Organist & Choir Director, Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, NYC

{no charge for admission}

David Hurd is widely recognized as one of the foremost church musicians and concert organists in the United States, with a long list of honors and achievements, and immeasurable expertise in organ performance, improvisation, and composition.  For 39 years David Hurd was on the faculty of The General Theological Seminary in New York City, as Director of Chapel Music, Organist, and Professor of Church Music.  He is the composer of dozens of hymns, choral works, settings of the liturgy, and organ works published by a number of major houses. His music appears in hymnals and choir libraries in churches of nearly all religious denominations. In 2010 he became the fifteenth recipient of The American Guild of Organists’ Distinguished Composer award. Dr. Hurd is now Organist/Choirmaster of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in New York City. 

As a concert organist, David Hurd enjoys instant recognition having performed throughout North America and Europe, and featured at conventions of the American Guild of Organists. He was invited to perform at the Internationaal Orgelfestival Haarlem where he was awarded the diploma for improvisation at the Stitchting Internationaal Orgelconcours. 

He studied both at the Preparatory Division of the Juilliard School and at Manhattan's High School of Music and Art. Later he attended Oberlin Conservatory, and went on for further study at the University of North and at the Manhattan School of Music. His organ teachers have included Bronson Ragan, Garth Peacock, Arthur Poister, and Rudolph Kremer.  

David Hurd is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC.

Organist, Abbey of Saint-Maurice in Valais, Switzerland

{no charge for admission}

Born in 1991 in Strasbourg, Thomas Kientz is a French organist and improviser, international concert performer.

Thomas Kientz is a laureate of several international competitions: the Olivier Messiaen competition (Lyon 2019), the 8th organ competition of Saint-Maurice (Switzerland 2015), the "Grand Prix Florentz" of the Académie des Beaux-Arts (Angers 2016), the André Marchal/Gaston Litaize competition (2017), the Schnitger competition of Alkmaar (Netherlands, 2017).

Since then, he has had an international career as a concert artist and organ improviser. He is regularly invited to prestigious festivals in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States where he was artist in residence at the Cathedral of New Orleans (Louisiana).

Thomas Kientz is a professor at the Haute Ecole de Musique (HEMU) in Lausanne/Fribourg and teaches at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels.

He is also titular organist at the Abbey of Saint-Maurice (VS). At the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris,

Thomas Kientz studied with Olivier Latry, Michel Bouvard, Thierry Escaich, Philippe Lefebvre, Yves Henry, Pierre Pincemaille, Laszlo Fassang, Isabelle Duha, Alain Mabit. He holds a Master's degree in organ performance, a Master's degree in improvisation, and Prizes in harmony, counterpoint, 20th-21st century writing and fugue. In addition, he met in Brussels the Belgian composer Benoît Mernier and within the framework of the Higher Institute of Music in Namur (Belgium) obtained a Master's degree specialized in organ interpretation.

On the recording front, Thomas Kientz has made several recordings, including his complete Homilius organ chorales published by Hortus. It has been acclaimed by the critics, obtained 5 diapasons and 5 stars in Classica. "This endearing repertoire finally benefits from its reference version" (X. Bisaro, Diapason, n°667, p 91).

Passionate about creation in all its forms and about timbre, Thomas Kientz is also a composer. His work Dominus Illuminatio mea for grand-organ won the composition competition of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. He also won a 3rd prize in the competition of the Swiss Society of Contemporary Music (ISCM) with his work for choir O Virgo Splendens.

Director of Music, Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia
Artistic Director, Ensemble VIII

{no charge for admission}

Hailed as a “fresh voice on New York’s musical scene” (The New Yorker), Donald Meineke is an organist, conductor, tenor, and the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Ensemble VIII. He maintains an active career as a recitalist, lecturer, conductor, and singer performing with local, national, and international ensembles.

