2024-2025 Season
Bach Family and Friends
Bach Family and Friends will bring together the music of J.S. Bach and his closest musical colleagues. The centerpiece of the program is J.S. Bach’s most profound motet, Jesu, meine Freude. Works by Buxtehude, Telemann, and Johann Michael Bach will complete the picture of how Bach found his voice as a composer, and how he inspired others. This concert will be accompanied by strings and organ, featuring players from the Adelphi Orchestra.
Duruflé’s Requiem
Ars Musica Chorale finishes its 2024-2025 season with Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem. This monumental work features rich harmonies and a colorful sound palette, with melodies based on traditional Gregorian chants. This version of the Requiem is Duruflé’s final revision and includes organ, three trumpets, timpani, harp, and string quintet. Our chamber orchestra will feature instrumentalists from our friends at the Adelphi Orchestra. Along with Duruflé’s Requiem, Ars Musica will perform several of his motets along with motets by Boulanger and Fauré.
An Ars Musica Holiday!
Ars Musica Chorale returns with its annual presentation of An Ars Musica Holiday. This year’s concert will include some well-known arrangements by John Rutter, Ola Gjeilo, and John Jacob Niles, as well as some unfamiliar works by Jean Sibelius and Edvard Grieg. The choir will be accompanied by piano, organ, brass quintet, and percussion to make for a spectacular evening that is perfect for the holiday season.
I Was Glad: Music of 20th Century England
Ars Musica Chorale launches its 2024-2025 season with I Was Glad: Music of 20th Century England. This concert will feature works such as Serenade to Music by Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten’s Te Deum in C, Hubert Parry’s I Was Glad, and many of England’s greatest composers of the last hundred years. The concert will be accompanied by organ and will also feature organ solos. Please join us to hear the choir and beautiful organ at Bethlehem Lutheran Church!
Wine and Song
Join us for an evening of wine and song featuring vocalists Mike McCormick, Melanie Lota and Jordan Klotz, and pianist Diana Hughes. Tickets will include hors d'oeuvres, wine tasting, desserts, and song. There will also be a separate silent auction with items including experiences, restaurant gift certificates, and more!
Spring Gala
A benefit for Ars Musica Chorale featuring Music Director, Michael McCormick. Enjoy a night of hors d'oeuvres, desserts, and song.
Tickets $60 pp.
Must be purchased in advance by June 5, 2023.
Brahms and Art Song
Johannes Brahms is perhaps the most influential composer of the nineteenth century. His dramatic settings of text with lush sounds in both the choir and accompaniment provide for a fully immersive listening experience. Ars Musica Chorale will present a concert of Brahms’ choral works with solo art song by Brahms’ and his contemporaries. The concert will feature the chorus, our very own Encore Young Artists, and two pianists playing four hand accompaniment, Diana Hughes and Tyler Weakland.
The two largest choral pieces on the concert are Brahms’ Schicksalslied and Nänie, which include emotive texts that combine Greek tragedies, intrapersonal contemplation, and self realization. These will both be accompanied by our two pianists, which allows for the full richness of the accompaniments to be showcased. The solo art songs presented are written by close friends and colleagues of Brahms, like Robert Schumann, as well as compositional enemies, like Franz Liszt. The variety in these composers’ styles make it possible for every listener to find a piece that will speak directly to them.
Messiah
Ars Musica Chorale continues its season with a presentation of Handel's Messiah, Part the Second and Part the Third. Although it was written for an Easter celebration in 1742, Messiah is often performed at Christmastime. Ars Musica will instead present the lesser known portions of this masterwork, which include the tender aria “I Know that My Redeemer Liveth,” the famous “Hallelujah” chorus, and the great “Amen.” The concert will again feature the outstanding Adelphi Orchestra, our very own Encore Young Artist soloists, and our conductor, Michael McCormick.
Ticketing information for this concert: Adult $35 | Senior/Special Needs $30 | Student $7 Under 12 Free. Tickets available at the door.
An Ars Musica Holiday
Ars Musica Chorale welcomes audience members back for another presentation of An Ars Musica Holiday! This annual tradition features beautiful choral music and seasonal readings, with organ, brass, and percussion accompaniment, to create a spectacular musical experience that is a perfect way to celebrate the holidays. The concert will include a mix of Christmas carols, Hanukkah songs and new music, with works by Handel, Bonds, Whitacre, and Marcello, among others. We hope that you will join us and make this concert a part of your holiday traditions for years to come!
