Led by Artistic Director and Conductor Dominick DiOrio, the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia, one of the nation’s most acclaimed choirs, will celebrate “Our Boundless Humanity,” during the group’s upcoming 152nd concert season. According to the choir’s season announcement, the theme will consider the “connections that bind us together through music that explores both our most intimate moments and our most exuberant expressions of community.”

Last week, Alan Harler, the chorus’ former artistic director and conductor laureate, died at 85. As the group mourns the loss of their beloved former leader, this new season will be marked by the creation of new art — both poetry and music. In what the announcement describes as a “groundbreaking season,” the series of performances will serve as a tribute to Harler and feature ”more than a dozen new works thoughtfully paired with classic scores from across the choral repertoire.”

DiOrio will conduct the opening concert, titled “Vigil for Love,” Saturday, Oct. 18, at 4 p.m. in the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity in Center City. The program features the U.S. premiere of DiOrio and Kyle Connor’s “Vigil for Love,” along with Henry Purcell’s chamber opera, “Dido and Aeneas.”

DiOrio and the Mendelssohn Chorus will return to Chestnut Hill for their traditional “A Feast of Carols” concert at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Saturday, Dec. 13, at 2 and 5 p.m. The program includes a new work by Philadelphia-born composer Rex Isenberg.

In “The Space We Keep,” Associate Artistic Director Heather Mitchell has curated a program that celebrates our enduring connections. The performance will be Saturday, March 14, 2026, at 4 p.m. in The First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia in Center City.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Chestnut Hill, will be the site of “A Celebration of Life for Alan Harler,” Sunday, April 12, at 4 p.m. The season comes to a glorious close Saturday, June 6, at 4 p.m. at Congregation Rodeph Shalom, 615 N. Broad St., Philadelphia.

For more information visit mcchorus.org.

Tempesta on ‘The Hill’

Tempesta di Mare, Philadelphia’s internationally acclaimed Baroque Orchestra, will open its 2025-26 season with an intimate chamber recital featuring a recorder quartet Saturday, Oct. 4, at 5 p.m. in The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Chestnut Hill Ave.

The program will feature works by Purcell, John Jenkins and Matthew Locke.

For more information, visit tempestadimare.org or call 215-755-8776.

Unexpected discovery

One of the greatest pleasures of having been a classical music writer in Philadelphia since 1976 has been the chance to enjoy an “unexpected discovery” — that unplanned encounter with a new ensemble or, even more important, a composer unknown to me.

That’s precisely what happened on Saturday, Sept. 13, when I attended the Mass of Ordination to the Order of the Sacred Diaconate of Joshua Edmund Vargas at the Philadelphia Oratory of St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church near the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The composer in question is Giovanni Animuccia and his “Missa: ‘Victimae Paschali Laudes’” was the musical centerpiece of the ancient liturgy. It is used to prepare a prospective priest for his final months before ordination to the priesthood.

The Oratories of St. Philip Neri are a confraternity of priests who most often remain at a single parish all their priestly lives. They were founded during the turbulent 16th century when the Holy Catholic Church of Rome was rocked by the Protestant Reformation. Animuccia was the maestro di cappella (master chapel musician) of St. Philip Neri’s Church in Rome and also worked with the Cappella Giulia, the official choir at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, where he was the predecessor of the Catholic Counter-Reformation’s most brilliant composer, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

His Latin polyphonic setting of the Ordinary of the Mass is voiced in the simpler, more straightforward counterpoint that was to become the hallmark of Palestrina’s music — scorings for unaccompanied choir that strove to present the text with sufficient unadorned simplicity so that the congregation could understand the words as it reveled in the ravishing beauty of the music. It was sung beautifully by schola cantorum, a choir of mixed voices.

You can contact NOTEWORTHY at Michael-caruso@comcast.net.