Apr
25
to Apr 28

Seraphic Fire: Mid-Century Modern

Edmund joins Florida’s GRAMMY-nominated vocal ensemble for four concerts in Naples, Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale, and Boca Raton.

“Furniture or architecture might come to mind when one hears the phrase "mid-century modern," but the creative style also impacted the music of the time. You’ll likely discover a mid-century work you’ve never heard before on this program for a cappella chorus.”

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May
4
5:00 PM17:00

The Polyphonists: Hensel & Bach

The Polyphonists sing as soloists in a collaboration with the Georgetown Chorale. This concert features Fanny Hensel’s rarely-performed choral-orchestral masterpiece - Oratorium nach Bildern der Bibel, performed alongside a perennial favorite by J.S. Bach - Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (BWV 147). Heather Adelsberger conducts.

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May
8
7:30 PM19:30

Gamut Bach Ensemble: Cantatas

Edmund joins the Gamut Bach Ensemble under the direction of Koji Otsuki for this concert featuring several solo vocal works of J.S. Bach, under the auspices of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.

Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150

Der Herr denket an uns, BWV 196

Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange, BWV 155

O heilges Geist- und Wasserbad, BWV 165

Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4

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May
21
7:30 PM19:30

Shall we gather at the river

For more than 400 years, the Black American spiritual tradition has moved over, across, and through the waters—waters of life force, passage, cleansing, resistance, and renewal—depicted in such songs and verses as “Wade in the Water,” “Deep River,” “Crossing Jordan,” and “By the Waters of Babylon.”

The power of water and its spiritual dimensions equally resonates in the beautiful, sacred texts of Bach’s cantatas. Infused with poetry, Bach’s music sounds and speaks to every drop of water, in drought and in full flood, moving and alive.

These two musical sources flow together in an act of awakening, mobilization, and restorative beauty in the face of climate change. The Oxford Bach Soloists under the music direction of Tom Hammond-Davies and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street are joined by countertenor Reginald Mobley, tenor Nick Pritchard, and sheng player Wu Tong to perform a selection of Bach cantatas intermingled with spirituals in a staging by the celebrated director Peter Sellars. This musical call to action illuminates the undeniable truth that water is life, and that music is a universal language that can unite and inspire.

World Premiere
Co-Commissioned with the Asia Society as part of COAL + ICE: Inspiring Climate Action Through Art and Ideas, on view February 13-–August 11, 2024.

Soprano Molly Quinn
Countertenor Reginald Mobley
Tenor Nick Pritchard
Bass-baritone Jonathan Woody
Sheng Wu Tong
Oxford Bach Soloists
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Conductor Tom Hammond-Davies
Direction Peter Sellars
Choreographer Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray and members of the flexn community
Lighting Designer Seth Reiser
Sound Design Mark Grey

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May
29
7:00 PM19:00

Malhaar: A Requiem for Water

NOVUS NY and Downtown Voices present the New York premiere of Reena Esmail’s Malhaar: A Requiem for Water, paired with Garth Neustadter’s Memory of Water, which will be performed by The Choir of Trinity Wall Street. A malhar is an Indian raga designed to beckon the rain; Esmail’s A Requiem for Water captures musically the beauty and awe of water while contemplating the fear and despair that surround its loss. As water exists beyond all beginnings and ends, Memory of Water considers the consciousness of water and how it carries in its memory both the splendor and devastation of our world.

The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Downtown Voices; NOVUS NY; featuring Sandbox Percussion and Shabnam Abedi, soprano; Stephen Sands and Melissa Attebury, conductors

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Jun
10
5:00 PM17:00

Bachfest Leipzig: Chorale Cantatas

Edmund makes his Bachfest Leipzig debut with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem in a performance at Bach’s own church, Leipzig’s Thomaskirche.