Meineke serves as the Director of Music and organist for the historic Church of the Holy Trinity (Episcopal) on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, known fondly as the birthplace of the Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” composed as a collaboration between the priest and organist in 1868. He has served as Cantor of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City where he led the twice Grammy®-nominated Bach Choir and Players in the internationally renowned Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity series. His Bach Choir’s recording of Samuel Capricornus’ Jubilus Bernhardi, in collaboration with string ensemble ACRONYM, received critical acclaim and was on Colorado Public Radio’s December 2017 “Top 5 Must Have New Recordings” list. His recordings of Capricornus and Bach Vespers have been featured on classical music stations nationally and internationally, including KMFA’s Ancient Voices and WXXI’s With Heart and Voice, and he has appeared as a guest artist on Columbia University-WKCR’s Bachfest. 

He was the Co-Founder and Director of the 2014 Early Music Festival: NYC which featured over thirty concerts by dozens of local and national ensembles to critical acclaim. Meineke served as a choirmaster for Maestro Helmuth Rilling for many years, preparing choirs across Europe and South America for performances of the major choral and orchestral works by Bach, Mozart, and others.

Christmas Lessons from the Scriptures
The Carols of Christmas
The Redeemer Choir
George Dupere, Chief Musician
Michael Phillips, organist
Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24, 2023, at 4:00 and 6:00 pm

{no charge for admission}

The King’s College Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first held on Christmas Eve 1918. It was planned by Eric Milner-White, who at the age of thirty-four had just been appointed Dean of King’s after experience as an army chaplain, which had convinced him that the Church of England needed more imaginative worship. The music was then directed by Arthur Henry Mann, Organist 1876-1929. The choir included sixteen trebles as laid down in King Henry VI’s statutes, but until 1927 the men’s voices were provided partly by Choral Scholars and partly by older Lay Clerks, and not, as now, by fourteen undergraduates.

A revision of the Order of Service was made in 1919, involving rearrangement of the lessons, and from that date the service has always begun with the hymn “Once in Royal David’s City.” In almost every year some carols have been changed and some new ones introduced by successive Organists: Arthur Henry Mann; Boris Ord, 1929-57; Harold Darke (his substitute during the war), 1940-45; Sir David Willcocks, 1957-73; Philip Ledger, 1974-82 and, from 1982, Stephen Cleobury. The backbone of the service, the lessons and the prayers, has remained virtually unchanged.

The original service was, in fact, adapted from an Order drawn up by E.W. Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury, for use in the wooden shed, which then served as his cathedral in Truro, at 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve 1880. A.C. Benson recalled: “My father arranged from ancient sources a little service for Christmas Eve—nine carols and nine tiny lessons, which were read by various officers of the Church, beginning with a chorister, and ending, through the different grades, with the Bishop.” The suggestion had come from G.H.S. Walpole, later Bishop of Edinburgh.

Almost immediately other churches adapted the service for their own use. A wider frame began to grow when the service was first broadcast in 1928 and, with the exception of 1930, it has been broadcast annually, even during the Second World War, when the ancient glass (and also all heat) had been removed from the Chapel and the name of King’s could not be broadcast for security reasons. Sometime in the early 1930s the BBC began broadcasting the service on overseas programs. It is estimated that there are millions of listeners worldwide. Recordings of carols by Decca and EMI have also served to spread its fame.

In these and other ways the service has become public property. From time to time the College receives copies of services held, for example, in the West Indies or the Far East, and these show how widely the tradition has spread. The broadcasts, too, have become part of Christmas for many far from Cambridge. One correspondent writes that he heard the service in a tent on the foothills of Everest; another, in the desert. Many listen at home, busy about their own preparations for Christmas. Visitors from all over the world are heard to identify the King’s College Chapel as “the place where the Carols are sung.”

Wherever the service is heard and however it is adapted, whether the music is provided by choir or congregation, the pattern and strength of the service, as Dean Milner-White pointed out, derive from the lessons and not the music. “The main theme is the development of the loving purposes of God…” seen ‘through the windows and words of the Bible’. Local interests appear, as they do here, in the bidding prayer, and personal circumstances give point to different parts of the service. Many of those who took part in the first service must have recalled those killed in the Great War when it came to the famous passage “all those who rejoice with us but on another shore and in a greater light.” The center of the service is still found by those who “go in heart and mind” and who consent to follow where the story leads.

