Dakota Pro Musica presents the 19th Century American Megahit, “Esther, the Beautiful Queen” by William Bradbury.  Esther, the Beautiful Queen was maybe the most famous choral piece in America between 1856 and the Great Depression having been performed across the US and selling over 250,000 copies of the score.  The piece seemingly disappeared after the Great Depression, and it is unclear if there have been any performances in the last 95 years.  The concert will feature the professional choristers of Dakota Pro Musica and guest soloists from across the US performing Esther, the Beautiful Queen, followed by three days of recording sessions to create the only professional commercial recording of Esther available in the world.

The concert will be on Sunday, June 14 at 3:00 pm at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bismarck.  There will be a preconcert lecture by Dr. Juanita Karpf who the top scholar in the world on Esther, the Beautiful Queen at 2:40 pm.

Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for students for this special concert presentation.

In May 2020, the City Choir of Washington was scheduled to perform Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Now, six years later, City Choir is thrilled to be “coming home” to this monumental piece.

The culmination of Johann Sebastian Bach’s life work, the B Minor Mass is intimate, powerful, sorrowful, and joyful – giving performers and audience members alike a reminder of the best that humanity has to offer.

Featuring:

Laura Choi Stuart, soprano

Gabriela Estephanie Solís, mezzo-soprano

Matthew Hill, tenor

Edmund Milly, bass-baritone

The City Choir Orchestra

A unique collaboration between outstanding young musicians and an expert on the music of J.S. Bach, the Gamut Bach Ensemble prides itself on stylistically sensitive, earnest, and insightful performances. Directed by Koji Otsuki, the Ensemble embarks on its annual program of cantatas in the luminous Church of the Holy Trinity.

Rebecca Myers, soprano; Sylvia Leith, mezzo; James Reese, tenor; Edmund Milly, baritone; Mary Lynch VanderKolk & Ryan Roberts, oboe/oboe d’amore; Emilie-Anne Gendron & Miho Saegusa, violin; Esteban Hernández Parra, viola; Zachary Mowitz, cello; Nathaniel West, double bass; Jonathan Oddie, organ

Bach: Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten, BWV 93
Bach: Wer da gläubet und getauft wird, BWV 37
Bach: Alles nur nach Gottes Willen, BWV 72
Bach: Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn, BWV 92

Join Aeternum for a moving evening at Mont La Salle Chapel as we perform works from our first-ever professional album recording. Experience this stunning selection of songs in the breathtaking acoustics of the chapel—you won’t want to miss it! This concert marks a milestone in our journey, celebrating the beauty of love through music.

Edmund joins the ensemble of Washington Bach Consort for their season finale performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor.

Edmund joins the ensemble of Washington Bach Consort for their season finale performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor.

Edmund makes his solo debut with Choral Arts Society of Washington in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem

From Darkness to Light: An Interactive Choral Discussion

Marie Bucoy-Calavan, conductor

This innovative concert will feature a “mid-concert lecture,” where attendees will be able to discuss and interact with one another, led by a guest lecturer that will help guide our reflection on how we digest the timely Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams, how it fits in today’s society, and how we move on from darkness to light.

Featured works:

Dona Nobis Pacem (Ralph Vaughan Williams)

Two Psalms (Gustav Holst)

The full forces of Seraphic Fire close out this celebratory year with a surround-sound, polychoral experience imported directly from the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, Italy. You’ll be at the center of the action as we sing from every corner of the room. An experience you can only get at Seraphic Fire, our season closes with this aural explosion.

The Pre-Concert Conversation will be presented by Dr. James K. Bass, one hour before the concert.

Program Includes:

Ave Regina - CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI

The full forces of Seraphic Fire close out this celebratory year with a surround-sound, polychoral experience imported directly from the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, Italy. You’ll be at the center of the action as we sing from every corner of the room. An experience you can only get at Seraphic Fire, our season closes with this aural explosion.

The Pre-Concert Conversation will be presented by Dr. James K. Bass, one hour before the concert.

Program Includes:

Ave Regina - CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI

The full forces of Seraphic Fire close out this celebratory year with a surround-sound, polychoral experience imported directly from the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, Italy. You’ll be at the center of the action as we sing from every corner of the room. An experience you can only get at Seraphic Fire, our season closes with this aural explosion.

The Pre-Concert Conversation will be presented by Dr. James K. Bass, one hour before the concert.

