June 22 at 7pm
12 Nights Festival
Beethoven 250
Trinity Church
Attacca Quartet
Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete String Quartets, Part 3

Tuesday, June 23 at 7pm
12 Nights Festival
From the Trecento to Josquin
Trinity Church
Jonathan Woody, curator 

Wednesday, June 24 at 7pm
12 Nights Festival
Beethoven 250
Trinity Church
Attacca Quartet
Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete String Quartets, Part 4 

Thursday, June 25 at 1pm
12 Nights Festival
Pipes at One
Avi Stein, organ (Trinity Church Wall Street)

Thursday, June 25 at 7pm
12 Nights Festival
Beethoven 250
Trinity Church
Attacca Quartet
Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete String Quartets, Part 5 

Friday, June 26 at 8pm
12 Nights Festival
Rameau: Dardanus
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Trinity Baroque Orchestra
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Dardanus

John La Bouchardiére, Director
Avi Stein, Music Director
Zachary Wilder, Dardanus
Melissa Attebury, Iphise
Mireille Asselin, Venus
Tyler Duncan, Anténor
John Taylor Ward, Isménor
Matt Boehler, Teucer
Oliver Mercer, Arcas 

Saturday, June 27 at 7pm
12 Nights Festival
Beethoven 250
Trinity Church
Attacca Quartet
Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete String Quartets, Part 6

Sunday, June 28 at 4pm
Katonah, NY
Rameau: Dardanus
Caramoor Music Festival, Katonah, NY
Ticketed
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Trinity Baroque Orchestra
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Dardanus
John La Bouchardiére, Director
Avi Stein, Music Director
Zachary Wilder, Dardanus
Melissa Attebury, Iphise
Mireille Asselin, Venus
Tyler Duncan, Anténor
John Taylor Ward, Isménor
Matt Boehler, Teucer
Oliver Mercer, Arcas 

Wednesday, July 8 at 3:30pm
John’s Creek, GA
American Guild of Organists Biennial National Convention
John’s Creek United Methodist Church
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Avi Stein and Janet Yieh, organ; Julian Wachner, conductor
Gerald Finzi: God is gone up, Op. 27, No. 2
Trevor Weston: Ashes
Cecilia McDowall: Adoro te devote
Leo Sowerby: Psalm 122 “I Was Glad”
Gerre Hancock: Deep River
Thomas Dorsey: Precious Lord
Herbert Howells: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis (St Paul’s Service)
Improvised fanfare for organ
Choral improvisation on a submitted text
Julian Wachner: My Cathedral (world premiere); Hymn Arrangements: Nicaea – Holy, Holy Holy, Tallis – O Thou the first, the greatest friend, Tanglewood – Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

© 21C Media Group, February 2020

Return to Press Room