2022-2023 Season
DISCOVER THE WONDER AND BEAUTY OF MUSIC IN THE 2022-23 CONCERT SEASON PRESENTED JOINTLY BY THE CATHEDRAL CHORAL SOCIETY AND WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL.
Tickets are on sale now for in-person concerts and pay-what-you-wish streaming opportunities.
In-person tickets start at $20 for all concerts. Call the Cathedral box office to take advantage of this offer!
Cathedral Choral Society | Steven Fox, Music Director Washington National Cathedral | Canon Michael McCarthy, Music Director
The Cathedral’s majestic and graceful spaces offer a dramatic backdrop unlike any other in the nation’s capital to absorb cutting-edge performances. From the candlelight of 16th-century England to the technicolor of 21st-century America, there’s something for everyone in this joint release of an exciting season of musical splendor.
Highlights of the season include collaborations with the Atlanta Ballet and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, heart-warming Christmas favorites, musical settings of words by Edgar Allan Poe and Barack Obama, and dramatic experiences of secret worship. Revel in the majesty of the Great Organ for recitals on civic holidays. Find your seat – and your heart – in the glory of Cathedral music.
2022-2023 CONCERT SEASON
ROMEO & JULIET
Berlioz & Shakespeare
Saturday, October 22, 2022 | 4:00 pm
The fiery passion and stunning tenderness of the Romeo & Juliet story come to life in one of Hector Berlioz’s most original works. Atlanta Ballet joins CCS for a dramatic rendering of the choral symphony, with new choreography by Claudia Schreier.
Please note that this concert takes place on a Saturday, and that seating in the north and south transepts and balconies for this concert will have partially or fully obstructed views of the dancers. However, video monitors will be stationed in each section for viewers.
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.
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.
TO THE WILD SKY
Rachmaninoff, Tennyson & 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 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, one of America’s greatest orchestras, joins Cathedral Choral Society at Washington National Cathedral for this stunning marriage of music and words.
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.
OUR WORK UNFINISHED
A Black Composers Retrospective
Sunday, May 14, 2023 | 4:00 pm
The Cathedral Choral Society and Heritage Signature Chorale join forces to present Our Work Unfinished: A Black Composers Retrospective. With a full orchestra and Maestro Stanley J. Thurston on the podium, the chorus will offer an exploration of music that reflects the African American experience. The program features Adolphus Hailstork’s Done Made My Vow, an unparalleled, exquisitely moving work that chronicles the Civil Rights journey from Harriet Tubman through Barack Obama.
ORGAN CONCERTS
Revel in the awe-inspiring repertoire of organ music performed during the nation’s civic holidays. For concert dates and times, click here.
Cathedral Day Organ Recital, featuring Thomas Sheehan
Thanksgiving Organ Recital, featuring Alcee Chriss
Christmas Day Organ Recital, featuring Thomas Sheehan
President’s Day Organ Recital, featuring Christa Rakich
Easter Sunday Organ Recital, featuring Thomas Sheehan
Memorial Day Organ Recital, featuring Carson Cooman
Independence Day Concert, featuring Thomas Sheehan and Washington Symphonic Brass
Attending multiple concerts this season? Learn more about our subscriptions here.
Streaming information for individual concerts will be released at a later date.