Program Includes:

Ave Regina - CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI

The full forces of Seraphic Fire close out this celebratory year with a surround-sound, polychoral experience imported directly from the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, Italy. You’ll be at the center of the action as we sing from every corner of the room. An experience you can only get at Seraphic Fire, our season closes with this aural explosion.

The Pre-Concert Conversation will be presented by Dr. James K. Bass, one hour before the concert.

Program Includes:

Ave Regina - CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI

Within the candlelit tranquility of Emmanuel's nave, immerse yourself in a meditative evening of reflection and beauty as Holy Week begins. American composer Nico Muhly's The Street is a concert-length meditation on the Fourteen Stations of the Cross, scored for solo harp and interwoven with ancient Gregorian chant and original texts by celebrated librettist Alice Goodman. Goodman's poignant narrative, which renders these familiar spiritual events with striking contemporary sensibility, will be narrated by beloved WBJC 91.5FM host Judith Krummeck and the evocative plainsong will be chanted by acclaimed bass-baritone Edmund Milly. Internationally renowned harpist Parker Ramsay—for whom the work was specifically composed—travels to Baltimore for this intimate, powerful performance.

Among the most celebrated works in Western musical history, Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610) was dedicated to Pope Paul V at a moment when Claudio Monteverdi was aiming to make a quantum leap in his career prospects. After 20 years in the service of the illustrious Duke of Mantua, Monteverdi’s Marian vespers was published only three years before his star rose to the great Basilica of San Marco in Venice, where he famously served as music director for 30 years.

The Thirteen completes our survey of Bach’s four short masses, following our “fascinating… stirring” (Washington Classical Review) per- formance of The Early Masses I in 2025. The Masses in A Major and G Minor exhibit all of the mastery of the composer’s massive B Minor Mass in the form of smaller and digestible delights, written by the composer at a highpoint of his career. The Thirteen performs his two early masses featuring Baroque flute and oboe, paired with some of his finest and most beloved instrumental works.

Violinists Adriane Post and Chloe Fedor join our choir of twelve soloists and our orchestra of period instrumentalists, which “buzz[es] with busy counterpoint and festive energy” (Washington Classical Review).

The Thirteen completes our survey of Bach’s four short masses, following our “fascinating… stirring” (Washington Classical Review) per- formance of The Early Masses I in 2025. The Masses in A Major and G Minor exhibit all of the mastery of the composer’s massive B Minor Mass in the form of smaller and digestible delights, written by the composer at a highpoint of his career. The Thirteen performs his two early masses featuring Baroque flute and oboe, paired with some of his finest and most beloved instrumental works.

Violinists Adriane Post and Chloe Fedor join our choir of twelve soloists and our orchestra of period instrumentalists, which “buzz[es] with busy counterpoint and festive energy” (Washington Classical Review).

The Thirteen completes our survey of Bach’s four short masses, following our “fascinating… stirring” (Washington Classical Review) per- formance of The Early Masses I in 2025. The Masses in A Major and G Minor exhibit all of the mastery of the composer’s massive B Minor Mass in the form of smaller and digestible delights, written by the composer at a highpoint of his career. The Thirteen performs his two early masses featuring Baroque flute and oboe, paired with some of his finest and most beloved instrumental works.

Violinists Adriane Post and Chloe Fedor join our choir of twelve soloists and our orchestra of period instrumentalists, which “buzz[es] with busy counterpoint and festive energy” (Washington Classical Review).

Organ Prelude
Ciacona in E Minor, BuxWV 160, Dieterich Buxtehude
Praeludium in G Minor, Vincent Lübeck

Cantata
Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56

Paula Maust, organ

Edmund Milly, bass-baritone

Organ Prelude
Ciacona in E Minor, BuxWV 160, Dieterich Buxtehude
Praeludium in G Minor, Vincent Lübeck

Cantata
Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56

Paula Maust, organ

Edmund Milly, bass-baritone

Join Yale Consort for a service of Latin Vespers, focused on music, readings, and quiet contemplation.

Free and open to the public.

This service features music of Palestrina.

Due to the off-campus nature of Yale Consort events, they will not be livestreamed. We invite you to join us in person as you are able.

Yale Consort, a professional vocal ensemble conducted by Professor James O’Donnell and sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, provides high quality choral music for a series of evening services in local parishes and chapels.

