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A Choral Feast

Sunday 11 am services designated A Choral Feast present the opportunity to experience great sacred choral repertoire, often heard in concert halls, within their original context of a worship service. These services are held about once each month and celebrate a specific theme, composer, or present a major choral work, often with instrumentalists joining St. Bartholomew's Choir. Our magnificent Aeolian-Skinner organ is always a featured part of our musical offerings, including approximately ten minutes of solo organ music before the service, as well as a featured work to conclude worship.

Many of the great composers of the western musical canon have written music for use in worship, including major works such as Masses and Cantatas. Over the years, St. Bartholomew's has distinguished itself as a musical destination by including hundreds of such works, often with chamber orchestra, as a part of regular communal worship. Through A Choral Feast, St. Bart’s endeavors to present these great masterworks as they were originally intended by their creators: offered not in concert, but as a vehicle for worship, in gratitude to God.

Upcoming

Upcoming: April 23, 2023

We recognize with gratitude the Friends of A Choral Feast, whose generosity makes possible the additional rehearsal and resources needed for these services.
May 7, 2023
June 25, 2023


Past A Choral Feast Sundays

In the past, Choral Feasts have celebrated Americana for the Fourth of July, music of LGBTQ composers for Pride Weekend, and themes of heroism and service for Memorial Day. They sometimes mark red-letter days in the cycle of the church year, such as the Last Sunday after the Epiphany or All Saints’ Day. Recently featured composers have included Felix Mendelssohn, Johann Sebastian Bach, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Tomas Luis da Victoria, among others.

February 12, 2023 Holst’s Mass in A Minor

Organ music by female composers: Florence Price and Jeanne Demessieux

Watch the service

October 30, 2022 Fauré’s Requiem with orchestra

All Souls Organ music by Vierne Watch the service

October 2, 2022 Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb

The Feast of St. Francis Organ music by Handel and John Cook
Watch the service

March 27, 2022 Vaughan Williams’s Mass in G Minor

and Love bade me welcome from Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs
Organ music by Bridge and Stanford
Watch the service

February 14, 2022 Modern Masters

Featuring the Missa Brevis of Jonathan Dove
Additional works by Barrie Cabena, Janet Yieh, Pärt, David Conte, Calvin Fuller
Watch the service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B_yibuU5QQ

November 7, 2020 Duruflé’s Requiem

All Saints’ Day Organ music by Duruflé

October 10, 2020 Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai with orchestra

Organ music by Bach

January 26, 2020 Music of Amy Beach, Lili Boulanger, and Hildegard von Bingen

Organ music by Beach and Henri Mulet

November 17, 2019 Schubert’s Mass in C Major with orchestra

Organ music by Vierne

September 8, 2019 Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli

Organ music by Vivaldi

August 4, 2019 Bach’s Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied

Organ music by Bach

July 7, 2019 A Modified 1662 Liturgy for the Day

Featuring works of Batten, Alice Parker, David Conte, and Loosemore
Organ music by Locklair

June 30, 2019 Pride on Park

Pride Weekend Featuring works of Trafka, Hurd, Bernstein, and Copland
Organ music by John Corigliano and Ethel Smyth

May 26, 2019 Morning Prayer & Holy Eucharist

Memorial Day weekend Te Deum in B-flat - Charles Villiers Stanford

Jubilate Deo - William Walton

My soul there is a country (Songs of Farewell) - Charles Hubert Hastings Parry

King of Glory, King of Peace - Gerald Near

Organ music by Franck and Alain

May 12, 2019 Mozart’s Missa Brevis in B-flat with orchestra

Organ music by Eugène Gigout

March 3, 2019 Morning Prayer & Holy Eucharist

Featuring the Te Deum in G of Ralph Vaughan Williams
Antiphon (Five Mystical Songs) - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Surge, Illuminare - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Organ music by Vierne and Bach

February 3, 2019 Love Never Ends: music inspired by the love of God & neighbor

Missa “Vidi Speciosam” - Tomás Luis de Victoria
A Song of Divine Love - Grayston Ives
I beheld her - Healey Willan
Organ music by Bach

January 20, 2019 Mendelssohn’s Die Deutsche Liturgie

Organ music by Mendelssohn