Upcoming Events
MUSIC OF REMEMBRANCE
REQUIEMS (Howells, Pizzetti)
St. James Cathedral Cantorei
October 16, 2026
St. James Cathedral | Seattle, WA
SPEM IN ALIUM
Byrd Ensemble
October 24-25, 2026
St. Mary's Cathedral | Portland, OR
Holy Rosary | Seattle, WA
Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, and John Taverner shaped the sound of English sacred music during one of history's most turbulent periods of religious change. This collection of motets moves between grief and hope: Byrd's Tristitia et anxietas gives voice to sorrow, his Miserere nostri pleads for mercy, Taverner's Gaude plurimum answers with joy, and Arvo Pärt's Da pacem Domine asks for peace.
That weight resolves in Tallis's Spem in alium — forty voices in eight choirs, surrounding the listener from every side. Its text is the program's title made sound: Spem in alium nunquam habui praeter in te — "I have never put my hope in any other but in thee."
Thomas TALLIS: Loquebantur variis linguis
John TAVERNER: Mater Christi sanctissima
William BYRD: Tristitia et anxietas
John TAVERNER: Gaude plurimum
William BYRD: Magnificat
Thomas TALLIS: Absterge Domine
Arvo PÄRT: Da pacem Domine
Thomas TALLIS: Miserere nostri
Thomas TALLIS: Spem in alium
THESE STONES REMAIN
The Tudor Choir
November 13-14, 2026
Holy Rosary | Seattle, WA
St. Mary's Cathedral | Portland, OR
TAVERNER: Dum transisset Sabbatum
BYRD: Haec dies a6
PARSONS: Ave Maria
TALLIS: O nata lux
TALLIS: O ye tender babes of England
FAYRFAX: Magnificat "Regale ex progenie"
SHEPPARD: Libera nos, salva nos I & II
WHITE: Lamentations a5
TYE: In pace in idipsum
TAVERNER & TYE: O splendor gloriae
BEETHOVEN AND PAPA HAYDN
SILENT NIGHT
Byrd Ensemble
November 28-29, 2026
Holy Rosary | Seattle, WA
Town Hall | Seattle, WA
The program pairs traditional carols with modern settings of the same source: Praetorius's Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming alongside Sandström's Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, two settings of the same rose hymn centuries apart. Holst's In the Bleak Midwinter is followed by Gjeilo's arrangement of the same carol. Silent Night arrives first in its original German as Stille Nacht, then again in world-premiere arrangements by Kerensa Briggs and Ēriks Ešenvalds. Whitacre's Lux Aurumque and Pärt's Nunc Dimittis provide a moment of stillness.
The largest work on the program is Rutter's Dancing Day, for treble voices and harp — a 25-minute cycle weaving together eight traditional carols, including Coventry Carol, Personent Hodie, and Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day, into a single continuous arc.
arr. Michael PRAETORIUS: Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming
arr. Jan SANDSTRÖM: Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
Eric WHITACRE: Lux Aurumque
Arvo PÄRT: Nunc Dimittis
Franz Xaver GRUBER: Stille Nacht
arr. Kerensa BRIGGS: Silent Night
Herbert HOWELLS: A Spotless Rose
arr. David WILLCOCKS: Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day
John RUTTER: What Sweeter Music
Gustav HOLST: In the Bleak Midwinter
arr. Ola GJEILO: In the Bleak Midwinter
John RUTTER: Dancing Day
arr. Ēriks EŠENVALDS: Silent Night
MESSIAH
Music at Epiphany
December 4-5, 2026
Epiphany Parish | Seattle, WA
Epiphany's annual presentation of Handel's Messiah, performed on period instruments at A=415 and featuring the Epiphany Choir.
READINGS AND CAROLS
Seattle Girls Choir &
Byrd Ensemble
December 5, 2026
First Baptist Church | Seattle, WA
SGC's annual collaboration with Byrd Ensemble.
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CHRISTMAS WITH EVERGREEN
Evergreen Ensemble
December 11-13, 2026
Holy Rosary | Seattle, WA
Trinity Lutheran | Lynnwood, WA
2027
EL ÚLTIMO SUEÑO DE FRIDA Y DIEGO
EL ÚLTIMO SUEÑO DE FRIDA Y DIEGO (Frank)
Seattle Opera
January 16-30, 2027
McCaw Hall | Seattle, WA
El último sueño de Frida y Diego (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego) begins during the annual festival El Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead), when the dead can cross over and visit the living. As Mexican muralist Diego Rivera reaches the end of his life, he longs to see his beloved Frida Kahlo again. Although wary of life and its pain, Frida is drawn back to the world of the living by her love for Diego and the desire to paint again.
This new opera premiered in San Diego in 2022 to rave reviews—"a veritable carnival of sound" meets "a feast for the eyes" (OperaWire). El último sueño de Frida y Diego bursts to life on stage with a fantastical set by Jorge Ballina, music by Latin Grammy Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gabriela Lena Frank, and a libretto by Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz, creating a production reminiscent of Frida's and Diego's art itself.
