AMERICAN SONGBOOK
Songs by Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Marc Blitzstein, Kurt Weill, and more.

This program is a joyful celebration of the Great American Songbook, bringing together beloved popular songs, jazz standards, and classic theater tunes. From familiar favorites such as I've Got Rhythm and Don’t Fence Me In to lesser-known gems, the program pays tribute to one of America’s most enduring and influential musical legacies.

EMV is thrilled to launch our 2026 Summer Festival with Claudio Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo in a bold and ambitious fully staged production. When Orfeo’s beloved wife Euridice dies suddenly on the night of their wedding, he decides to journey deep into the underworld to bring her back, equipped only with the power of his music.

While some operas were composed and performed before the 1607 premiere of L’Orfeo, Monteverdi was the first to reveal the genre’s true dramatic and musical potential. It remains one of the most powerful and influential works in the operatic canon.

The epic life and ministry of the prophet Elijah is set to some of the most thrilling music ever composed for large chorus and symphony orchestra. World-renowned baritone Tyler Duncan performs the title role, with our Combined Choirs and Orchestra. This is a season finale performance that will be unforgettable.

Experience J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, one of his most joyous and colorful works. Originally composed to capture the magic and wonder of Christmas Day, this performance promises to be full of energy and an unmistakable sense of celebration.

Under the direction of Music Director and Conductor A. Dennis Sparger, The Bach Society Chorus and Orchestra will be joined by soloists Nola Richardson, Kim Leeds, Steven Soph and Tyler Duncan. The concert also features C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat, offering a bold and expressive complement to his father’s masterwork. 

The final concert of our 25/26 season AURUM could not be more golden than a new commissioned work by Sherryl Sewepagaham and A German Requiem by Johannes Brahms. Rather than a traditional prayer for the dead, Brahms’s Requiem is a personal and compassionate reflection on mortality, offering a deeply moving message of consolation and hope for the living.

Founded in the fifteenth century, The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge is undoubtedly one of the world’s best-known choral groups. While the Choir exists primarily to sing the daily services in King’s College Chapel, its worldwide fame and reputation, enhanced by its many recordings, has led to invitations to perform around the globe, and to an extensive international tour schedule. They’ll be travelling 7600 kilometres from Cambridge to Victoria to perform Mozart’s Requiem with our VS musicians.

Bach’s Mass in B minor stands as one of the greatest achievements in Western music: the summation of a life’s work. Written near the end of Bach’s life, it gathers the breadth of his musical genius into a single, breathtaking composition. From the joyful dance of the “Gloria” to the profound cry for peace in the “Agnus Dei,” the Mass is a journey through awe, devotion, and profound expression, uniting soloists, choir, and orchestra in music of timeless and universal power.

Celebrate the Easter season with a powerful performance of Handel’s Messiah, presented by the Zion Mission Choir. This monumental work  invites audiences on a deeply moving journey through mystery, reflection, and renewal — expressing the full range of human emotion from sorrow to radiant hope and triumphant joy. Conducted by Dr. Stephanie Chung, the concert features the Zion Mission Choir alongside the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, and acclaimed soloists for a profound musical experience that will leave you in wonderment.

Now a cherished Washington, DC tradition, our annual performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is as joyous as the ringing-in of the holiday spirit itself, no matter how you celebrate! The Washington Post was inspired to say that this “joyous” telling of the Christmas story shows that the Consort “could go head-to-head with period ensembles anywhere.”

One of the most revered choral works in history, Handel's Messiah takes audiences on a journey of hope and redemption. From the exuberant "Hallelujah" Chorus to moving arias such as "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth," this timeless holiday annual tradition remains a must-see for everyone. 

One of the most revered choral works in history, Handel's Messiah takes audiences on a journey of hope and redemption. From the exuberant "Hallelujah" Chorus to moving arias such as "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth," this timeless holiday annual tradition remains a must-see for everyone. 

One of the most revered choral works in history, Handel's Messiah takes audiences on a journey of hope and redemption. From the exuberant "Hallelujah" Chorus to moving arias such as "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth," this timeless holiday annual tradition remains a must-see for everyone. 

Bach’s cantatas are an endless source of inspiration, comfort and joy. We live in challenging times, and listening to Bach makes everything better. Our program features America’s leading baroque oboist, Debra Nagy, and two renowned Bach singers, Tyler Duncan and Hannah De Priest, supported by the Seattle Bach Festival orchestra. In these cantatas we’ll invite you to sing along in the chorales. Tekla Cunningham and Debra Nagy round out the program with Bach’s beloved concerto for oboe and violin.

Bach’s cantatas are an endless source of inspiration, comfort and joy. We live in challenging times, and listening to Bach makes everything better. Our program features America’s leading baroque oboist, Debra Nagy, and two renowned Bach singers, Tyler Duncan and Hannah De Priest, supported by the Seattle Bach Festival orchestra. In these cantatas we’ll invite you to sing along in the chorales. Tekla Cunningham and Debra Nagy round out the program with Bach’s beloved concerto for oboe and violin.