J. S. Bach: Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn, BWV 96 • J. S. Bach: Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 5 • J. S. Bach: Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, BWV 180

ARTISTS: Thomasorganist Johannes Lang, Nola Richardson (soprano), Janna E. Critz (alto), Lawrence Jones (tenor), Edmund Milly (bass), The Bach Choir of Bethlehem (USA), Members of The Bach Festival Orchestra of Bethlehem, Mendelssohn Kammerorchester Leipzig, direction: Christopher Jackson

For more information on Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s Germany tour and some additional performances, see: https://bach.org/eurotour/

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Jun
25
to Jul 14

Oregon Bach Festival: Ascending Voices

  • Hult Center for the Performing Arts (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Edmund returns to OBF for several concert programs, including:

Bach Ascension Oratorio with John Butt (soloist)

Mozart Mass in C Minor with Jos van Veldhoven (soloist)

Holst “The Planets” with Alevtina Ioffe

Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with Ken-David Masur

Whitacre “The Sacred Veil” with Eric Whitacre

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Aug
8
6:00 PM18:00

B Minor Mass at Aspen

PROGRAM

J. S. BACH: Mass in B minor, BWV 232

Applauded by Gramophone for its “mellifluous, crystalline artistry,” the professional choral ensemble Seraphic Fire has gained an international reputation. Hear them in one of the most sublime and majestic works ever composed, Bach’s B minor Mass.

Why the Lutheran Bach wrote a Catholic Mass remains a mystery, but we do know that he intended it to be a summation of his life’s work that would serve as a legacy. It may very well have been his last musical project. The Swiss composer and publisher Hans Georg Nägli called it “the greatest artwork of all times and all people,” (admittedly to drum up sales for the composition’s score). The cohesiveness of this massive work is somewhat astonishing considering that much of it was adapted from earlier Bach compositions, and that it runs a stylistic gamut from 16th century Palestrina-like motets to the latest 18th century trends. It’s also astonishing that Bach probably never heard the work himself since it received little notice outside of the handful of churches which performed it during his life. Most astonishing of all is the piece itself, whose divine beauty and awe-inspiring glory has been compared to the works of Shakespeare and the Sistine Chapel.

Experience one of the most magnificent expressions of faith ever created, performed by the superb Seraphic Fire and an orchestra conducted by AMFS Music Director Robert Spano.

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Aug
16
to Aug 24

Staunton Music Festival

Edmund will appear as a soloist and ensemble member in several concerts throughout the festival, including:

Handel Extravaganza: From Arcadia to Royal Academy

Nightcap: Marie’s Crisis

Poets and Puppets

Summer Sounds

Meet the New Graf!

Mendelssohn’s Magic

Shakespearean Fantasies (including the world premiere of a new work by Zachary Wadsworth)

Baroque Inside/Out: a Night at Versailles

Nightcap: Baroque Bash

Bach Mass in B Minor

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Apr
21
4:00 PM16:00

Haydn's Creation with Washington Bach Consort

Completed five decades after Bach’s death, Die Schöpfung (The Creation) offers a significant milestone in the development of the oratorio genre. Strongly influenced by Handel’s definitive examples of the high Baroque, Haydn’s Creation conveys Gottfried van Swieten’s German libretto in sharp musical focus, with vivid characterizations of the creation story described in the book of Genesis. Beginning with the captivating orchestral representation of Chaos, we experience a world brought into beautiful order in seven days, culminating with the union of Adam and Eve. This epic work is best experienced live, sung in the language of its premiere performance (German) and played on period instruments of the Classical era, allowing for the deepest possible level of connection with the musical drama.

Michele Kennedy, soprano
Thomas Cooley, tenor
Edmund Milly, bass

Join us for Talking Bach at 3 p.m. The series of free pre-concert lectures by noted Bach scholar, Michael Marissen, are presented one hour before Director’s Series performances.

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Apr
12
to Apr 14

Number Our Days: A Photographic Oratorio

  • Perelman Performing Arts Center (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

How can we hold onto each other with joy, even in the face of inevitable loss?