Rachmaninoff | Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31

The Thirteen explores the vocal music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, following our “finely tune[d]… expert, highly responsive” (Washington Classical Review) performances of his All Night Vigil in 2023. Written five years before the Vigil, in 1910, the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is a work on a yet grander scale. “Beautiful and grandly mystical… exud[ing] a spiritual force that is deeply moving and restorative” (New York Times), Rachmaninoff’s Liturgy exalts the power, beauty, and emotive range of the human voice. This concerto for choir in a symphonic palette has moved audiences for over 100 years with soaring melodies, rich harmonies, and vocal pyrotechnics.

The Thirteen’s Vocal Fellows Program is made possible by a gift from the Andrew Warnock Clarke & Martin ‘Chip’ Sherrill Family Foundation.

Rachmaninoff | Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31

The Thirteen explores the vocal music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, following our “finely tune[d]… expert, highly responsive” (Washington Classical Review) performances of his All Night Vigil in 2023. Written five years before the Vigil, in 1910, the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is a work on a yet grander scale. “Beautiful and grandly mystical… exud[ing] a spiritual force that is deeply moving and restorative” (New York Times), Rachmaninoff’s Liturgy exalts the power, beauty, and emotive range of the human voice. This concerto for choir in a symphonic palette has moved audiences for over 100 years with soaring melodies, rich harmonies, and vocal pyrotechnics.

The Thirteen’s Vocal Fellows Program is made possible by a gift from the Andrew Warnock Clarke & Martin ‘Chip’ Sherrill Family Foundation.

Rachmaninoff | Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31

The Thirteen explores the vocal music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, following our “finely tune[d]… expert, highly responsive” (Washington Classical Review) performances of his All Night Vigil in 2023. Written five years before the Vigil, in 1910, the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is a work on a yet grander scale. “Beautiful and grandly mystical… exud[ing] a spiritual force that is deeply moving and restorative” (New York Times), Rachmaninoff’s Liturgy exalts the power, beauty, and emotive range of the human voice. This concerto for choir in a symphonic palette has moved audiences for over 100 years with soaring melodies, rich harmonies, and vocal pyrotechnics.

The Thirteen’s Vocal Fellows Program is made possible by a gift from the Andrew Warnock Clarke & Martin ‘Chip’ Sherrill Family Foundation.

Exuberant trumpet, soaring voices, and radiant orchestral colors—Vivaldi’s Gloria brims with vitality and joy. Alongside Bach’s rarely heard Lutheran Mass in G minor and Heinichen’s sparkling concerto, this program reveals the Baroque at its most inventive and uplifting. 

PROGRAM

Lutheran Mass in G minor, BWV 235
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
28'
    
Concerto in G major, S.214
Johann David Heinichen (1683– 729)
9'30"
        
Gloria in D major, RV 589
Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
30'

Concert Duration:
Approximately 75 minutes plus intermission

MUSICIANS

Kristin Olson, Oboe
Luke Conklin, Oboe
Aisslinn Nosky, Violin
Renée Hemsing, Violin
Francis Liu, Viola
Guy Fishman, Cello
Heather Miller Lardin, Bass
Perry Sutton, Trumpet
Ian Watson, Organ

Arwen Myers, Soprano
MaryRuth Miller, Soprano
Nicholas Garza, Countertenor
Laura Atkinson, Alto
Gene Stenger, Tenor
Haitham Haidar, Tenor
Edmund Milly, Bass
Andrew Padgett, Bass

The Polyphonists join forces with Berkeley’s Cantata Collective for the first time in a one-on-a-part program of Bach’s cantatas.

Christum wir sollen loben schon, BWV 121
Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150
Wo gehest du hin? BWV 166

Amy Broadbent, soprano
Sylvia Leith, alto
Matthew Hill, tenor
Edmund Milly, bass

Edmund makes his National Philharmonic solo debut

Baltimore Choral Arts Society

Anthony Blake Clark, conductor

Sarah Hayashi, soprano

Lucia Bradford, mezzo-soprano

Brian Giebler, tenor

Edmund Milly, bass-baritone

Edmund makes his National Philharmonic solo debut

Baltimore Choral Arts Society

Anthony Blake Clark, conductor

Sarah Hayashi, soprano

Lucia Bradford, mezzo-soprano

Brian Giebler, tenor

Edmund Milly, bass-baritone