Christmas Lessons from the Scriptures
The Carols of Christmas
The Redeemer Choir
George Dupere, Chief Musician
Michael Phillips, organist
Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24, 2023, at 4:00 and 6:00 pm

{no charge for admission}

The King’s College Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first held on Christmas Eve 1918. It was planned by Eric Milner-White, who at the age of thirty-four had just been appointed Dean of King’s after experience as an army chaplain, which had convinced him that the Church of England needed more imaginative worship. The music was then directed by Arthur Henry Mann, Organist 1876-1929. The choir included sixteen trebles as laid down in King Henry VI’s statutes, but until 1927 the men’s voices were provided partly by Choral Scholars and partly by older Lay Clerks, and not, as now, by fourteen undergraduates.

A revision of the Order of Service was made in 1919, involving rearrangement of the lessons, and from that date the service has always begun with the hymn “Once in Royal David’s City.” In almost every year some carols have been changed and some new ones introduced by successive Organists: Arthur Henry Mann; Boris Ord, 1929-57; Harold Darke (his substitute during the war), 1940-45; Sir David Willcocks, 1957-73; Philip Ledger, 1974-82 and, from 1982, Stephen Cleobury. The backbone of the service, the lessons and the prayers, has remained virtually unchanged.

The original service was, in fact, adapted from an Order drawn up by E.W. Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury, for use in the wooden shed, which then served as his cathedral in Truro, at 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve 1880. A.C. Benson recalled: “My father arranged from ancient sources a little service for Christmas Eve—nine carols and nine tiny lessons, which were read by various officers of the Church, beginning with a chorister, and ending, through the different grades, with the Bishop.” The suggestion had come from G.H.S. Walpole, later Bishop of Edinburgh.

Almost immediately other churches adapted the service for their own use. A wider frame began to grow when the service was first broadcast in 1928 and, with the exception of 1930, it has been broadcast annually, even during the Second World War, when the ancient glass (and also all heat) had been removed from the Chapel and the name of King’s could not be broadcast for security reasons. Sometime in the early 1930s the BBC began broadcasting the service on overseas programs. It is estimated that there are millions of listeners worldwide. Recordings of carols by Decca and EMI have also served to spread its fame.

In these and other ways the service has become public property. From time to time the College receives copies of services held, for example, in the West Indies or the Far East, and these show how widely the tradition has spread. The broadcasts, too, have become part of Christmas for many far from Cambridge. One correspondent writes that he heard the service in a tent on the foothills of Everest; another, in the desert. Many listen at home, busy about their own preparations for Christmas. Visitors from all over the world are heard to identify the King’s College Chapel as “the place where the Carols are sung.”

Wherever the service is heard and however it is adapted, whether the music is provided by choir or congregation, the pattern and strength of the service, as Dean Milner-White pointed out, derive from the lessons and not the music. “The main theme is the development of the loving purposes of God…” seen ‘through the windows and words of the Bible’. Local interests appear, as they do here, in the bidding prayer, and personal circumstances give point to different parts of the service. Many of those who took part in the first service must have recalled those killed in the Great War when it came to the famous passage “all those who rejoice with us but on another shore and in a greater light.” The center of the service is still found by those who “go in heart and mind” and who consent to follow where the story leads.

Organist, Freiburg Cathedral, Germany
Professor of Organ, The University of Freiburg

{no charge for admission}

We welcome back Matthias to Redeemer where he served as organist 2014-2016. This is his fourth appearance in the Holbrook Organ Series.

Matthias Maierhofer studied organ, early music and church music at the universities of Graz, Freiburg, Leipzig, and at the Schola Cantorum in Basel. Among his teachers were Arvid Gast, Andrea Marcon, Kurt Neuhauser and Martin Schmeding.

