Concerts at Washington National Cathedral
2022-2023 Season

BERLIOZ & SHAKESPEARE 

Saturday, October 22, 2022 | 4:00 pm  

The fiery passion and stunning tenderness of the Romeo & Juliet story come to life in Hector Berlioz’s most original work. The Atlanta Ballet joins CCS for a dramatic rendering of the choral symphony, with new choreography by Claudia Schreier.  

HANDEL’S MESSIAH

Friday, December 2, 2022 | 7:00 pm 
Saturday, December 3, 2022 | 12:00 pm & 4:00 pm
Sunday, December 4, 2022 | 4:00 pm  

Join Washington National Cathedral for Handel’s Messiah and experience this Christmas classic in a space as Handel would have intended. The Cathedral’s soaring architecture and Gothic splendor offers a venue unlike any other in Washington to experience this work. 

JOY OF CHRISTMAS 

Saturday, December 10, 2022 | 2:00 pm & 6:00 pm 
Sunday, December 11, 2022 | 4:00 pm  

Trumpets, drums, and voices herald the coming of the Christmas season. As the cold of winter sets in, music of the holidays past and present will warm your spirit. CCS’s annual Joy of Christmas is a Washington tradition that all should experience. 

SECRET BYRD

Sunday, March 5, 2023 | 4:00 pm  

Experience William Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices as it was meant to be performed: by secret worshippers in threat of religious persecution. In hushed tones behind recusant chapel doors, Bill Barclay and Cathedra collaborate for the first time to create a theatrical seance by candlelight—one replete with the intimacy of faith. A fierce knocking—and, with it, the threat of capture—interrupts the evening, yet soon gives way to a Communion that celebrates life and the power of music.  

RACHMANINOFF & POE

Sunday, March 19, 2023 | 4:00 pm  

“Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky.” Poetry and music together paint vivid landscapes, evoking unearthly vignettes from the minds of Edgar Allan Poe and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The world-class Baltimore Symphony Orchestra joins CCS at Washington National Cathedral for this stunning marriage of music and words, conducted by Steven Fox. 

IN PARADISUM: DURUFLÉ’S REQUIEM AND POULENC’S MOTETS

Sunday, April 2, 2023 | 4:00 pm  

Join us as we journey toward Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection alongside two of Paris’s greatest twentieth-century composers. Immerse yourself in the passion and inspiration of Francis Poulenc’s penitential motets and the orchestral technicolor of his Tenebrae responsories; revel in Maurice Duruflé’s explorations of Gregorian chant; and culminate in the latter’s famous, breathtaking Requiem.   

MONTEVERDI’S VESPERS

Sunday, April 30, 2023 | 4:00 pm  

Bridging the Renaissance and the Baroque is Monteverdi’s rarely performed 1610 Vespro della Beata Vergine. Join us for a masterpiece at once intimate and grand, prayerful and dramatic, exalted and resplendent—the dramatic unfolding of its dizzying array of textures and sonorities offers an evening not to be missed.   

HAILSTORK & OBAMA 

Sunday, May 14, 2023 | 4:00 pm  

American composer Adolphus Hailstork is a national treasure and one of the most important composers working today. In Done Made My Vow he calls upon words from Barack Obama’s early speeches to share his perspective as an African American with his students. Stanley J. Thurston leads the combined forces of the Cathedral Choral Society and the Heritage Signature Chorale in this and other works by African American composers.