40th Anniversary Alumni Page

Award-winning choral ensemble Cantori New York announces 2025-2026 season 

New York, NY — Award-winning choral ensemble Cantori New York is thrilled to announce its 2025-2026 season. This year’s programs include an exciting slate of commissions, premieres and partnerships with both long-time and new collaborators.   
 
Tickets and more information available at www.cantorinewyork.com.  

Discount Code on adult tickets: Cantori20

REFLECTIONS   
Friday November 7, 8:00PM 
Saturday November 8, 2025, 8:00PM   
Church of the Holy Apostles, 296 9th Avenue at 28th Street 

JuhiBansal – FOUR REFLECTIONS ON THE NIGHT (New York premiere) 

Paul Stanhope – REQUIEM (U.S. premiere) 

Stanhope’s Requiem, for chorus, soloists, and instruments, interweaves the traditional sacred Latin text with English-language reflections by female poets from around the world, including Neela Nath Das (India), Mary Elizabeth Frye (USA), Emily Dickinson (USA), and Australian Indigenous poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal. The work premiered in Stanhope’s native Sydney in 2021, in the midst of a global pandemic. Cantori is thrilled to present this powerful work that consoles, commemorates, and celebrates life.  

Juhi Bansal’s Four Reflections on the Night won second place in Cantori’s 2023 composition competition. Written for chorus with percussion and harp, it tells an ancient human story of gazing wonderingly at the night sky. 

HAILSTORK AT 85 
Friday March 13, 2026, 8:00PM   
Saturday March 14, 2026, 8:00PM   
Church of the Holy Apostles, 296 9th Avenue at 28th Street 

Adolphus Hailstork – CRISPUS ATTUCKS (world premiere of new instrumentation by Brian Morales) 

Adolphus Hailstork – FOUR PSALMS (world premiere)  

In March, we celebrate the 85th birthday of noted African-American composer Adolphus Hailstork, who has served on Cantori’s Advisory Board for 25 years. This all-Hailstork tribute concert will feature two world premieres: a new chamber orchestration of his signature oratorio CRISPUS ATTUCKS and the brand new FOUR PSALMS.  

Originally scored for full orchestra on a libretto by Herbert Martin, CRISPUS ATTUCKS tells the story of the first American casualty of the American Revolution. Crispus Attucks, a man of African and Native American heritage, was the first person killed in the Boston Massacre in 1770. Cantori member and composer Brian Morales will reorchestrate the expansive score for only eight instruments. Morales’ reorchestration of Vittorio Rieti’s The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne was premiered by Cantori in 2024.   

Rounding out the program is a tetralogy of four unpublished, never-performed Psalm settings – three a cappella, one with saxophone and marimba. Experienced as a cycle, Hailstork’s Four Psalms exemplify his unique style: spiritual, resilient, and full of life.   

STABAT MATER   
Friday May 15, 2026, 8:00PM    Saturday May 16, 2026, 8:00PM   
Church of St. Francis Xavier, 46 West 16th Street  

Frank Ferko – STABAT MATER  

Margaret Bonds – THE NIGHT SHALL BE FILLED WITH MUSIC (posthumous premiere)   

Our final concert of the season presents the virtuosic hour-long a cappella STABAT MATER by American composer Frank Ferko, for chorus and soprano soloist. Ferko sets not only the traditional text describing Mary observing the crucifixion, but also modern accounts of mothers who have lost their children to war, crime, AIDS, and accident. Traversing a vast range of compositional influences from Palestrina to Messiaen, Ferko’s masterwork is both poignant and triumphant. Cantori presented the New York premiere of Ferko’s Stabat Mater in 2004.   

Also on the program is THE NIGHT SHALL BE FILLED WITH MUSIC, a rediscovered work by American composer Margaret Bonds, not heard since her death in 1972. 

🎶 Exciting news! Cantori New York’s album Found Again is up For Your GRAMMY® Consideration! 🌟

With conductor Mark Shapiro, this collection offers three deeply moving choral works that explore renewal, connection, and healing.

The New Amorous World by Lembit Beecher reflects on our limits and possibilities as humans.

Beauty by Beauty by John Rommereim (set to poems by Joy Harjo) invites courage, spiritual growth, and our relationship with the natural world.

The title track Found Again by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate reimagines Joy Harjo’s poetry through tone poems rooted in Muscogee Creek hymns—emphasizing reconciliation, cultural connection, and renewal.

If you love choral music that moves the soul and challenges the mind, this one’s not to miss. More information, including how to download or stream the album can be found here