In 2007, Matthias Maierhofer was the winner of one of the most renowned international organ competitions: the Pachelbel Competition in Nuremberg. He was also a prize winner at the International Franz Schmidt Organ Competition in Kitzbühel in 2008, at the International Bach Competition in Arnstadt in 2007, at the International Organ Concours in Nijmegen in 2006 and at the International Organ Competition in Vilnius in 2003. Since then, regular concert activities have taken him to important concert venues and festivals in Europe, the USA, Russia, Japan and South Korea. As a soloist and continuo player, Matthias Maierhofer has performed with ensembles such as the Dresdner Kreuzchor, the Thomanerchor Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Staatskapelle Halle. At the Freiburger Münster he performs weekly with the Domsingknaben, the girls' choir, the cathedral Domkapelle and the cathedral choir. He was involved in CD productions and publications by Edition Helbling, recordings are available for various radio stations and through the labels Ambitus, Ambiente and Spektral.

From 2009 to 2013, Matthias Maierhofer led an organ class at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theater in Leipzig.

In 2013 Matthias Maierhofer was appointed as the successor to Prof. Dr. Gerre Hancock to the professorship for organ and church music at The University of Texas at Austin. There he was named a Dean's Fellow in 2015 for outstanding educational achievements and was awarded the Ducloux Fellowship of the College of Fine Arts.

Matthias Maierhofer has been a professor of organ at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg since 2016 and also works as cathedral organist at the Münster ‹Unserer Lieben Frau› in Freiburg. As artistic director of the Freiburg Cathedral organ concerts, he is responsible for one of the leading international organ concert series.

Students from his organ class have received over 50 national and international awards in important competitions, scholarship programs and foundations in recent years, including: the St. Albans International Organ Competition (GB), International Organ Competition in Miami (USA), Silbermann Competition Freiberg (Germany), Mendelssohn Competition Berlin (Germany), International Organ Competition «Organ without Borders» Dudelange (Luxembourg), Daniel Herz Competition Brixen (Italy), International Organ Competition Korschenbroich (Germany), The London Organ Competition (GB), Maria Hofer Competition Kitzbühel (Austria), Rheinberger Competition Vaduz (Liechtenstein), Faszination Organ Competition Mannheim (Germany), International Lazlo Spezferatti Competition Verona (Italy), Prix International Boellmann-Gigout Strasbourg (France), International Suisse Organ Competition St. Maurice (Switzerland). Furthermore, students of Matthias Maierhofer have been awarded the Deutschlandstipendium, the DAAD scholarship, the E.T.A. Hoffmann Scholarship, the Albertus Magnus and Hildegardis Scholarship, the Rosenberg Scholarship and the Recruitment Fellowship of the University of Texas and have also been accepted into the funding programs of the Cusanus Foundation, the Bucerius Foundation, the German Foundation for Music Life and the German National Academic Foundation.

Organist, Covenant Presbyterian Church, Nashville

{no charge for admission}

Samuel Metzger was born in Rochester, NY, but from an early age grew up in northern Arizona where his father was a missionary to the Navajo Indians. Early studies were at Northern Arizona State University in Flagstaff, where he was accepted into the Preparatory School of Music as a student of Dr. Marilyn Brandon. In high school he studied with Dr. Roy Johnson at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Mr. Metzger began undergraduate studies in 1990 at Arizona State University where he was a student of Robert Clark. There he studied on a Regents Scholarship and at graduation was named “Most Outstanding Undergraduate in Performance.” In 1995 he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and began studies with Jon Laukvik at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, Germany. He was awarded a second Fulbright Scholarship and in 1997 graduated with a degree of Künstleriches Aufbaustudium (KA). Mr. Metzger then went on to study with Marie-Claire Alain in St. Germain-en-Laye, France.

