St. Gertrude Church is proud to announce our inaugural Sacred Music Series, which will bring together world-class artists from across the United States to present the Roman Catholic Church’s treasury of music from the last millennium in concerts, musical meditations, and liturgies.
The purpose of this series is threefold: to aid the spiritual lives of all who experience this music, to introduce and educate listeners to the most innovative programming of sacred music in the region, and to invite the Greater Cincinnati community to see what St. Gertrude Church and our music program have to offer.
Whether this is your first visit to St. Gertrude or you’ve been a parishioner your whole life, you are always welcome here. We look forward to sharing this wonderful music with you and invite you to join us!
All events will take place at St. Gertrude Church.
The purpose of this series is threefold: to aid the spiritual lives of all who experience this music, to introduce and educate listeners to the most innovative programming of sacred music in the region, and to invite the Greater Cincinnati community to see what St. Gertrude Church and our music program have to offer.
Whether this is your first visit to St. Gertrude or you’ve been a parishioner your whole life, you are always welcome here. We look forward to sharing this wonderful music with you and invite you to join us!
All events will take place at St. Gertrude Church.
Sacred Music Series Events
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Mozart Requiem
Friday, September 6, 2024 | 7 p.m. To open the Series, the Capella, St. Gertrude Church’s professional choir, presents Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s haunting Requiem with orchestra. This performance will be the American premiere of Heinrich Ludwig von Spengel’s 1852 orchestration for string sextet and chamber organ, which was composed for more intimate churches and became one of the most often-performed versions of the Requiem in the nineteenth century. General admission tickets are $20, student tickets are $5 (with valid ID), and children under 12 years old are free. Maximum cost per family is $50. |
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The Path of the Mystic
Saturday, October 5, 2024 | 7 p.m. In 1911, the eminent English theologian Evelyn Underhill published her definitive treatise on the Church’s mystics, distinguishing eight steps common to these extraordinary saints on their paths to holiness. The Capella presents a meditation reflecting on this journey toward divine mysticism, with transcendent works by St. Hildegard, James MacMillan, Marcel Dupré, W.H. Harris, and more. Featuring Mary Lou Williams’s masterpiece St. Martin de Porres. Freewill offering. |
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All Saints Vigil
Thursday, October 31, 2024 | 7 p.m. Based on a tradition begun at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., St. Gertrude Church presents a candlelight vigil celebrating the lives of saints. This year, the vigil will highlight holy men and women from the Americas. The service includes readings from saints’ writings, sung meditations by the Capella, and favorite hymns for All Saints, concluding with sung Compline (monastic Night Prayer) and a procession of relics. Freewill offering. |
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Advent Lessons and Carols
Sunday, December 8, 2024 | 3 p.m. In celebration of the Advent season, the St. Gertrude Church Capella, Novitiate Choir, Schola Cantorum, and Parish Choir present a contemplative service of readings that trace salvation history until the birth of Christ, interspersed with powerful musical meditations from the Church’s treasury of sacred music for Advent. Freewill offering. |
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Handel's Messiah
Tuesday, December 24, 2024 | 11:30 p.m. As the annual choral prelude to the Christmas Midnight Mass, the St. Gertrude Parish Choir presents excerpts from the Advent-Christmas portion of Handel’s beloved oratorio The Messiah, culminating in the famous Hallelujah Chorus. Free admission. |
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The Sacred in the Profane
Saturday, January 25, 2025 | 7 p.m. Soprano Cynthia Holman and organist Christopher Holman present a concert of arias and art songs that are highly distinctive in nature: each piece was composed with a sacred text but originally written for the opera and the concert hall. Highlights include Verdi’s transcendent Ave Maria from the opera Othello, luscious arias from Debussy’s cantata The Prodigal Son, Samuel Barber’s A Nun Takes the Veil, Morfydd Owen’s To Our Lady of Sorrows, and more. Freewill offering. |
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Rosary Meditation with Zachary Carrettin
Saturday, February 22, 2025 | 7 p.m. St. Gertrude Church welcomes Zachary Carrettin, one of the world’s most distinguished baroque violinists, to present a musical meditation on the glorious mysteries of the rosary with organist Christopher Holman. The duo will present dazzling Italian masterpieces of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by Ursuline Sister Isabella Leonarda, Dario Castello, Marco Uccellini, and more. Each piece will serve as a guided reflection on the glorious mysteries. Freewill offering. |
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Choral Tenebrae
Wednesday, April 16, 2025 | 8 p.m. On Wednesday of Holy Week, St. Gertrude Church presents Tenebrae, the Service of Shadows. This powerful meditation on the Passion is conducted in near darkness. The Capella and Novitiate Choir will chant the great sorrowful psalms and lamentations from Scripture and motets that reflect upon the Passion, culminating in Gregorio Allegri’s legendary setting of Psalm 51, Miserere mei, sung by three choirs spaced throughout the church. Freewill offering. |
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Organ Vespers with Christopher Holman
Saturday, May 3, 2025 | 8 p.m. When Johann Sebastian Bach was 20 years old, he journeyed to northern Germany to learn from the great master organists of Hamburg and Lübeck, whose improvisations and compositions inspired some of his greatest works. This organ concert, presented by Christopher Holman, is a historical reconstruction of the kind of vespers that the young Bach would have heard during his sojourn north. The concert will include works by Bach’s (likely) teachers Dieterich Buxtehude and Georg Böhm, plus Heinrich Scheidemann, Franz Tunder, and Samuel Scheidt. Plainchant will be sung in alternation with the organ. Freewill offering. |
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