2018–19 Season

Te Deum wrapped up its 11th season with a program of some of the 20th century’s most notable composers. Focusing on familiar music designed for the warm of acoustics of the world’s greatest cathedral, the audience experienced a cappella classics by Byrd, Barber, Britten, Mendelssohn, Stanford, Rachmaninoff and more. 

n 17th century Italy, opportunities for women to sing in public were prohibited in many spheres of daily life. But within the inner walls of the convent, cloistered nuns could raise their voices in musical praise to their Maker. For this concert, the women of Te Deum Antiqua with Jan Kraybill playing continuo explored the music of these cloistered nuns and the sacred riches that came from this period. 

This was Te Deum’s first Christmas-​season concert – done Te Deum’s way. Audiences experienced a thoughtfully planned selection of a cappella gems that are fresh, festive and beyond the seasonal standards. The program included fresh settings of carols by Jocelyn Hagen, Susan LaBarr, and Sofia Söderberg, as well as works by Walton, Poulenc, Tavener, and Pärt. 

Te Deum paid tribute to the centennial of legendary composer/​conductor Leonard Bernstein with a presentation of “Chichester Psalms.” Two world premieres also were on the program. The first was a setting of text from the Torah by Kansas City composer Stewart Duncan, commissioned as a gift in memory of Carol Lynn Stockton, a longtime vocal music teacher and past Te Deum board member. The concert concluded with a setting of a Hebrew Benediction by New York-​based composer Karen Siegel. Pieces by contemporary Jewish composers David Lang and Aaron Jay Kernis rounded out the program.