In January 2003, Mr. Metzger became Senior Organist at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (PCA), Fort Lauderdale, FL, the late Dr. D. James Kennedy, Senior Pastor. Services were broadcast on the Coral Ridge Hour, a TV program that was broadcast throughout the USA and internationally to 202 countries. Samuel then served as Director of Music at Second Presbyterian Church (EPC), Memphis TN.

Samuel is currently Organist & Music Associate at Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Nashville, TN. Mr. Metzger is heard regularly around the country in concert. He has recorded seven CDs; more information may be found at metzgermusic.com.

Premier choral ensemble from England
Barnaby Smith, artistic director

{Ticket prices: $30 General | $25 Senior 60+ | $5 Student}

The 2023 Grammy-nominated British vocal ensemble VOCES8 is proud to inspire people through music and share the joy of singing. Touring globally, the group performs an extensive repertory both in its a cappella concerts and in collaborations with leading musicians, orchestras, conductors and soloists. Versatility and a celebration of diverse musical expression are central to the ensemble’s performance and education ethos which is shared both online and in person.

VOCES8 has performed at many notable venues since its inception in 2005 including Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Cité de la Musique Paris, Vienna Konzerthaus, Tokyo Opera City, NCPA Beijing, Sydney Opera House, Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, Victoria Concert Hall Singapore, Palacio de Bellas Artes Mexico City amongst many others. This season they perform over 100 concerts in the UK and across Europe, in Israel and the USA – a welcome return to touring after the covid restrictions.

The group’s entrepreneurial and community spirit and its innovative approach are fostered by the Co-Founders of VOCES8, brothers Paul and Barnaby Smith. The pandemic has provided the impetus for VOCES8 to further transform its already exceptional offerings, nurturing a new audience community providing hope, resilience and a chance to engage with classical music in new ways. Pioneering initiatives include ventures such as the LIVE From London digital festivals and the VOCES8 Digital Academy.

LIVE From London was created as a specific response to the pandemic. Winning praise for its collaborative approach from artists, press and audiences around the world, the team has delivered five digital festivals to date, broadcasting 70 concerts and selling 150,000 tickets in over 75 countries. The VOCES8 Digital Academy is an online choral programme for high schools, colleges and individuals featuring live interaction with members of the ensemble, live and recorded lectures, and video resources to learn and perform music from the renaissance to today.

Alongside this online work on its own platforms VOCES8 is heard regularly on albums, international television and radio. The ensemble is a Decca Classics artist and alongside that releases projects on its own label, VOCES8 Records. The latest Decca Classics album is “The Lost Birds” featuring music by Christopher Tin which is nominated for a Grammy at the 2023 Awards. New projects with Eric Whitacre, Paul Simon and Taylor Scott Davis are being released in 2023.

Accolades:

“The singing of VOCES8 is impeccable in its quality of tone and balance. They bring a new dimension to the word ‘ensemble’ with meticulous timing and tuning.”

— GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE

“VOCES8 are the Rolls-Royce of British a cappella ensembles”

— THE ARTS DESK

“The slickest of the lot…fans of a cappella ought to hear this.”

— RECORD REVIEW, BBC RADIO 3

Early Music Ensemble from Belgium
Cantatas of J. S. Bach
Lionel Meunier, artistic director

