NYC Master Chorale: The Unexpected Early Hour

NYCMC uses a sliding scale ticket model. "Pay it forward" tickets are $35, standard priced tickets are $25, and discounted tickets are $10. This ticket model is designed so that everyone can attend our concerts regardless of financial circumstances. The $25 and $10 tickets are accessible using the codes NYCMC-25 and NYCMC-10.

The New York City Master Chorale presents The Unexpected Early Hour, a musical reflection on mid-winter and the approach of early spring. Reena Esmail's A Winter Breviary sets three texts by poet Rebecca Gayle Howell which contemplates the long night of the winter solstice. Each movement features a different Hindustani raag that corresponds to a specific time of night, whether sunset, midnight, or the quiet hours just before dawn. Cecilia MacDowall's Standing as I Do Before God sets Seán Street’s poem of the beautiful and haunting final words of Edith Cavell, a heroic British nurse during WWI who helped save lives on both sides of the conflict. Morten Lauridsen's Mid-Winter Songs sets five brilliant poems by Robert Graves and features a striking and often thrillingly virtuosic piano accompaniment. This concert also features the premiere of When Night Comes, a new work by NYCMC former artistic director, Dusty Francis.

New York City Master Chorale
David J. Recca, conductor
Aizhan Soltanova, conducting fellow
Andrea Lodge, piano

GIOVANNI PIERLUGI DE PALESTRINA – Surge amica mea
REENA ESMAIL – A Winter Breviary
GABRIEL FAURÉ – L’hiver a cessé
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF – Romance (from Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos, op. 17, 1901)
DUSTY FRANCIS – When Night Comes
CECILIA MCDOWALL – Standing as I Do Before God
MORTEN LAURIDSEN – Mid-Winter Songs
ALEXANDER CRAIG – Sleep Now, O Sleep Now