Each day for 18 years, Jamie Livingston documented his life by taking a single Polaroid—until his death at age 41. Then his “Photo of the Day” went online, creating an immediate global sensation years before Instagram launched. With music for chorus, orchestra, and soloists by Grammy nominee Luna Pearl Woolf (Fire & Flood) and a non-fiction libretto by acclaimed filmmaker David Van Taylor (Good Ol’ Charles Schulz), this multi-media oratorio explores our era’s strange alchemy of technology, memory, and community.

A PAC NYC commission.

Music by Luna Pearl Woolf
Concept and Libretto by David Van Taylor
Based on Jamie Livingston’s “Photo Of the Day”
Conducted by Kamna Gupta
Directed by Ty Defoe
Co-Produced with Trinity Church Wall Street

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Mar
8
7:00 PM19:00

Oklahoma Bach: J.C. Bach, Bruhns, Buxtehude

Edmund sings several arias by composers who preceded and influenced Bach, with an ensemble of top players on historically-informed instruments. A program of Lenten music not to be missed!

J.C. Bach - Wie bist du denn, o Gott, in Zorn auf mich entbrannt
Bruhns - De Profundis
Buxtehude - Jesu, meine Freude, BuxWV 60

Joseph Arndt, director

Edmund Milly, bass-baritone

Featuring a one-on-a-part quartet from the Oklahoma Bach Choir

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Jan
7
5:00 PM17:00

Bach Vespers: BWV 153

Edmund sings the bass solos in a liturgical presentation of Bach’s cantata 153, “Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind,” part of the renowned Bach Vespers series at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, under the direction of Anthony Blake Clark.

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Dec
29
7:30 PM19:30

Chromatic Christmas with the Polyphonists

  • Church of the Ascension and St. Agnes (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Join us for a program of music for the holiday season, presented by an award-winning vocal ensemble: Chromatic Christmas with the Polyphonists on Fri Dec 29, 2023 at 7:30 PM

This meditative program is constructed around the astonishing, nearly other-worldly “Prophetiae Sibyllarum” of Renaissance composer Orlande de Lassus. Its twelve inventive movements will be interspersed with beloved seasonal works by Howells, Poulenc, and Warlock, as well as innovative carols by Libby Larsen, Alice Parker, and more!

This singular event will take place at The Church of the Ascension & St. Agnes (1217 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC 20005).

Don't miss out on this rarely-performed early music gem by Orlande de Lassus, sung in a perfectly suited acoustical space. Mark your calendars and join us for Chromatic Christmas with the Polyphonists on Fri Dec 29, 2023.

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Nov
17
7:00 PM19:00

The Polyphonists: Liebeslieder

This performance features the Polyphonists along with pianists Edward Rothmel and Jonathan King in a performance of Brahms’s complete Liebeslieder-Walzer (Op. 52) and Neue Liebeslieder (Op. 65). The Brahms will be paired with contemporary composer John Greer’s Liebesleid-Lieder (“Love-Sorrow Songs”), a complementary song cycle for quartet, brilliantly setting Dorothy Parker’s charming, irreverent, and hilarious English-language poetry.

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/liebeslieder-music-for-vocal-quartet-piano-four-hands-tickets-690992165167?aff=oddtdtcreator

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Nov
15
to Nov 17

The Polyphonists: Liebeslieder

This performance features the Polyphonists along with pianists Edward Rothmel and Jonathan King in a performance of Brahms’ complete Liebeslieder-Walzer (Op. 52) and Neue Liebeslieder (Op. 65). The Brahms will be paired with contemporary composer John Greer’s Liebesleid-Lieder (“Love-Sorrow Songs”), a complementary song cycle for quartet, brilliantly setting Dorothy Parker’s charming, irreverant, and hilarious English-language poetry.

Please see www.thepolyphonists.com for the most current information on this series of performances.

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Nov
2
7:00 PM19:00

Duruflé Requiem

Edmund Milly, bass-baritone, and Sylvia Leith, mezzo-soprano, are the soloists in a liturgical All Souls’ Day presentation of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, with Bryan Anderson, organ, under the direction of Joseph Arndt.

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