{Ticket prices: $30 General | $25 Senior 60+ | $5 Student}

Since its foundation in 2004, the vocal ensemble Vox Luminis–led by bass Lionel Meunier –has been internationally praised for its unique sound, both with a cast of soloists and in larger productions. Vox Luminis specializes in English, Italian and German repertoire from the 17th and early 18th centuries, bringing to life not only well-known masterpieces, but also rare gems. A core of vocal soloists is supplemented, depending on the repertoire, with an extensive continuo, solo instruments or a complete orchestra. In 2012, Vox Luminis won the Recording of the Year at the prestigious Gramophone Awards. Since then, the group has made multiple recordings with Ricercar, Alpha Classics, Ramée and Musique in Wallonie, and has won numerous international prizes including ‘Klara Ensemble of the Year 2018’, BBC Music Magazine ‘Choral Award Winner 2018’, 3 ‘Diapasons d’Or’ and several ‘Preis der Deutschen Schalplattenkritik’. In 2019 the ensemble received another Gramophone Music Award in the ‘Choral’ category for its recording of Buxtehude: Abendmusiken. Every year Vox Luminis gives around 70 concerts at major concert halls and festivals worldwide, including Bozar Brussels, deSingel Antwerp, Auditorio Nacional Madrid, L’Auditori Barcelona, Wigmore Hall London, Philharmonie Berlin, Lincoln Center New York, Zaryadye Hall Moscow, Festival of Flanders and Festival de Wallonie, Festival de Saintes, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, Musikfest Bremen, Bachfest Leipzig, Aldeburgh Festival and Boston Early Music Festival. Vox Luminis is artist in residence at Concertgebouw Brugge. Recently, the ensemble launched a structural collaboration with the renowned Freiburger Barockorchester.

Lionel Meunier: Internationally renowned as the founder and artistic director of the awardwinning Belgian vocal ensemble Vox Luminis, French conductor and bass Lionel Meunier is widely regarded as one of the most dynamic and highly acclaimed artistic leaders in the fields of historical performance and choral music active today. Praised for his detailed yet spirited interpretative approach, he is now increasingly in demand as a guest conductor and artistic director with choirs, ensembles, and orchestras worldwide. Lionel’s international breakthrough came in 2012 with Vox Luminis’ Gramophone Recording of Year award for their recording of Heinrich Schütz’ Musicalische Exequien. Under his leadership, Vox Luminis has since embarked on extensive concert tours throughout Europe, North America, and Asia; established multiseason artistic residencies at Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, Utrecht Early Music Festival, and Concertgebouw Bruges; and recorded over a dozen critically acclaimed albums. Their recording of Buxtehude won them their second Gramophone Award, for 2019 Choral Recording of the Year. As a guest conductor, Lionel has worked with Netherlands Bach Society, Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Netherlands Chamber Choir, and the Boston Early Music Festival Collegium and has led projects with Vox Luminis in collaboration with Juilliard 415, Orchestra B’Rock, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and L’Achéron, among many others. Lionel maintains a close relationship with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Consort, returning regularly to lead collaborative projects with Vox Luminis that cover a wide repertoire. Their first recording together will appear in 2021. Future projects include his debut with the Shanghai Symphony and returns to the Boston Early Music Festival and Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Consort. Born in France, Lionel was trained as a singer and recorder player and began his career as a bass in renowned ensembles such as Collegium Vocale Ghent, Amsterdam Baroque Choir, and Capella Pratensis. In 2013, he was awarded the title of Namurois de l’Année (Namur Citizen of the Year) for culture in the Belgian town of Namur, where he lives with his family.

Accolades:

“The refinement of Vox Luminis is never anything less
than sublime.”
Gramophone

“Vox Luminis’s main strength lies in the capability of all its members
to step forward as soloists.”
Opera Magazine

“The superbly sensitive continuo group were also a huge contributory factor
in the success of the concert.“
Early Music Review

Organist & Associate Director of Music, Park Cities Presbyterian Church, Dallas

{no charge for admission}

Known for his innovative concert programs, Dr. Davy is a prizewinning organist who has performed across the country. He is currently the Organist and Associate Music Director at Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas, TX. Dr. Davy received his M.M. and D.M.A. from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he studied with internationally renowned organists David Higgs, Edoardo Bellotti, and Michel Bouvard. While at Eastman he was awarded the Barnes Prize, the Cochran Prize, and the prestigious Performer’s Certificate. Prior to his studies at Eastman, he received his B.A. in Organ Performance and Classical Languages from Asbury College, in Wilmore, Kentucky. He was a semifinalist in the American Guild of Organists National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance (2010), and the first prize winner at the Albert Schweitzer International Organ Festival (2008). He and his wife Laura have five children, John, Irene, Margaret, William, and Sophie.