LAKMÉ IN CONCERT
LAKMÉ (Delibes)
Seattle Opera
March 5-7, 2027
McCaw Hall | Seattle, WA
Lakmé is Delibes' romantic fantasy of star-crossed lovers, accompanied by lilting, beautiful melodies and emotional arias. This concert presentation features romantic soaring orchestrations, including the famous "Flower Duet" and "Bell Song."
This rarely-performed opera is demanding—and dazzling—for a soprano. Aigul Khismatullina is hailed as "a marvel of precision and high polish" (The Arts Desk) whose "singing deservedly brings the house down" (The Independent). Featuring 57 members of the Seattle Symphony and 50 Seattle Opera Choristers, this celebrated score is the perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in the sheer musical ecstasy of Lakmé.
ST. MATTHEW PASSION
Seattle Bach Festival &
Evergreen Ensemble
March 19-21, 2027
| Tacoma, WA
| Seattle, WA
| Lynnwood, WA
Bach’s St. Matthew Passion unfolds as gripping musical theater, moving between urgent storytelling, intimate reflection, and the tremendous power of two choirs and two orchestras. The work draws listeners into the drama through vivid choruses, expressive arias, and moments of profound stillness, revealing both the scale of the Passion story and the deeply personal emotions within it. Join the Seattle Bach Festival for an unforgettable encounter with a masterpiece of extraordinary beauty, complexity, and humanity.
WHEN DAVID HEARD
Byrd Ensemble
April 10-11, 2027
Trinity Parish | Seattle, WA
Holy Rosary | Seattle, WA
The title comes from David's lament for his son Absalom, a verse composers have set for centuries after the death of a child or prince. That grief sits at the heart of this program, framed by music of devotion on either side. The program opens with The Divine: Górecki's Totus Tuus, written for Pope John Paul II's 1987 visit to Poland, alongside Pärt's The Woman with the Alabaster Box and I Am the True Vine, two examples of Pärt's quintessential tintinnabuli style. Górecki's Amen closes the set.
Shock & Solace turns toward grief and its aftermath. MacMillan's A Child's Prayer, written in memory of the children killed at Dunblane in 1996, sets a prayer the composer remembered from his own childhood. At its center, two settings of the same text 400 years apart: Weelkes's When David Heard, composed in the English tradition of mourning a fallen prince, and Eric Whitacre's — written for a friend whose teenage son had just died, and the composer's most personal work. Vaughan Williams's Rest, a setting of Christina Rossetti, closes the program.
The Divine
Henryk GÓRECKI: Totus Tuus
Arvo PÄRT: The Woman with the Alabaster Box
Arvo PÄRT: I Am the True Vine
Henryk GÓRECKI: Amen
Shock & Solace
Paweł ŁUKASZEWSKI: Ave Maria
James MACMILLAN: A Child’s Prayer
Thomas WEELKES: When David Heard
Eric WHITACRE: When David Heard
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Rest
HANDEL'S MESSIAH
MESSIAH (Handel)
St. James Cathedral Cantorei
April 16, 2027
St. James Cathedral | Seattle, WA
MASS FOR THE ENDANGERED
MASS FOR THE ENDANGERED (Snider)
Evergreen Ensemble
April 25-26, 2026
Trinity Lutheran | Lynnwood, WA
Holy Rosary | Seattle, WA
LA BOHÈME
LA BOHÈME (Puccini)
Seattle Opera
May 8-23, 2027
McCaw Hall | Seattle, WA
Young artists in Paris fall in love and fall ill, but never fall in line. Living exclusively for art and love can take a toll on a person, however, and sometimes the price of living the Bohemian life is higher than just owed rent. This timeless tale of idealistic youth and heartbreaking loss has captured hearts for more than a hundred years, and Puccini's iconic score makes it easy to fall in love alongside Mimì and Rodolfo.
This new-to-Seattle production transports audiences to 1920s Paris. Directed by our own General and Artistic Director James Robinson, La bohème features the "crystalline voice" (Houston Press) of soprano Mané Galoyan and 2025 Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year Sylvia D'Eramo as Mimì.
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SONGS OF FAREWELL
SONGS OF FAREWELL (Parry)
Emerald Ensemble
May 14, 2027
Trinity Parish | Seattle, WA
E.W. Naylor - Vox dicentis: Clama
Rebecca Clarke - Philomela
Walton - A Litany
Stanford - Magnificat in B-flat, op.164
Parry - Songs of Farewell
IRELAND & ENGLAND PILGRIMAGE
Epiphany Choirs
July 21 - August 2, 2027
St. Patrick's Cathedral | Dublin, Ireland
Canterbury Cathedral | Canterbury, England
The choirs of Epiphany Parish Seattle embark on a journey across Ireland and England, serving as choir-in-residence at St. Patrick's and Canterbury Cathedrals.