Music
Concert Series
This year marks the 10th anniversary season of our concert series at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. We invite you to come and allow the power of sacred music to transport and transform you.
In addition to our seasonal Advent and Lent concerts, this year’s fall and winter concerts have been conceived as a complementary pair of seamless, genre-bending musical experiences. Taking the worldly trinity of nature, humanity and spirituality as inspiration, these programs blend more traditional choral music with the songs and sounds of jazz, musical theater, folk and pop to create a musical tapestry—reflective, in some small way, of the diversity of creation itself.
We hope these concerts will nourish your spiritual life in the coming year.
Ryan Jackson
William S. Perper Director of Music & Fine Arts Ministries
Choral Concerts
In the Beginning: Songs of Creation
The Fifth Avenue Chamber Choir, directed by Ryan Jackson, with Patrick Kreeger, organ and piano
Friday, Oct. 21, 2022 • 7 pm, Kirkland Chapel
Our fall concert offers music celebrating the beauty of the natural world and the beloved stories of its origin. Featuring In the Beginning, Aaron Copland’s vibrant a cappella showpiece, this immersive program transcends genre and era as it reflects the diversity and abundance of our earthly home. The concert also lends musical expression to the themes of the Fall Sermon Series, Holy Ground.
TICKETS
Reserved Seating
General Admission
Carols by Candlelight: The Advent Concert
The Fifth Avenue Chamber Choir, directed by Ryan Jackson, with Patrick Kreeger, organ and piano, and Jeanne Lehman, reader
Friday, Dec. 2 and Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022 • 7 pm, Kirkland Chapel
Step away from the bustle of Christmas preparations for an hour of choral music and congregational carols in the candlelit beauty of Kirkland Chapel. Broadway star Jeanne Lehman reads seasonal poetry as the Chamber Choir performs a selection of familiar music and new treasures that illuminate the wonder and majesty of Jesus’ birth.
TICKETS
Friday Reserved Seating
Friday General Admission
Saturday Reserved Seating
Saturday General Admission
To the Hands: Songs of Compassion
The Fifth Avenue Chamber Choir and Instrumentalists, directed by Ryan Jackson, with Patrick Kreeger, organ and piano
Friday, Feb. 10, 2023 • Kirkland Chapel
“God’s dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion.” —Desmond Tutu
The winter concert features a powerful, genre-defying selection of music that sings of the blessings and challenges of human connection in the modern world. At the heart of this program is To the Hands, a stirring, modern-day masterpiece for choir and strings by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw.
TICKETS
Reserved Seating
General Admission
Duruflé Requiem
The Fifth Avenue Chamber Choir and Orchestra, directed by Ryan Jackson, with Patrick Kreeger, organ
Friday, March 31 and Saturday, April 1, 2023 • Kirkland Chapel
A work of tremendous beauty and spiritual depth, Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem is a pinnacle of 20th-century choral music. An orchestra joins the Fifth Avenue Choir for the Lent concert, which also features From Darkness to Light, a striking cantata by the celebrated Canadian composer Ruth Watson Henderson.
TICKETS
Our Venue
With its warm, intimate ambience and fine acoustics, the beautiful, Gothic-style Kirkland Chapel is an ideal venue for music and the arts, weddings and other events. Designed by the renowned architect James Gamble Rogers and built in 1925, the Chapel is named for the Rev. Dr. Bryant M. Kirkland, senior pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church from 1962 to 1987. Learn more about the Chapel here.