Musica Sacra - Professional Choral Music at its Finest

Music Director Kent Tritle

Kent Tritle is one of America’s leading choral conductors.  Called “the brightest star in New York’s choral music world” by The New York Times, he is founder and Music Director of Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, the acclaimed concert series at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City; Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York and of Musica Sacra; Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music; and a member of the graduate faculty of The Juilliard School.  An acclaimed organ virtuoso, he is the organist of the New York Philharmonic and the American Symphony Orchestra.  And he is the host of “The Choral Mix with Kent Tritle,” a radio show on WQXR, New York’s classical station.

Highlights of Kent Tritle’s 2010-2011 season include performances of Handel’s Jephtha (St. Ignatius Loyola) and Israel in Egypt (Musica Sacra), and Mendelssohn’s Elijah (Oratorio Society of New York); premieres of works by Viktor Kalabis and Juraj Filas (St. Ignatius Loyola); performance and recording of new works by Daniel Brewbaker, Christopher Theofanidis, and Behzad Ranjbaran, among others (Musica Sacra), performances of such choral gems as Strauss’s Deutsche Motette and Beethoven’s Christ on the Mount of Olives (St. Ignatius Loyola); Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem with the forces of the Manhattan School of Music; and the annual performances of Handel’s Messiah with Musica Sacra and the Oratorio Society of New York.

Kent Tritle’s 2009-2010 season included performances of Mozart’s Requiem (St. Ignatius Loyola and Manhattan School of Music), Mendelssohn’s Paulus (Oratorio Society of New York), and Handel’s Messiah (Musica Sacra and Oratorio Society), and the U.S. premieres of John Tavener’s Requiem and Valentin Silvestrov’s Diptychon (St. Ignatius Loyola) He led  master classes in oratorio performance for the Metropolitan Opera Guild and at the 2010 Classical Singer convention, and was the featured soloist with the New York Philharmonic in performances of Saint-Saëns’ “Organ” Symphony led by Sir Andrew Davis.

In more than 150 concerts presented by the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series in the past 21 seasons, Kent Tritle has conducted the Choir and Orchestra of St. Ignatius Loyola in a broad repertoire of sacred works, from Renaissance masses and oratorio masterworks to premieres by notable living composers.  As Director of Music Ministries at St. Ignatius Loyola, Mr. Tritle oversees a program that annually produces more than 400 services with music. Since his appointment there in 1989, he has led the church’s professional choir to critical acclaim and developed the 50-voice volunteer Parish Community Choir.

Kent Tritle in 2010-2011 season marks his sixth season as Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York, New York City’s acclaimed 200 voice volunteer chorus. In addition to leading the Society’s annual Messiah performances at Carnegie Hall, he has conducted repertoire such as Paul Moravec’s Songs of Love and War, and the Fauré Requiem. In 2008, the Oratorio Society joined the Juilliard Orchestra in a performance of Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3, “Kaddish,” conducted by Alan Gilbert, part of the Bernstein: The Best of all Possible Worlds festival sponsored by the New York Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall.

Kent Tritle marks his fourth season in 2010-2011 as Music Director of Musica Sacra, the longest continuously performing professional chorus in New York City.  Recent concerts by New York’s premier professional chorus performing sacred music in concert halls have included Mozart’s Mass in C Minor at Carnegie Hall, Bach cantatas at Alice Tully Hall, a program of works by Arvo Pärt and Morton Feldman for a WNYC New Sounds Live concert; Bach’s Mass in B Minor and St. John Passion, and the annual performances of Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall.

As part of his work as Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music, Kent Tritle recently led student forces in performances of Mozart’s Requiem and Schubert’s Mass in G.  Kent Tritle is also renowned as a master clinician giving workshops on conducting and repertoire. In July 2008 he was a featured conductor at the Berkshire Choral Festival, where he led a performance of Handel’s Solomon performed by a chorus of 215 voices, and he returns to the festival in the summer of 2011to conduct a select choir in Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610.

“The Choral Mix with Kent Tritle,” which launched in December 2010, is an hour-long program on Classical 105.9 WQXR and www.wqxr.org devoted to the vibrant genre of choral music and the breadth of activity in the choral community.  Airing on Sundays at 7:00 AM, with an encore broadcast at 11:00 PM, each program explores a different aspect of the choral scene in New York and beyond through a lively mix of exclusive live concert and commercial recordings, providing a significant locus for choral music and its community.

From 1996 to 2004, Mr. Tritle was Music Director of the Emmy-nominated Dessoff Choirs, winners of the ASCAP/Chorus America award for adventurous programming of contemporary music. Under his direction the Dessoff Choirs performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Czech Philharmonic, as well as a nationally telecast Live from Lincoln Center concert of Mozart’s Requiem.

Mr. Tritle has prepared choruses for conductors Philippe Entremont, Christoph von Dohnányi, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Robert Spano, Gerard Schwarz, Vladimir Spivakov, Nicholas McGegan, Leon Botstein, and Dennis Russell Davies. Among the soloists with whom he has collaborated are singers Renée Fleming, Jessye Norman, Hei-Kyung Hong, Marilyn Horne, Susanne Mentzer, Susan Graham, and Sherrill Milnes; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; pianist André Previn; and actor Tony Randall.

As an organist, Mr. Tritle has appeared often as a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As an organ recitalist he performs regularly in Europe and across the United States; recital venues have included the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Zurich Tonhalle, the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris, Dresden’s Hofkirche, King’s College at Cambridge, and Westminster Abbey.  With the Philharmonic he has recorded Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Britten’s War Requiem and Henze’s Symphony No. 9, all conducted by Kurt Masur, as well as the Grammy-nominated Sweeney Todd conducted by Andrew Litton. He is featured on the DVD The Organistas and Creating the Stradivarius of Organs.

At the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, Kent Tritle was artistic consultant on the design and installation of the four-manual, 68-stop mechanical action organ, which was dedicated in 1993. This instrument again drew national attention in July 2007 in a program of organ concertos for the American Guild of Organists conducted by Mr. Tritle, with corresponding critical success.

Kent Tritle has made more than a dozen recordings on the Telarc, AMDG, Epiphany, Gothic, VAI and MSR Classics labels. His most recent CDs with the Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola, Ginastera’s The Lamentations of Jeremiah and Schnittke’s Concerto for Choir; and Wondrous Love, music from 1,000 years of sacred repertoire, have been praised by Gramophone, the American Record Guide, and The Choral Journal.

Mr. Tritle holds graduate and undergraduate degrees from The Juilliard School in organ performance and choral conducting and has been on the Juilliard faculty since 1996, currently directing a graduate practicum on oratorio in collaboration with the school’s Vocal Arts Department, and teaching choral conducting. He has been featured on ABC World News Tonight, National Public Radio, and Minnesota Public Radio, as well as in The New York Times.

For more information, sound clips, and updated concert information, visit www.kenttritle.com.