Celebrating Bard Conservatory’s 20th anniversary and Leon Botstein’s 50th year as Bard College President, the evening features Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with its timeless call for unity, paired with the North American premiere of Tan Dun’s Choral Concerto: Nine, a bold reimagining of Beethoven’s vision through a global lens.

Bard Conservatory of Music marks its twentieth anniversary season with three concerts in October, presented in both Upstate New York and New York City. The first two performances, held at the orchestra’s home in the Fisher Center’s Sosnoff Theater, inaugurate the series with a preview of rare dimension, offering Bard Family and Alumni/ae Weekend audiences an early opportunity to experience this fully formed program in a setting shaped by the Conservatory and Bard’s own community and creative context. The series concludes with a special gala performance concert at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall the following week.

Together, these October programs honor two historic milestones: the founding of the Conservatory in 2005 and Leon Botstein’s fiftieth year as President of Bard College.

Conducted by Leon Botstein and Tan Dun, the program features Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with its enduring call for unity, and Tan Dun’s Choral Concerto: Nine, which receives its North American premiere at Alice Tully Hall. This new work offers a bold reimagining of Beethoven’s vision through a contemporary global lens.

Bard Conservatory of Music marks its twentieth anniversary season with three concerts in October, presented in both Upstate New York and New York City. The first two performances, held at the orchestra’s home in the Fisher Center’s Sosnoff Theater, inaugurate the series with a preview of rare dimension, offering Bard Family and Alumni/ae Weekend audiences an early opportunity to experience this fully formed program in a setting shaped by the Conservatory and Bard’s own community and creative context. The series concludes with a special gala performance concert at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall the following week.

Together, these October programs honor two historic milestones: the founding of the Conservatory in 2005 and Leon Botstein’s fiftieth year as President of Bard College.

Conducted by Leon Botstein and Tan Dun, the program features Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with its enduring call for unity, and Tan Dun’s Choral Concerto: Nine, which receives its North American premiere at Alice Tully Hall. This new work offers a bold reimagining of Beethoven’s vision through a contemporary global lens.

Bach’s cantatas are an endless source of inspiration, comfort and joy. We live in challenging times, and listening to Bach makes everything better. Our program features America’s leading baroque oboist, Debra Nagy, and two renowned Bach singers, Tyler Duncan and Hannah De Priest, supported by the Seattle Bach Festival orchestra. In these cantatas we’ll invite you to sing along in the chorales. Tekla Cunningham and Debra Nagy round out the program with Bach’s beloved concerto for oboe and violin.

The Marriage of Figaro is a witty and fast-paced opera by Mozart that follows the clever servant Figaro as he schemes to outsmart his philandering master, Count Almaviva, on the day of his wedding. Filled with mistaken identities, romantic twists, and sharp social commentary, the opera celebrates love, loyalty, and justice.

Join Us For Ballad Tunes, Jigs, And Reels That Crossed The Atlantic And Traveled Up Through The Cuyahoga Valley To Lake Erie In The Late-Eighteenth And Early-Nineteenth Centuries.

Join Us For Ballad Tunes, Jigs, And Reels That Crossed The Atlantic And Traveled Up Through The Cuyahoga Valley To Lake Erie In The Late-Eighteenth And Early-Nineteenth Centuries.

Join Us For Ballad Tunes, Jigs, And Reels That Crossed The Atlantic And Traveled Up Through The Cuyahoga Valley To Lake Erie In The Late-Eighteenth And Early-Nineteenth Centuries.

The Festival’s second all-Martinů event opens with one of the composer’s greatest choral works. A Czech-language cantata written to honor the Czech volunteers who fought in the French army, Martinů’s Field Mass had him blacklisted by the Nazis. Set to texts by Jiří Mucha, passages from Bohemian folk poetry, and lines from psalms and the liturgy, this powerful anti-war protest anticipates such later works as Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem and Leonard Bernstein’s MASS. Folk poetry is also the basis for Martinů’s Brigand Songs, which use Moravian tales of feudal tyranny to address the Soviet invasion of Hungary. The program concludes with the world premiere of the original French version of Martinů’s one-act opera Mariken de Nimègue (“Mary of Nijmegen”). Based on a medieval Dutch miracle play, and better-known in the later Czech version for which he won the Czechoslovak State Prize for Composition, Martinů’s original is set to French text by Henri Ghéon and features different orchestration as well as extensive original musical material that has never previously been published or performed.

Two of Bach’s most beloved cantatas, BWV 140 “Wachet auf” and 147 “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben”, are paired with Telemann’s exuberant concerto for 3 oboes and 3 violins.

Two of Bach’s most beloved cantatas, BWV 140 “Wachet auf” and 147 “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben”, are paired with Telemann’s exuberant concerto for 3 oboes and 3 violins.