The heart of TENET Vocal Artists 10th anniversary season comprises two choral masterpieces and highlights the ensemble’s collaborative spirit that brings the virtuoso singers together with time-honored instrumental colleagues. On Wednesday and Thursday, December 19 and 20, 2018, TENET Vocal Artists perform George Frideric Handel’s Messiah for the first time alongside the Sebastians. In the new year, the group’s Green Mountain Project – also celebrating 10 years – mounts a mini-festival from January 3 – 6, 2019, that features their signature work, Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, and performances by Blue Heron and Dark Horse Consort.

TENET Vocal Artists’ Artistic Director Jolle Greenleaf comments, “Celebrating a milestone anniversary is always an exciting endeavor, and that is especially true for TENET Vocal Artists. Looking back over all that we have accomplished is both gratifying and humbling. We have grown in many ways over the past 10 years, and this year is a true celebration of that growth. I am particularly excited to share our intimate and un-conducted version of Handel’s Messiah this December as it is TENET Vocal Artists first performance of the work. I am also thrilled to share our Green Mountain Project mini-festival as it highlights the tremendous work by artist ensembles within the Green Mountain Project’s forces. We have also come to associate the New Year with Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, a work which has shaped the life of our organization for a decade.”

TENET Vocal Artists has cultivated a captivating performing style with their intimate, conductorless collaborations with the Sebastians – The New York Times singled out their April 2017 performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion as “riveting … compelling … stellar.” The ensembles re-unite for TENET’s first-ever performance of Messiah, led from the chamber organ by the Sebastians’ music director Jeffrey Grossman. The streamlined vocal forces – just 12 singers – emphasize clarity and enhance the connection between the individual performers and audience members. TENET Vocal Artists and the Sebastians will come together again in the spring of 2019 for a Lenten-time performance of J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.

TENET Vocal Artists’ Green Mountain Project, “a treasured staple in New York” (The New York Times), also celebrates its 10th performance with a mini-festival that honors some of the Green Mountain Project’s regular collaborators – TENET Vocal Artists’ celebrated singers, wind ensemble Dark Horse Consort, and members of Boston-based Blue Heron. The bookends of the GMP mini-festival, on Thursday and Sunday, January 3 and 6, 2019, are performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, the work with which TENET first made its indelible mark in the work’s 400th anniversary year and has performed every season since. On Friday, January 4, 2019, four of TENET Vocal Artists’ female singers, supported by instrumentalists and chant schola of the Green Mountain Project, present Behind Convent Walls, an exposition of rarely heard and surprisingly virtuosic music composed and taught by women in nunneries of the Italian baroque era. Blue Heron and Dark Horse Consort join forces on Saturday, January 5, 2019, for Cantores y ministriles: Spanish Music in the Golden Age, a program exploring sacred polyphony, secular songs and invigorating dances from 16th-century Spain.

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For further information, image or interview requests please contact Melanne Mueller, MusicCo International, 917 907 2785, melanne@musiccointernational.com

For further information about TENET, please visit http://www.tenet.nyc

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
Wednesday, December 19, 2018 – 7:30 pm 
Thursday, December 20, 2018 – 7:30 pm
George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759) Messiah

TENET Vocal Artists
Jolle Greenleaf, Molly Quinn, Margot Rood sopranos
Doug Dodson, Helen Karloski, Elisa Sutherland altos
Stephen Sands, Aaron Sheehan, Gene Stenger tenors
Mischa Bouvier, Sumner Thompson, Charles Wesley Evans basses

In collaboration with the Sebastians, Jeffrey Grossman director

Church of St. Vincent Ferrer
869 Lexington Avenue (at East 65th Street)
New York, NY 10065 

GREEN MOUNTAIN PROJECT MINI-FESTIVAL
JANURAY 3 – 6, 2019

Thursday, January 3, 2019 – 7:30 pm 
Sunday, January 6, 2019 – 2:00 pm
Claudio Monteverdi (1567 – 1643) Vespers of 1610

TENET Vocal Artists
Jolle Greenleaf, Molly Quinn sopranos
Sara Couden, Virginia Warnken Kelsey altos
Jason McStoots, James Reese, Aaron Sheehan, Sumner Thompson tenors
Mischa Bouvier, Steven Hrycelak, Enrico Lagasca basses

Instrumentalists
Scott Metcalfe, Adriane Post violins
Dongymung Ahn, Daniel Elyar violas
Anne Trout violone
Emily Walhout bass violin
Alexandra Opsahl, Kiri Tollaksen cornetti
Greg Ingles, Mack Ramsey, Erik Schmalz sackbuts
Jeffery Grossman chamber organ
Hank Heijink, Daniel Swenberg theorbos

In collaboration with members of Blue Heron and Dark Horse

Consort Church of St. John Baptiste
173 East 75th Street (between Lexington and Third Avenues)
New York, NY 10021

Friday, January 4, 2019 – 7:00 pm
Behind Convent Walls
Rarely heard and surprisingly dazzling music composed and taught by women in nunneries of the Italian baroque era

TENET Vocal Artists
Jolle Greenleaf, Molly Quinn sopranos
Sara Couden, Virginia Warnken Kelsey altos

Green Mountain Chant Schola

Instrumentalists
Jeffery Grossman chamber organ
Hank Heijink theorbo

Kirkland Chapel at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
7 West 55th Street
New York, NY 10019

Saturday, January 5, 2019 – 7:00 pm
Cantores y ministriles: Spanish Music in the Golden Age
Sacred polyphony, secular songs and rousing dances from 16th-century Spain

Members of Blue Heron
Scott Metcalfe director and harp
Margot Rood soprano
Jason McStoots, Aaron Sheehan tenors
Sumner Thompson bass

Members of Dark Horse Consort
Alexandra Opsahl, Kiri Tollaksen cornetti
Greg Ingles, Mack Ramsey, Erik Schmalz sackbuts

Kirkland Chapel at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
7 West 55th Street
New York, NY 10019