Mozart Requiem
Ars Musica Chorale will be presenting W.A. Mozart's Requiem, one of the choral world's most important and beautiful masterpieces. The work will be accompanied by Adelphi Orchestra and will feature four beautiful soloists that are members of our Encore Young Artist program. Mozart famously never completed writing his Requiem as he tragically died during its composition in 1791. In the months following Mozart's death, his wife, Constanze, searched for suitable composers to finish the piece. After several attempts at finding someone, she discovered that Franz Süssmayr, a student of Mozart's, was willing to take on the task. Süssmayr finished what Mozart had started, and composed the Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei, and Communio entirely on his own. Preceding the Requiem in this concert will be the famous Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor by J.S. Bach, performed by the Adelphi Orchestra.
Ars Musica Chorale | Encore Young Artists | Adelphi Orchestra
This program is made possible in part by a grant administered by the Bergen County Division of Historic & Cultural Affairs from funds granted by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Summer Sing: Mozart's Requiem
Join us this summer for two Summer Sing events! The first Summer Sing will take place on Tuesday, July 12th as we explore Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem. We will continue with this theme for our second Summer Sing as we sing selections from Mozart's Requiem on Tuesday, August 9th.
Both Summer Sings will begin at 7:30 PM and take place at Bethlehem Lutheran Church (155 Linwood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ). All singers interested in learning more about Ars Musica are welcome to sing with us at these open events!
To register or for more information, contact our Membership Director, Cecilia, at info@arsmusica.org or call 551-226-9305. Masks optional. Vaccination required. All participants will be asked to sign our annual participation waiver. For more details, visit our Covid-19 page.
Summer Sing: Duruflé’s Requiem
Join us this summer for two Summer Sing events! The first Summer Sing will take place on Tuesday, July 12th as we explore Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem. We will continue with this theme for our second Summer Sing as we sing selections from Mozart's Requiem on Tuesday, August 9th.
Both Summer Sings will begin at 7:30 PM and take place at Bethlehem Lutheran Church (155 Linwood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ). All singers interested in learning more about Ars Musica are welcome to sing with us at these open events!
To register or for more information, contact our Membership Director, Cecilia, at info@arsmusica.org or call 551-226-9305. Masks optional. Vaccination required. All participants will be asked to sign our annual participation waiver. For more details, visit our Covid-19 page.
Hariu L’Adonai: Jewish Composers Through the Centuries
The music of Jewish composers, for both the synagogue and the concert hall, is a trove of remarkable works, famous and relatively unknown alike. This program traces the intersections of Judaism and classical music over the last four hundred years, anchored by Leonard Bernstein’s remarkable Chichester Psalms. Proof of full vaccination (paper or digital) is required to attend this concert, and face coverings must be worn at all times.
Ars Musica Chorale | Encore Young Artists
This program is made possible in part by a grant administered by the Bergen County Division of Historic & Cultural Affairs from funds granted by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Sing Me to Heaven: Fauré’s Requiem and Music of Remembrance
Almost no one on Earth has escaped loss or tragedy in the last eighteen months - and the Ars Musica community is no different. For our Masterworks concert, we join the world in remembering all those we’ve lost to Covid-19, pairing Gabriel Fauré’s timeless Requiem with remarkable, lesser-known works about loss, remembrance, and healing. Proof of full vaccination (paper or digital) is required to attend this concert, and face coverings must be worn at all times.
Ars Musica Chorale | Encore Young Artists | Ars Musica String Ensemble
This program is made possible in part by a grant administered by the Bergen County Division of Historic & Cultural Affairs from funds granted by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
We Saw the Star: An Ars Musica Holiday
Have you ever gazed up at the stars, wondering what lies beyond? Join us to wonder at the magic of the night sky, and to ring in the joyous holiday season, with our signature December concert of readings and carols! Proof of full vaccination (paper or digital) is required to attend this concert, and face coverings must be worn at all times.
Ars Musica Chorale | Encore Young Artists | Ars Musica Holiday Brass